Spencer Danielson responds to critics saying Fiesta Bowl outcome should change College Football Playoff

The Boise State Broncos and head coach Spencer Danielson heard the noise that they either were over-seeded or didn’t deserve a bye week in the College Football Playoff. That became part of the narrative surrounding the Fiesta Bowl against the Penn State Nittany Lions.

In the end, Penn State took early control of the Fiesta Bowl and, despite a good comeback effort by Boise State, won by 17 points. With that, there were renewed calls for a change to the Playoff format, with plenty of people arguing that the Broncos either didn’t belong at all or shouldn’t have had a bye week.

Get your team’s official College Football Playoff watch from AXIA by CLICKING HERE: “Watches that tell so much more than time”

Despite criticism of the format, Spencer Danielson is confident that his Boise State team deserved everything it had this season. For those who don’t agree, they can go back and look at the film one more time.

“Hopefully, everybody just watches the film,” Spencer Danielson said. “That’s been my big message all year. Watch the film. Watch the game tonight. They had 387 yards, we had 412. Yes, we didn’t execute. We lost the game. That is what it is but watch our team. We were 12-1, back-to-back Mountain West champs, and you go into a game [where] a lot of people counted us out and we’re a couple of plays away from winning. That’s football, though, and we could lose to anybody in the country. I also believe we can beat anybody in the country and we’ve shown that this entire season, that entire body of work.”

In the 12-team Playoff format, the top five ranked conference champions make the Playoff. The top four of those ranked champions earn first round byes. That meant schools like Texas, Penn State, and Notre Dame weren’t eligible for the bye despite being ranked ahead of Boise State. Now, there are some who want to get rid of the first round byes for conference champions inherently introduce re-seeding after the first round.

“With the expansion of the College Football Playoff, all you want is to give teams a chance,” Danielson said. “Everybody knew how to make the Playoff to start the season. There was no gray area. There’s no, oh that’s how they’re doing it. We’ve got to go out and win. We’ve been in a Playoff mentality since September. We knew after we lost on the last-second field goal in Oregon, we can’t lose again and we didn’t.”

Boise State won the Mountain West after going 12-1, with their only loss coming on the road against Oregon. They were led by running back Ashton Jeanty, who would be a Heisman finalist.

“That’s a testament to this team. That’s a testament to these kids. That’s a testament to our fanbase and the support we have and what we need to keep pushing forward. So, to me, just set the standard and it’s up to us as coaches to then get our team to go win games to make the Playoff. So, I don’t think that should change,” Danielson said.

“There’s been a lot of teams that have said that they should be in it. I’m curious how they played their bowl games. To me it’s all about putting the ball down, play the game Whatever they set to make the playoff, that’s on us as coaches and competitors to go get it done.”

In the end, Boise State dropped the Fiesta Bowl 31-14. Despite getting the game to within one score at a point during the second half, the Broncos offense sputtered and the Nittany Lions were able to pull away. However, Spencer Danielson doesn’t want that to take away from what his team did to get to that point in the first place.

“I’m proud of our team and I know there’s a legacy here for this group, Ashton, Ahmed [Hassanein], who won’t be wearing the blue and orange going forward, but there’s a legacy they left,” Danielson concluded.