2007 Fiesta Bowl

The 2007 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl was a college football bowl game played as part of the 2006–2007 Bowl Championship Series (BCS) of the 2006 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The game was played on January 1, 2007, at its new venue, the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. The matchup pitted the Big 12 champion No. 7 Oklahoma Sooners against the WAC champion No. 9 Boise State Broncos.^[1] The contest was televised on Fox. With this broadcast, the Fiesta Bowl became the first bowl game to air on all the "big four" television networks (ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC); the Orange Bowl became the second the following night.

Oklahoma was the designated home team and was favored by 7½ points, but Boise State raced out to a 21–10 halftime lead. The second half featured a memorable series of back-and-forth events: Oklahoma scoring 25 consecutive points to take its first lead of the game with just over one minute remaining, the teams trading 22 points in the final 1:26 of regulation to send the game into overtime, and Boise State completing three do-or-die trick plays (including multiple 4th-down conversions and a two-point conversion) in order to secure the win by one point.

During the summer preceding the season, Oklahoma was hyped to be a top 5 team and national title contender. They initially were the favorite to win the Big 12 South.^[2] Following the dismissal of OU's returning quarterback Rhett Bomar, many felt the defending national champion Texas Longhorns were now the favorite (the Sooners dropped six spots in the Coaches Poll during the first two weeks of the season despite winning both of those weeks). The Sooners opened their season 3–2 with a controversial loss to Oregon and a loss to Texas. The Sooners also lost their Heisman-hopeful running back Adrian Peterson during their sixth game to a broken collar bone. Many had written the Sooners off at this point. However, the Sooners won their next seven games while Texas lost their last two and the Sooners became the outright winners of the Big 12 South and faced the Big 12 North winner, Nebraska, in the Big 12 Championship Game. They won that game 21–7 and were given an automatic berth to represent the Big 12 in the Fiesta Bowl.

The Boise State Broncos, who returned more starters from 2005 than any other team in NCAA Division I-A football,^[3] began the year with high hopes. First-year head coach Chris Petersen led the program to an undefeated 12–0 record. Some of the Broncos key wins this season came over Oregon State of the Pac-10 Conference, Hawaii and Fresno State. Boise State was the champion of the Western Athletic Conference.

New stadium

The Fiesta Bowl has been played annually since 1971, and from then until 2005 the game was hosted in Tempe, Arizona at Sun Devil Stadium, home stadium to the NFL's Arizona Cardinals and Pac-10's Arizona State Sun Devils. In 2006, the Cardinals completed a new home stadium (named University of Phoenix Stadium) in Glendale, Arizona, and the Fiesta Bowl followed them there. The new stadium is state-of-the-art with an inclined retractable roof and fully retractable natural grass playing surface. The stadium was also host to 2006 season BCS National Championship Game held on January 8, 2007, and hosted Super Bowl XLII in 2008. The capacity of the new stadium is 63,500, although for this game and the BCS National Championship Game, extra seats were added in the south end of the stadium to increase capacity to about 70,000.

Scoring summary

First quarter

Boise State Drisan James 49 yard touchdown pass from Jared Zabransky. (Anthony Montgomery kick good) (9:06) 7–0 Boise State
Boise State Ian Johnson 2 yard touchdown run (Montgomery kick good). (7:28) 14–0 Boise State
Oklahoma Manuel Johnson 7 yard touchdown pass from Paul Thompson (Garrett Hartley kick good). (0:26) 14–7 Boise State

Second quarter

Oklahoma Garrett Hartley 31 yard field goal. (5:38) 14–10 Boise State
Boise State Drisan James 32 yard pass from Jared Zabransky (Montgomery kick is good). (0:32) 21–10 Boise State

Third quarter

Boise State – Paul Thompson pass intercepted by Marty Tadman of Boise State, returned for a 27 yard touchdown (Anthony Montgomery kick good). (8:05) 28–10 Boise State
Oklahoma – Adrian Peterson 8 yard touchdown run (Hartley kick good). (4:29) 28–17 Boise State

