Since I started paying attention in 2007, I've heard fans across the nation deride us for our relative youth. Everything from "Flash in the Pan" to "No Traditions" has been hurled at us with the kind of venom normally reserved for Dictatorial nations and Britney Spears.

Well, they're right in some respects. Boise St. hasn't been around long, getting a far later start than many big name universities that began their programs in the 1800s. But, given the meteoric rise of the Bronco program and penchant for consistently winning head to head matchups against those same big name universities, who exactly is it that ends up with egg on their face? When it comes to Traditions and Boise State, there is only one that leaps off the page to me...Winning.

BSU has managed to win, and win big, in rapid form at every level of football they have been at. The strange thing is that they have done this under a myriad of coaches, personnel, and systems of thought...must be something in the water.

I got into an argument with an Arizona St. fan once about the validity of the BSU program. His biggest point seemed to be that ASU had been to TWO ROSE BOWLS. I noted that it had taken his program 56 years of Division I football to reach their first Rose Bowl and another ten to go to, and lose, their second. Boise State, at the time, had already won two BCS bowls, was pressing for a Rose Bowl bid, and was making noise in the National Title Game discussion...all this in just 14 years of Division I football. That's an embarrassing difference of 42 years!

Call me crazy, but differences like that lead to people being fired and replaced with their competition. Boise State IS "New U Rising". The chip on the shoulder, the naysayers, the rejection from other universities...all of this leads to a singularly focused intent, like one of nature's most efficient killing machines; the Great White Shark...and there's Blood in the Water.

Pjohn

Boise St. Preseason 2011 - Blood in the Water (via pjohn56)