By Bob Markus



Like the little engine that could, the Boise State football express is still chugging along. The track ahead is clear and there appears to be nothing to keep the Broncos from high balling into a national championship game. It seems absurd on the face of it to declare any team a sure thing after only one game, let alone hitching a band wagon to a school from an outpost so remote it may as well be in outer space. As a longtime college football writer for the Chicago Tribune, I thought I had been to every campus that housed a football team that mattered, but I've never been to Boise State. In fact, Idaho is one of the four states in the continental United States I've never visited. All I knew about Idaho was that Ernest Hemingway shot himself there and that they grow potatoes in profusion. But since retiring more than a dozen years ago, like a lot of other college football fans, I've fallen in love with Boise State.



What's not to love? The Broncos have overcome nearly impossible odds to put their state, their city, and their blue carpeted football stadium on the map. In the last eight years a Boise State loss in football has been as rare as a Republican alderman in Chicago. They've so dominated the Western Athletic Conference that they might as well be awarded the championship trophy at the end of spring practice. They're 60-1 in conference play in that time, the lone loss a 27-20 defeat at Fresno State in 2005, a year that will live in infamy in Boise. Their record that year was 9-4 and it included the most painful loss in school history. The Broncos had come swaggering into Georgia for the season opener as no one had since General Sherman. This time it was the interloper who got torched. The Broncos took such a dreadful whipping between the hedges that they may still be feeling the sting to this day. Certainly, that 48-13 loss may still be a factor in Boise State's ongoing quest for respect. The not ready for prime time Broncos began burnishing their image the next year when they went 13-0, including a 43-42 thriller over Oklahoma in what many believe was the best college football game ever. Coming as it did in the Fiesta Bowl, one of the BCS venues that had previously been closed to the upstart Broncos, it opened some eyes. When Boise State went 14-0 last season, including another Fiesta bowl victory, the impossible gave way to the merely improbable. Considering that they return 20 of their 22 starters, the Broncos can be forgiven for chanting, "We know we can, we know we can."

And, using their No. 3 preseason ranking and Monday night's 33-30 win over a ranked opponent, on the road, as a springboard, yes they can. They will need to run the table to even get a chance to play for the title. That certainly appears doable, with the toughest test coming up in three weeks against Oregon State. But that game will be played on the friendly blue turf in Boise, where the Broncos have been as untouchable as Elliott Ness. After that it's the usual suspects, all of whom will be huge underdogs. That is not only the Broncos' blessing, but their curse. The strength of schedule issue is not going to go away. If the two teams ranked ahead of them, Alabama and Ohio State, go undefeated, there's no way Boise State gets a sniff of the title game. That's probably fair. Do Alabama and Ohio State face tougher opposition than Boise State? Yes they do. But whether they can weather the tough conference grind is another story. My guess is that they'll both have at least one loss come bowl time. In fact, with Alabama hosting Penn State and Ohio State hosting Miami this Saturday, it's entirely possible that Boise State could be No.1 by Sunday morning. This Saturday, in fact, is a pivotal one for several teams. Florida State travels to Oklahoma in one crucial contest where we'll find out if the Seminoles' 59-6 rout of Samford trumps the Sooners' pedestrian one touchdown win over Utah State. While neither Notre Dame nor Michigan figures to challenge for the national title, their Saturday showdown in South Bend is one of the most important the two bigtime schools have played. It will be a small step forward for the winner, but a huge step backward for the loser.

In addition to the race for the national championship, the race for the Heisman trophy will swing into high gear. The campaign for Boise State quarterback Kellen Moore nearly sank along with the Broncos' title hopes Monday night, but Moore brought it all back when he led his team to the winning touchdown with just 69 seconds remaining. Until then, Moore had been outplayed by Virginia Tech's Tyrod Taylor. Moore was one of the preseason favorites, but the Heisman does not always go to a known quantity. Who had ever heard of Mark Ingram before the Alabama sophomore running back won it last year? With Ingram possibly out for a second week after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery, his hopes for a repeat appear to be fading fast. Stepping forward just as fast could be Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson, who set a school record with 383 yards last Saturday in a victory over Connecticut. Robinson has the quirky habit of never tying his shoe laces. So if he falls flat on his face against the Irish, you'll know why.