Fourth quarter

Oklahoma – 28 yard field goal by Garrett Hartley. (14:57). 28–20 Boise State
Oklahoma – 5 yard touchdown pass from Thompson to Quentin Chaney (2-point conversion good, 6 yard pass from Thompson to Juaquin Iglesias.) (1:26) 28–28 Tie
Oklahoma – Jared Zabransky pass intercepted by Marcus Walker of Oklahoma, returned for a 34 yard touchdown (Hartley kick good). (1:02). 35–28 Oklahoma
Boise State – 15 yard pass completed from Zabransky to James. James lateral to Jerard Rabb for the 35 yard touchdown run (Montgomery kick good). (0:07). 35–35 Tie

Overtime

Oklahoma – 25 yard touchdown run by Peterson. (Hartley kick good). 42–35 Oklahoma
Boise State – 6 yard touchdown pass from Vinny Perretta to Derek Schouman. (2-point conversion good, 3 yard run by Johnson, Statue of Liberty play). 43–42 Boise State

Game summary

The game was highlighted by Oklahoma scoring 25 consecutive points in the second half to take its first lead with 1:02 remaining, a combined 22 points scored in the final 1:26 of regulation plus 15 points in overtime, and three trick plays that helped Boise State win the game.

Oklahoma fell behind 14–0 early in the first quarter after a costly fumble deep in their own territory by quarterback Paul Thompson, which led to an Ian Johnson touchdown run two plays later. Boise State scored a touchdown on its final possession of the first half to take a 21–10 halftime lead. Midway through the third quarter Boise State intercepted a pass and ran it back for a touchdown, giving them a 28–10 lead.

Oklahoma then scored the next 25 points, starting by recovering a punt that struck the leg of a Boise State player deep in Broncos territory, which a few plays later led to Adrian Peterson scoring his first touchdown of the game to cut the Boise State lead to 28–17. The Sooners followed up with a Garrett Hartley field goal a few series later to close the gap to 28–20.

The final 1:26 of regulation

Wide receiver Quentin Chaney caught a tipped 5-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Paul Thompson with 1:26 remaining in the fourth quarter, bringing the Sooners to within two points at 28–26 Boise State.

OU then attempted a two-point conversion to tie the game. In a sign of the wildness to come, Oklahoma would require three attempts to complete the two-point conversion:

OU's first attempt was unsuccessful, but Boise State was called for pass interference.
OU succeeded on its second attempt, but the play was called back for illegal shift.
Finally, Thompson completed a pass to wide receiver Juaquin Iglesias on the third attempt, this time with no penalties, thus tying the game at 28.

After the ensuing kickoff on the next play from scrimmage, Boise State quarterback Jared Zabransky was intercepted by Marcus Walker, who returned it 34 yards for a touchdown. After the extra point, Oklahoma led 35–28 with 1:02 left, its first lead of the game.

On the ensuing drive Boise State drove to the OU 42. The next series of downs were not successful for Boise State:

On first down, Zabransky was sacked for a loss of 8 yards.
On second down, Zabransky's pass was dropped.
On third down, Zabransky's pass was incomplete.

Boise State was thus facing fourth down with 18 yards needed for a first down and only 18 seconds left on the clock. Zabransky passed for 15 yards to Drisan James. With five Oklahoma defenders playing a "prevent" style defense to stop a long conversion, James quickly scoop-passed the ball to an in-stride Jerard Rabb, who ran the ball along the left sideline an additional 35 yards for a touchdown. (The hook and lateral play—called "Circus" by Boise State—allowed for at least two more laterals. Johnson and Zabransky had trailed Rabb along the sideline as potential outlets or possibly as blockers.) The extra point tied the game at 35 with just seven seconds remaining in regulation, and the game then went into overtime.

