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Kyle Bonagura, ESPN Staff Writer
GLENDALE, Ariz. — For weeks, since his team received the No. 3 seed in the College Football Playoff, Boise State coach Spencer Danielson has heard the gripes about the selection process and that the Broncos didn’t earn their spot in the quarterfinals.
In the wake of a 31-14 loss to sixth-seeded Penn State in the VRBO Fiesta Bowl, Danielson said the Broncos showed they belonged.
“A lot of people counted us out and we were a couple plays away from winning,” Danielson said. “That’s football, though. We could lose to anybody in the country. But I also believe we could beat anybody in the country.”
After Boise State fell behind 14-0 in the first quarter, it seemed as if the game had a chance to turn into a rout, but the Broncos cut the deficit to 17-14 early in the third quarter despite limited production from star running back Ashton Jeanty.
“Hopefully everybody just watches the film,” 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.”
Danielson lauded his team’s effort to roll off 11 straight wins to close the regular season, culminated by the program’s first back-to-back Mountain West Conference championships.
“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,” Danielson said. “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.”
Alabama, Miami and South Carolina — three of the teams that just missed the playoff cut — all lost their bowl games.
“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 playoffs to start the season. There was no gray area.
“We’ve been in 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.”
With Jeanty bottled up for most of the night — he was held to a season-low 104 yards — most of Boise State’s production came through the air. Quarterback Maddux Madsen completed 23 of 35 passes for 304 yards, but threw three interceptions. Jeanty also had two fumbles, one of which was lost. Those four turnovers, combined with 13 penalties for 90 yards and a pair of missed field goal attempts, proved to be too costly to overcome.
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Heather Dinich, Senior College Football Insider
GLENDALE, Ariz. — As the Penn State players made their way through the tunnel and into the bowels of State Farm Stadium after a historic 31-14 win against No. 3 seed Boise State on New Year’s Eve, 305-pound defensive tackle Dvon J-Thomas had a bounce in his step as he yelled, “Jeanty who?!” before disappearing into the locker room.
Penn State and Boise State had never played each other before Tuesday night’s College Football Playoff Quarterfinal at the VRBO Fiesta Bowl, but the Nittany Lions were all too familiar with No. 2 — Heisman Trophy runner-up Ashton Jeanty, who entered the game 131 yards shy of tying Barry Sanders’ FBS single-season rushing record set in 1988.
“We had it in our mind that, ‘Oh, he’s going to try to break the record on us tonight,'” J-Thomas said, a huge grin across his face as he sat on a chair in a locker room buzzing with celebratory photos and cigars. “That’s not going to happen.”
It didn’t.
Even with defensive end Abdul Carter, who is ranked No. 2 in Mel Kiper’s latest Big Board, sidelined by an undisclosed injury for most of the game, Penn State’s defense stifled Jeanty, holding him to a season-low 104 rushing yards, his first time not rushing for at least 125 yards in a game this season. Jeanty finished 28 yards shy of breaking Sanders’ record.
“I think we did corral him,” Penn State coach James Franklin said, correcting a reporter. “Not ‘sort of.'”
Penn State, which won 13 games for the first time in school history, will face the winner of Notre Dame–Georgia in the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Capital One Orange Bowl on Jan. 9. The Nittany Lions are two wins away from the school’s first national championship since 1986.
Though Boise State’s running game struggled, Penn State’s flourished with the dynamic duo of Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen. The two combined to rush for 221 yards, the most yards that Boise State has given up to running backs in a game this season. Franklin said it was the first time the program has had two 1,000-yard rushers in a single season since joining the Big Ten.
“Obviously, I’m biased, but I tell everybody we have the two best running backs in the country,” PSU running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider said. “You give them 300 carries a game and their stats will look different, too. I didn’t have to say anything all week. They knew what was at stake. I mean, the kid deserved the praise and credit he got, but I also knew what I had.”
Jeanty finished without a rushing touchdown in a game for only the second time this season; it also happened against Portland State on Sept. 21.
“I think defensively, I think our team was sick of me talking about him,” Franklin said. “I think we got the point across about the respect that we have for that young man and the type of running back he is. Even today, I think our defense would say they have a ton of respect for him and how many tackles he was able to break and how strong he is and the contact balance. He’s an impressive guy. But we’re pretty good on defense. Thought our D-line did a really good job of being disruptive and getting in the backfield. I thought we did a really good job gang tackling. There were a few times where we didn’t wrap like we should have. But for the most part, our defense played lights out.”
Carter left the game in the second quarter, an apparent upper-body injury as he was able to ride a stationary bike and roam the sideline for the rest of the game. During the final two-minute timeout, Carter stood alone on the field near the 45-yard line with a towel on his head, facing the crowd, pumping his fist and cheering along with them as they yelled “P-S-U! Let’s go PSU!”
