“Man was that stupid,” said the Scott Slant column at the time. Visiting San Jose State stomped on the Boise State logo at midfield before the game, and the result was a 77-14 Broncos victory and a school-record for points scored. The explosion bumped the 74-0 rout of Humboldt State in 1986 off the top spot, and that was good, because that thing was an aberration. Humboldt was a terribly outmatched Division II team, and Boise State was celebrating the debut of the blue turf. The new record came in a conference game against a talented (but grossly underachieving) bunch of Spartans.
Boise State’s wide receivers and their star quarterback settled the matter early. What had become the Broncos’ “big four” wideouts, Tim Gilligan, T.J. Acree, Lawrence Bady and Jerry Smith, each caught a touchdown pass from Ryan Dinwiddie. In the second half, Dinwiddie was long-gone when Smith, a former walk-on from Nampa High, caught Jared Zabransky’s first career touchdown pass. Coincidentally, it was a 77-yarder. The final points of the day, the record-breakers, came via a rushing touchdown from Jeff Carpenter, a sophomore walk-on From Kuna.
Zabransky, of course, would go on to become the Broncos’ starter the following three seasons, capped by a certain victory in Glendale, AZ, on New Year’s Day, 2007. His final career TD pass came in that monumental Fiesta Bowl win over Oklahoma—on the hook-and-lateral to Drisan James and Jerard Rabb that sent the game into overtime…