Overtime

Under college football rules, both teams in overtime are given one possession from their opponent's twenty-five yard line. A coin toss gives one team the choice, offense or defense first, or which end of the field. The winner of the toss generally chooses to be on defense first, to know how many points must be scored to win or tie on their offensive possession. The loser of the toss is left to choose the end of the field—usually the one with the largest proportion of their own team's fans so as to increase the crowd noise while their opponents are on offense. The team that is leading after both possessions is declared the winner and in the event of a tie, there is another overtime session with the order of the offensive and defensive possessions reversed. The end of the field is also changed with each overtime session.

Boise State won the coin toss and opted to play defense first. Oklahoma scored on their first play with a 25-yard run by Peterson, which would ultimately be his last collegiate touchdown and play. The extra point was good, making the score 42–35 Oklahoma. On Boise State's drive, the Broncos came down to 4th and 2 on the Sooners' 5 yard line and decided to run their second trick play, a wide receiver rollout option from a variant of the Wildcat offense. Zabransky ran in motion to his left while backup wide receiver Vinny Perretta, lined up as a running back, took the snap, rolled to his right, then threw a touchdown pass to tight end Derek Schouman, who had lined up as a wide receiver, to bring Boise State within one point at 42–41.

Instead of kicking the extra-point to tie the game and send it into a second overtime, Broncos coach Chris Petersen risked defeat to go for the two-point conversion to win. He ran their third trick play of the night. It was a variation of the Statue of Liberty play known to the team simply as "Statue Left", which was drawn up by backup quarterback Taylor Tharp. Boise State lined up three receivers on the right side. After the snap, Zabransky faked a quick pass to his right with his right hand, then quickly handed off the football backhanded with his left hand to running back Ian Johnson, who ran untouched into the end zone for the conversion and the win.

Postgame

During a postgame interview with FOX Sports on-field analyst Chris Myers, Johnson got down on one knee and proposed to his girlfriend, Boise State head cheerleader Chrissy Popadics, on live TV. Myers, however, spoiled the proposal by mentioning it before Johnson went to a knee.^[4] She accepted.^[5] Ian did not have a ring with him because he originally planned on proposing to Chrissy at Lagoon on their way home from the Fiesta Bowl, but he could not give up the opportunity to propose on national TV after scoring the game-winning two-point conversion.^[6] The couple married on July 28, 2007.

According to Ian Johnson, he received about 30 threatening letters which he handed over to the FBI, from people who objected to his nationally televised interracial marriage proposal at the end of the game.^[7] Johnson, who is half-black, and Popadics, who is white, hired security for their wedding due to the threats.^[8]

Final game facts

Boise State finished their season with a perfect 13–0 record, spurring controversy as to whether teams from BCS non-AQ conferences should have an opportunity to play for a national title. Most of the Boise State players and officials that were asked about it in the immediate aftermath of the game downplayed the controversy and claimed they were just happy to participate in the BCS bowls. Some did say they believed they were good enough to play in the National Championship game against the BCS No. 1 Ohio State Buckeyes, who later lost to the Florida Gators. The Broncos ultimately received one first-place vote in the final AP poll of the season, released after the National Championship game.

Boise State also became just the second team from a non-AQ (automatic qualifier) conference team to both play in and win a BCS bowl game (the 2004 Utah Utes team was the first, playing in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl). However, the presence of Boise State, a non-AQ school, quite possibly led to some of the lowest TV ratings ever for a BCS game. Of the 37 BCS bowl games played through the 2006 season, only two received lower ratings than this game—the 2005 Fiesta Bowl, the only other BCS game up to that time to feature a non-AQ school; and the 2007 Orange Bowl, which featured two non-traditional teams in Louisville and Wake Forest (which matched conference champions awarded the guaranteed spots in a BCS bowls due to their conference memberships in the Big East Conference and the Atlantic Coast Conference, respectively).^[9]

Legacy

The game's finish, along with its trick plays and underdog storyline, generated significant attention, and it is widely regarded as one of the most memorable college football bowl games.^[10]^[11]

ESPN columnist Pat Forde had this to say:^[11]

The Valley of the Stun was the stage as an indomitable bunch of dreamers in orange pants landed the mightiest populist blow of college football's modern era. They were Hickory High in helmets, George Mason in cleats. They knocked off a gridiron giant one decade to the day after the burial of Pokey Allen, the beloved Boise coach who brought the program up to Division I-A status just 11 years ago.