It was the most Penn State fans got to see him on the field in the second half. Penn State doesn’t release injury information, and Franklin didn’t have much of an update afterward. Though the rest of his team was celebrating in the locker room after the game, Carter went to the trainer’s room.
“We’ll get that checked out and see,” Franklin said. “Obviously, No. 1, the safety and health and welfare of our guys is priority No. 1. But then, I know Abdul will want to play next week and he’ll do everything in his power to play next week, if he’s able to. We’ll find out more. I don’t have a whole lot more information than that.”
Without Carter, Penn State leaned on Amin Vanover, who added 6 tackles, 1 sack and 2 tackles for loss. Defensive end Dani Dennis-Sutton added a sack and 2.5 TFLs. Defensive end Max Granville also helped on third-down situations. According to ESPN Research, Jeanty had 29 yards on nine rushes when Penn State had seven or more defenders in the box. He led the FBS with 1,507 such yards during the regular season.
“It was numbers in the box,” Franklin said. “Obviously, being able to play man coverage also helps with that, because you’re able to drop a safety down there and get an extra man to add numbers.”
This season, Jeanty had averaged 4.8 yards after contact per rush, and in the first quarter, Penn State limited him to an average of 1.1. The Broncos’ 48 rushing yards in the first half were their fewest in a half all season.
“They heard about No. 2 the entire time, so it was like a little edge they had to themselves to make sure that he didn’t take over the game at all,” defensive line coach Deion Barnes said. “They wanted to be known for taking over the game.”
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Pete Thamel, Senior College Sports Insider
Arizona State and football coach Kenny Dillingham have agreed to a new five-year contract that will put him in the top tier of Big 12 coaching salaries, sources told ESPN on Tuesday.
Dillingham’s five-year deal includes a “pathway” to extend to 10 years, according to sources. While Arizona law limits state school contracts to five years, sources said incentives give the deal a runway to get to 10 years.
The new deal includes a wide-ranging commitment to football at Arizona State, which won the Big 12 this season and plays Texas in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals Wednesday. It was the school’s first outright conference title since 1996.
The deal will come in concert with the addition of 20 more football scholarships next season, as rosters are set to expand to 105. The deal includes an increased commitment to staff, according to sources, and ASU also plans to be a full participant in revenue share.
Arizona State won the Big 12 after being picked last — No. 16 overall — in the preseason poll. And this significant commitment is indicative of the school’s desire to remain atop the Big 12.
“We are in the national conversation,” said a source with knowledge of the deal. “We want to be committed to give our program the resources to stay in the national conversation and compete nationally for the best coaching talent and recruit the talent to compete at the highest level.”
Dillingham is currently among the lower tier of Big 12 coaches in base salary at $4.05 million. But he has already earned more than $2.5 million in bonuses after leading ASU to an 11-2 season and conference title. The additional bonus money puts him near the top of the league.
That bonus number is expected to climb past $3 million later in the spring with expected academic bonuses. Any wins in the CFP would also yield a significant bonus, as a semifinal and final appearance would each be worth nearly $200,000.
Dillingham famously gave away one of his bonuses — $200,000 for ASU’s ninth win — to members of the support staff. This new deal is expected to give him bonus money to distribute to staff to use at his discretion, per sources, so it doesn’t come from his pocket.
ASU added more than 45% to the football operation budget in 2024 compared to 2023. The program also proactively signed offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo and defensive coordinator Brian Ward to new three-year contracts in late November to keep its top staff talent intact. Those deals will pay them an average of more than a million dollars annually, which is in the high end for Big 12 coordinator pay.
In 2024, Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy’s $7.75 million salary led all Big 12 coaches, and he ended up taking a pay cut after going winless in league play. Dillingham’s new base salary is expected to be in the top echelon of the league, and there will still be significant incentives for bonuses.
Dillingham is from Scottsdale, graduated from Arizona State and has long called the school his dream job. And that label came years before he got hired. Every move in his career — Memphis, Auburn, Florida State and Oregon — has come with targeting a return to ASU as head coach.
“The fit is so important,” Dillingham said earlier this week. “And me understanding the place here, I think it helped the fit and helped the transition because I just understand what the school and the city is about, and you’re recruiting to the school. So you want people who understand that like you understand it. I think my knowledge of the place definitely helped.”
Dillingham went 3-9 in his first year at ASU in 2023, and the Sun Devils’ turnaround to 11 wins and Big 12 champion has been one of the most remarkable stories in college football. ASU’s league title earned it a bye in the first round of the College Football Playoff.
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