Eagles’ Quintin Mikell Bleeds Blue for Boise State Football
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Tonight as Boise State takes on Fresno State, Quintin Mikell will be watching. His alma mater has a chance at a national championship, sitting fourth in the BCS rankings. Boise State seems primed to leapfrog #3 TCU if either #1 Oregon or #2 Auburn drop a game. Mikell is optimistic and believes the Broncos are deserving of a chance at a national title.
“I think so,” Mikell said. “It’s going to be, in my opinion, I think Auburn’s going to lose. It’s going to be Oregon versus Boise State for the national championship. We should get a shot.”
If things play out according to the former Bronco’s plan, who would win the title game?
“What do you mean who do I have? How dare you?” Mikell countered with a big smile. The Eagles safety remains a big Boise State fan. Mikell said he tries to get back to Boise once a year for a game, although this year he was only able to make it down to Washington, D.C. for Boise State’s tilt with Virginia Tech, a 33-30 win for the Broncos.
To an extent, Mikell is partially responsible for the opportunity the Broncos have. Mikell still sits second on the school’s all-time tackles list with 401, and he was part of the first team to be ranked nationally at Boise State, finishing the 2002 season 12-1 with a 34-16 win over Iowa State in the Humanitarian Bowl. The Broncos ended the year 12th in the Coaches Poll and 15th in the Associated Press’s rankings.
Now, eight years later, Boise State has continued to build on its success with two appearances in BCS Bowl games and two victories. Boise State beat Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl and TCU in the same game last year.
“It’s crazy,” Mikell said. “When I first went there, I knew that they had a good base to build a good program. They had nice facilities, a good city and all of that stuff. I didn’t think it would jump as fast as it did to the level its’ at. But that’s all about Coach Pete, he did it. Hopefully they can keep him around there.”
Head coach Chris Petersen was the offensive coordinator during Mikell’s days in Boise, but took over in 2006 when Dan Hawkins left for Colorado. He’s since gone 58-4 and been hailed as one of the top coaches in college football. Despite all of the accolades heaped on this year’s Broncos, Mikell believes the 2002 squad would have beaten the 2002 incarnation.
“Oh I think so,” Mikell said. “If you look at that team, the team that they have now and the team that we had, it’s pretty much a mirrored team. We had a very good quarterback in Ryan Dinwiddie, we had a good secondary, good d-line, o-line, good receivers.”
Dinwiddie completed 65 percent of his passes that year for 2,283 yards, 20 touchdowns and 3 interceptions in nine games. Through nine games this year, Kellen Moore has connected on 72 percent of his passes for 2,588 yards, 24 touchdowns and 4 interceptions. The ’02 squad ran the ball a bit better, but it’s impossible to know how those Broncos would have performed against tougher competition. Their only loss was on the road at Arkansas, which was the only BCS conference opponent on the schedule. These days, the Broncos schedule tougher and the buzz they’ve created has helped non-power conference teams get a shot at BCS games.
“I just think that people are starting to pay more attention now and give us our due,” Mikell said “But I always say though, our team could have beat this team, this Boise State team. Everybody says this is the best Boise State team ever, but I feel like our team could beat them.”
That, we’ll never know. In a few weeks though, we’ll know whether this year’s group gets an appearance in the national title game. If they do, you know who Quintin Mikell is picking.
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