Stewart Mandel of Sports Illustrated:^[12]

How do you sum up one of the most remarkable endings any of us will ever be fortunate enough to see? How do you sum up one of the most exciting bowl games ever contested? And how do you sum up what will one day be viewed as one of the most significant moments in the history of college football? I’m not exaggerating....Boise State beating Oklahoma in a New Year's Day bowl game is college football's equivalent to George Mason reaching the Final Four, with one extremely significant difference: George Mason had its chance to compete for the national title; Boise State does not. Like it or not, Boise State 43, Oklahoma 42 just became the single biggest argument to date for a college football playoff....Not only did they get in the game, they made a major statement on behalf of their mid-major brethren that none of us will soon forget.

Arash Markazi, also of Sports Illustrated, who covered the Broncos throughout their stay in Arizona:^[13]

When it was over, even Hollywood couldn't have scripted a more dramatic ending. This was the ultimate underdog story of a team that believed from the start, refused to give up even when it looked bleak and pulled off the improbable. It's one thing for a Cinderella team to upset a heavily favored opponent, but c'mon, this was ridiculous....Boise State's mind-numbing 43–42 victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl on Monday night had everything and will go down as one of [the] best games in college football history. It was as big as George Mason getting to the Final Four and is proof that mid-majors can play with the big boys in football, too.

Chris Dufresne of the Los Angeles Times:^[14]

Crazy, zany and loony are three apt words to describe the end of Monday night's Fiesta Bowl at the University of Phoenix Stadium. You thought it would never end, but it did, with one of the most gutsy calls and remarkable plays in the history of college football.

Pete Thamel of The New York Times:^[15]

...[A] hook-and-lateral, a Statue of Liberty play and a halfback toss launched the Boise State football team to an upset that will long resonate in college football lore....Johnson's proposal capped a dizzying, riveting, back-and-forth game that will be remembered as one of the most exciting in college football history.

It has been reported that the Boise State University Athletic Department is selling the rights for a major motion picture about the Broncos 2006 season.^[16]

Broncos quarterback Jared Zabransky is featured on the cover of the 2008 edition of EA Sports popular NCAA Football video game.^[17] The last play of the game was also the subject of a television commercial for the video game, but with a twist: it featured Adrian Peterson controlling a Sooners player who tackled Johnson before he crossed the goal line.

The 2007 Fiesta Bowl won the 2007 Best Game ESPY Award, and the game's final play won the 2007 Best Play ESPY Award. It also took the No. 1 spot on ESPN's SportsCenter Top 10 Games of 2007. The final "Statue of Liberty" play also placed 2nd in ESPN's "The Greatest Highlight" hosted by Chris Berman. Fox Sports won its eighth Sports Emmy Award for Outstanding Live Sports Special for its coverage of the game.^[18] Sports Illustrated rated it "The game of the decade" for college football.^[19] CBS Sportsline.com rated the game as the most meaningful bowl played in the twenty seasons from 1992 to 2011, in terms of its impact on college football.^[20]

v t e 2006–07 NCAA football bowl game season
Poinsettia (Dec. 19) Las Vegas (Dec. 21) New Orleans (Dec. 22) PapaJohns.com (Dec. 23) New Mexico (Dec. 23) Armed Forces (Dec. 23) Hawaii (Dec. 24) Motor City (Dec. 26) Emerald (Dec. 27) Holiday (Dec. 28) Independence (Dec. 28) Texas (Dec. 28) Music City (Dec. 29) Sun (Dec. 29) Liberty (Dec. 29) Insight (Dec. 29) Champs Sports (Dec. 29) Meineke Car Care (Dec. 30) Alamo (Dec. 30) Chick-fil-A (Dec. 30) MPC Computers (Dec. 31) Outback (Jan. 1) Cotton (Jan. 1) Gator (Jan. 1) Capital One (Jan. 1) International (Jan. 6) GMAC (Jan. 7)
Bowl Championship Series games: Rose (Jan. 1) Fiesta (Jan. 1) Orange (Jan. 2) Sugar (Jan. 3) BCS National Championship (Jan. 8)
All-Star Games: North–South All-Star Classic (Jan. 13) Hula Bowl (Jan. 14) East–West Shrine Game (Jan. 20) Senior Bowl (Jan. 27) Texas vs. The Nation Game (Feb. 2)

