Congratulations, Bronco Nation! Your perseverance through the Valley of Death (as Leon Rice calls it) or a .500 record (as Jay Tust calls it) has paid off with a huge win over Brady Hoke’s Michigan Men San Diego State Aztecs. While many fanbases would have bailed at the first signs of a lackluster offensive coordinator or a less-than-stellar senior QB, you appropriately aired your grievances on Twitter, and brought about much needed change to a struggling program.
While this is a victory unto itself, now comes the hard part: how do you handle the sweet taste of victory in proper fashion? It’s a tight rope to walk: celebrating your vicarious success while also aggressively rubbing everyone else’s noses in it. Over the last 20 years, Bronco Nation was apparently not brash and braggadocious enough to merit awarding themselves a National Championship, despite multiple undefeated seasons.
Not everyone gets a second chance after 20+ years of success. Take Nebraska, for instance. It seems like they’d be willing to forgo Runza for a decade just to sniff 9-3 again. With this consideration in mind, let’s take a look at the “unprecedented success” of the UCF Knights football program. Perhaps they can provide a blueprint in these uncharted waters of almost-losing seasons to recent upswing success.
1 – REJECT GEOGRAPHICAL/CATEGORICAL NOMENCLATURE
UCF rose from the Directional Florida Pillow Bowl depths, and refused to capitulate to the outside forces that sought to categorize it as such. Rebranding as UCF and forcing the issue whenever it arose allowed them to distance themselves from the dreck of their beginnings. South Florida still languishes in irrelevance, clinging to antiquated compass points.
Similarly, Boise State has to deal with constant reminders that they are not, in fact, a state. Bronco fans need to reject these assessments and lean into the BSU Bronco name. They are not bound by state naming conventions, nor do they owe anyone an explanation or argument. Your mom’s a state.
You are what you call yourselves, unless you aren’t.
2 – BE THE CHIP ON YOUR SHOULDER
If you ask Central Florida, nobody has ever respected them. Other fans are haters, the media are doubters, and ESPN has a Power 5 Agenda. The Deep State College agenda is in full swing, seeking to eliminate and minimize the success of an upstart. Even Nick Saban has adopted this mentality, calling out the Rat Poison of the media that dared to say anything about his teams.
Older Broncos might recall the incessant belittling work of Trev Alberts on ESPN, but for the most part this bandwagon has had too much hope. It’s time for Bronco Nation to embrace the hate of Dan Wolken and Brett McMurphy, and reject Pat Forde’s cushy BUS. It’s BSU against the world.
Nobody believes in them anymore.
3 – CLAIM EVERYTHING, APOLOGIZE FOR NOTHING
The quote “… nothing is given. Everything is earned” is famously attributed to LeBron James. UCF embodied this by just naming & claiming what they felt they had earned. That national title didn’t come from going 50-3 and dropping some BCS teams in Fiesta bowls on the way, they had to award that to THEMSELVES.
Waiting around for Chris Murray to name you the flagship is no way to win championships. Bronco fans need to start announcing their claims and making them repeatedly unavoidable in every available forum. 2-0 in Mountain West play is essentially flagship material at this rate.
Announce your ownership to the world.
4 – TWEET CONSTANTLY
Social media has certainly been a polarizing factor in online discourse, but UCF has wielded it like their mascot’s sword. Finding ways to insert themselves into the conversation means they’re always on the tip of the college sports world’s tongue. All press is good press, as the saying goes, and Twitter lets you press “Send” as much as you want.
Bronco Fans may not be able to reach Florida State levels of online-ness, but they can follow the UCF trajectory online. Make yourselves unignorable, insert yourselves everywhere, become the curse on the breath of r/CFB. Cell phones allow you to be anywhere, social media allows you to be EVERYWHERE.
Omnipresence is power.
5 – BECOME LEGEND
UCF managed to parlay the first four steps to rise from an 0-11 season in 2004 to a 13-0 season in 2017, an unprecedented rise in success. Their coach and quarterbacks became hot commodities on the open market, and their stadium, the “Bounce House” has regional notoriety as a sports venue.
Boise State fans cannot claim the rags-to-riches background, as they only managed 11-1 in 2004 and 11-3 in 2017. But while those are not quite the unprecedented records of success that UCF has enjoyed, recent programmatic adjustments could put the Blue Turf of Bronco Stadium in line to become a college football icon.
Achieve unforgettable.
These Five Simple Rules for dating my teenage daughter Achieving College Football Immortality should be a solid starting point for Bronco Nation as they attempt to replicate UCF’s G5 success on the national stage. While UCF may have established the precedent with their programmatic trajectory, Boise State fans can strive to emulate that success on the trails that were blazed by the Knights.
And remember, Fresno is not a state.
And that’s where Nick Patti ended up; he knew.
Several years ago there was, what many considered, an annoying presence on OBNUG. For the life of me, I can’t recall his screen name. However, he would often say he was trying to “take BSU national.” His approach was raw but his sincerity was well intended. Some made posting so miserable for him that he lost perspective. He threatened to sue everyone. Agreed, that type of behavior was not warranted but the person was treated rudely and arrogantly by a few, and that brought on his uncontrolled rage. Back to the point, he was scoffed at for the phrase “take… Read more »
Appreciate the support and concern. To the concern about the subscription, none of us are doing this for the big bucks. To be clear again, some things will always stay free on First Kick, because we want everyone to be able to enjoy the work we put out as much as we do writing it. When the subscription gets implemented, it’s gonna be very affordable. (We’re a small team writing articles about BSU, we don’t do anything crazy). We’re also looking at a merch store and may be open to sponsorships to keep First Kick as accessible as possible. No… Read more »
To be clear, I will likely continue to support this site. I felt it important to at least share my feelings. And they are just mine. Likely the majority may feel otherwise. However, I hope what I’ve written offers some sort of information. It is often difficult for those closely linked to a project to determine its real value.
Again, I’d like to reemphasize the uniqueness of this site and the high degree of good authorship.
So BSU is supposed to replicate UCF’s trajectory? There was a little school that could at one point in time, can’t quite put my finger on it, but I think they played one of the greatest college football games of all time. Beat a national powerhouse in the fiesta bowl. Anybody remember who that was before UCF?
It seems the tongue-in-cheek nature of this humor post was perhaps a bit lost in translation
Nah I was just joining in