A Behind the Scenes Look at Championship Week
Craig Lawson
The 2024 College Football Playoff (CFP) officially begins December 20 with first round games in the 12-team format making its debut this season.
For Boise State and UNLV, Friday’s Mountain West Football Championship is a de facto playoff matchup with the winner likely securing an automatic bid to the CFP.
The Broncos are No. 10 in this week’s CFP ranking and the Rebels sit at No. 20. Boise State is in front of both Arizona State (No. 15) and Iowa State (No. 16), which meet in the Big 12 Championship while UNLV is the second-highest rated team participating in a championship outside of the Autonomous conferences.
As an FBS member (beginning in 1996), Boise State has been one of the most successful programs nationally. The Broncos are second behind only Ohio State with an .810 winning percentage since 2000. For the eighth time, sixth at home, in the 12-year history of the MW Football Championship, Boise State will play for a title. Several members of the media in the Treasure Valley are calling it the biggest game in school history.
Chasing History
Not only are the Broncos trying to earn a spot in the CFP, they are seeking their first back-to-back Mountain West titles, a fact that has not escaped head coach Spencer Danielson.
“We’ve never won back-to-back championship games,” Danielson said. “My message to the team is we have to do something that’s never been done. We’ve done some things that have never been done this year, either individually or as a team, and here is another marker we gotta hit. Our best is going to be required. We have to have a really good week of prep to go cut it loose on Friday.”
The Men and Women Behind the Scenes
While all eyes will focus on the action taking place on The Blue, Friday night, Boise State’s behind the scenes team members will have logged countless hours getting ready for the game in their own way.
Last Saturday, a day after Boise State’s 34-18 win over Oregon State to wrap the regular season, the Broncos’ athletic media relations team was in the office readying for its busiest week of the season.
While preparation began in August with a “What’s Next” mentality, it is no surprise a championship game with playoff implications brings more media attention. Chris Kutz, associate director for strategic communications & brand advancement, and David Dietrich, assistant director of athletic media relations did not know Boise State’s opponent until Saturday night, but there was plenty of other work to do.
In addition to weekly game notes, the duo facilitated 20-25 interviews for coaches and student-athletes with local and national media.
Tuesday morning brought all-conference honors, led by HEI2MAN candidate Ashton Jeanty and Danielson being named Mountain West Offensive Player and Coach of the Year, respectively. That night, the final CFP ranking prior to the championship games was announced followed by director of strategic communications & brand advancement Colby Harms and Dietrich disseminating information through social media and a press release highlighting Boise State’s top 10 position.
Signing Days (three international student-athletes became official Tuesday) introduced 22 Broncos, complete with a web page, graphics, video and social media. Kutz and Dietrich had plenty of help for the annual event, including tireless efforts by Harms, director of graphic design Alex Powell and assistant athletic director for creative services - post production Chris Mitchell. Powell estimated he began his week with seven hours of sleep combined over two nights, an example of the dedicated employees in Boise State Athletics. Each member of the support staff team ensured each signee had a graphic, highlight video and social media post. The entire class was featured on a Signing Day Central section of BroncoSports.com.
As for the game, FOX will air the contest, scheduled for a 6:09 p.m. kickoff, and is bringing its pregame show to Lyle Smith Field at Albertsons Stadium.
For Chris Hall, director of guest services, a national television presence is exhilarating and challenging. The network requires approximately 120 parking spaces and 200 credentials for its crew. Once game day arrives, Hall, and 200+ people he oversees for the event, will be on site long before the first patron enters a gate to the stadium.
“We will arrive around 6 a.m.,” Hall said. “This game has a different feel to it and we want to provide a championship level experience for the media and fans. We want to be the industry standard.”
A championship game also comes with less time to prepare. Josh Bender, assistant athletic director for marketing & promotions typically has the framework of a game day plan in place two to three weeks prior to kickoff.
A modified home game, one run by Boise State under the direction of the Mountain West, does not allow for some sponsor elements and adds items to a script required by the conference. Due to logistics of this week’s game, Bender’s two to three weeks to fine tune things shrinks to about 72 hours.
He will begin his game day with a 10 a.m. arrival. Scripts are reviewed, videoboards are tested and on-field promotions are readied.
Along with about 30 staff, interns and game day personnel, the Ford Fan Zone is set up around 1 p.m. It is located along a section of Bronco Lane and will open at 2 p.m. Yard games, photo backdrop stations and a front row view of Bronco Walk (approximately 3:30 p.m.), the Boise State team entering the stadium, are available for fans.
Like Hall, Bender’s objective is to create a game day atmosphere that 20,000+ current season ticket holders expect and keeps others wanting to come back time and time again.
“Bronco Nation has been incredible this year,” Bender said. “We are churning toward seven games, seven sellouts. The crowd is not just showing up, but it is making a huge difference. You can ask anyone on this team. It is hard to come play on The Blue.”
Bender added, “The difference Bronco Nation has made just in false starts, look at the last game. Oregon State came out on its first drive and had two false starts that set the tone. I can’t thank Bronco Nation enough for the chaos it causes.”
Once inside the stadium, the team enters the locker room where it finds the finished product from the work the equipment operations staff has put in during the week.
Dale Holste is in his 29th year as the associate director of equipment operations for the Broncos. He manages a staff that includes assistant director Blake Schulte and 17 students.
Each week’s game carves out its own identity. During Tuesday of championship week, Holste’s staff was busy accessorizing each student-athlete’s helmet with an Old Trapper decal to promote the title sponsor of the game.
“When you have 20 people working on something like that, it takes about 10 minutes,” Holste said. “If one person was doing it, you are talking 3-4 hours.”
Thursday is “Js on Ps,” aka jerseys on pads day. The equipment staff spends the afternoon getting each player’s jersey properly fitted over his shoulder pads. Everything is housed in the equipment room until about 4-5 hours before kickoff when each locker will be meticulously prepared with helmet, jersey/pads, pants, socks, cleats and anything else an individual needs to take the field.
On hand to capture the story of the 2024 Broncos through a camera lens is Kenna Harbison, a Boise State graduate student in photography.
Almost every weekend throughout the season, Harbison is the studio doing photoshoots of recruits. She takes the uniform reveal pictures Monday or Tuesday.
When championship game day arrives, she will be on campus around 2 p.m. A meeting with Harms and Kutz is first on the agenda to go over which pictures need to be taken throughout the day. She will snap photos of fans, the spirit squad and the band and will be at Bronco Walk.
After returning to her office to edit those photos and send them to Harms for social media, Harbison will head back out to the tailgate area to obtain more game day content. She coordinates with students from university photo services to help assign the needs of the day.
Harbison has been in the locker room for six postgame celebrations in Boise this season and hopes her 11-hour shift will end with another.
If so, the Broncos will be headed to the CFP.