v t e Fiesta Bowl
History & conference tie-ins	History Mountain America Stadium State Farm Stadium College Football Playoff New Year's Six Group of Five
Games	1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 (January) 1997 (December) 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 (January) 2014 (December) 2016 (January) 2016 (December) 2017 2019 (January) 2019 (December) 2021 2022 (January) 2022 (December) 2024 (January) 2024 (December) 2026 (January)
Notes	The game was also the national title game for either the Bowl Coalition, Bowl Alliance, or Bowl Championship Series in 1996, 1999, and 2003. There was a Fiesta Bowl in January and December in 1997, 2014, 2016, 2019, 2022, and 2024. This will next occur in 2026. Bold indicates College Football Playoff semifinals.

v t e Sports Emmy Award for Outstanding Live Sports Special
1975–1990	1975 World Series (1975–76) 1976 Summer Olympics (1976–77) Heavyweight championship boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Leon Spinks (1977–78) Super Bowl XIII (1978–79) 1980 Winter Olympics (1979–80) 1981 Kentucky Derby (1980–81) 1982 NCAA men's basketball national championship (1981–82) 1982 World Series (1982–83) Not awarded (1983–84) 1984 Summer Olympics (1984–85) Not awarded (1985–86) 1987 Daytona 500 (1986–87) 1987 Kentucky Derby (1987–88) 1988 Summer Olympics (1988) 1989 Indianapolis 500 (1989) 1990 Indianapolis 500 (1990)
1991–2009	1991 NBA Finals (1991) 1992 Breeders Cup (1992) 1993 World Series (1993) 1994 Stanley Cup Finals (1994) Cal Ripken Jr.'s 2,131st consecutive game (1995) 1996 World Series (1996) 1997 NBA Finals (1997) Mark McGwire's 62nd home run (1998) 1999 Major League Baseball All-Star Game (1999) 2000 World Series (2000) 2001 World Series (2001) 2002 Winter Olympics (2002) 2003 Major League Baseball postseason (2003) 2004 Masters Tournament (2004) 2005 Open Championship (2005) 2006 Major League Baseball postseason (2006) 2007 Fiesta Bowl (2007) 2008 U.S. Open Golf Championship (2008) Super Bowl XLIII (2009)
2010–present	2010 FIFA World Cup Final (2010) 2011 World Series (2011) Super Bowl XLVI (2012) 2013 World Series (2013) Super Bowl XLIX (2014) Super Bowl 50 (2015) 2016 World Series (2016) Army–Navy Game (2017) 2018 World Series (2018) 2019 Masters Tournament (2019) 2020 NBA All-Star Game (2020) MLB at Field of Dreams (2021)

v t e College bowl games on Fox
BCS Title Game	2007 2008 2009
Cotton Bowl	1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Fiesta Bowl	2007 2008 2009 2010
Holiday Bowl	2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Orange Bowl	2007 2008 2009 2010
Redbox Bowl	2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Sugar Bowl	2007 2008 2009 2010
Related	Fox College Football BCS on television and radio

