Team preview: Boise State

Blue Ribbon Illustrated previews the 2004-05 college football season, exclusively on Insider.

Originally Published: July 28, 2004
Blue Ribbon Yearbook
Editor's Note: Insider has teamed with Blue Ribbon College Football Yearbook to provide a comprehensive look at all 117 Division I-A teams. To subscribe to Insider, click here. To order a copy of the 384-page book, visit www.blueribbonyearbook.com.

COACH AND PROGRAM

The Broncos went through three head coaches in their first two years in the Division I-A ranks, 1996 and 1997. Then they hired Dirk Koetter, who brought in Dan Hawkins as his assistant head coach.

Koetter won two Big West Conference titles and two Humanitarian Bowls in three years. That success attracted the attention of larger schools, and when Koetter left for Arizona State, Hawkins took over. Surprisingly, Hawkins has taken the program to an even higher level, going undefeated in the WAC in 2002 and 2003, winning the Humanitarian Bowl and the Fort Worth Bowl and finishing in the Top 15 of the coaches' poll in consecutive seasons.

Together, Koetter and Hawkins built a program that thrives on overachievers who get overlooked by the big schools because of their size, speed or pedigree, or lack thereof. The Broncos didn't have a single player drafted this year, and they haven't had any player drafted before the fifth round during their four-titles-in-five-years run.


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