v t e Historically significant college football games
1860s–1890s	Princeton vs. Rutgers (1869) Harvard vs. McGill (1874) Kansas vs. Baker (1890) Biddle vs. Livingstone (1892) Wyoming Seminary vs. Mansfield Normal (1892) Chicago vs. Stanford (1894) Georgia vs. North Carolina (1895) École des Beaux-Arts vs. Académie Julian (1895)
1900s–1910s	1902 Rose Bowl Washburn vs. Fairmount (1905) Carlisle vs. Vanderbilt (1906) Vanderbilt vs. Yale (1910) Kansas vs. Missouri (1911) Cumberland vs. Georgia Tech (1916)
1920s–1930s	Centre vs. Harvard (1921) Alabama vs. Penn (1922) Michigan vs. Vanderbilt (1922) Princeton vs. Chicago (1922) 1926 Rose Bowl SMU vs. TCU (1935) Waynesburg vs. Fordham (1939) Texas Tech vs. Centenary (1939)
1940s–1960s	Cornell vs. Dartmouth (1940) Oklahoma City vs. Youngstown (1941) Army vs. Notre Dame (1946) 1952 Rose Bowl 1956 Sugar Bowl 1962 Rose Bowl 1963 Rose Bowl Notre Dame vs. Michigan State (1966) UCLA vs. USC (1967) Yale vs. Harvard (1968) Ohio State vs. Michigan (1969) Texas vs. Arkansas (1969)
1970s–1980s	Nebraska vs. Oklahoma (1971) Ohio State vs. Michigan (1973) Delaware State vs. Portland State (1980) Nebraska vs. Penn State (1982) Stanford vs. California (1982) 1982 Independence Bowl Oregon State vs. Oregon (1983) 1984 Orange Bowl Hail Flutie (1984) Oregon State vs. Washington (1985) 1987 Fiesta Bowl Auburn vs. LSU (1988) Notre Dame vs. Miami (1988)
1990s	Colorado vs. Missouri (1990) Georgia Tech vs. Virginia (1990) Wide Right I (1991) Wide Right II (1992) Alabama vs. Florida (1992) 1995 Las Vegas Bowl Linfield vs. Willamette (1997) UCLA vs. Miami (1998) Kansas State vs. Texas A&M (1998)
2000s	Cumberland vs. Jacksonville State (2001) Arkansas vs. Ole Miss (2001) 2001 GMAC Bowl 2002 Las Vegas Bowl LSU vs. Kentucky (2002) Trinity Bible vs. Rockford (2003) Arkansas vs. Kentucky (2003) 2005 Fiesta Bowl Texas vs. Ohio State (2005) USC vs. Notre Dame (2005) 2006 Rose Bowl Michigan State vs. Northwestern (2006) Michigan vs. Ohio State (2006) 2007 Fiesta Bowl Appalachian State vs. Michigan (2007) Stanford vs. USC (2007) Trinity vs. Millsaps (2007) Navy vs. Notre Dame (2007) Navy vs. North Texas (2007) Pittsburgh vs. West Virginia (2007) Texas vs. Texas Tech (2008) Alabama vs. Florida (2009)
2010s	2010 Fiesta Bowl 2011 Kilimanjaro Bowl LSU vs. Alabama (2011) Oklahoma State vs. Iowa State (2011) Alabama vs. Georgia (2012) Georgia vs. Auburn (2013) Alabama vs. Auburn (2013) Michigan State vs. Michigan (2015) Florida State vs. Georgia Tech (2015) 2015 Armed Forces Bowl Tennessee vs. Virginia Tech (2016) Oklahoma vs. Texas Tech (2016) Ohio State vs. Penn State (2016) Syracuse vs. Pittsburgh (2016) LSU vs. Texas A&M (2018) LSU vs. Alabama (2019)
2020s	Clemson vs. Notre Dame (2020) BYU vs. Coastal Carolina (2020) Illinois vs. Penn State (2021) Houston vs. SMU (2022) Alabama vs. Vanderbilt (2024) Georgia Tech vs. Georgia (2024) Indiana vs. Ohio State (2025)
Related topics	The First Game First games by state Game of the Century Games outside the U.S.
Category Commons

New stadium

Scoring summary

Game summary

The final 1:26 of regulation

Overtime

Postgame

Final game facts

Legacy

References

External links

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