Sports Radio Interviews

Chris Petersen: ‘Our goals are always this: to win the WAC Championship, to win a Bowl game, and to do it with class, integrity and academic excellence.’

The Boise State Broncos show no signs of slowing down the momentum and progress they’ve built with their program since joining the Division I ranks in the middle of last decade.  The Broncos weren’t quite the Cinderella story they were in 2007, when they went all the way to the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl and stunned heavyweight Oklahoma in a thrilling overtime classic. But they did once again finish the regular season undefeated, joining the Utah Utes as the only two teams to accomplish the feat last year. They did end the year on a sour note though, losing to TCU in the Poinsettia Bowl. The Broncos are locked and loaded once more for another run through the Western Athletic Conference and again have their eyes set on returning to one of the marquee Bowl Championship Series games. Broncos head coach Chris Petersen joined KZNS in Salt Lake City to talk about his team as the 2009 season gets set to kickoff in just a few short weeks.

On dealing with being the ‘hunted’ in the Western Athletic Conference each and every year:

“Well, we kind of feel like the bulls-eye is on us quite often and we really don”t pay too much attention to those preseason rankings. You know, we kind of feel like in some ways, it’s teeing off first in golf – who cares? It doesn’t really matter. It’s what you did last hole. It doesn’t matter what’s coming up. So we kind of take that approach and if hey, we’re picked and ranked #1 at the end of the season, that’s when we’re smiling.”

On how a program like Boise State goes about setting goals. Obviously they first and foremost want to win their conference, but that’s become a given almost for them in recent years:

“You know, that’s a good question and it kind of changes a little bit from year to year. And we’ve really debated that in our goal-setting sessions. And our goals are always this: to win the WAC Championship, to win a Bowl game, and to do it with class, integrity and academic excellence. And you know, we do throw that BCS thing in there depending on the year and the team that we have. But we do it a little bit cautiously because we know we don’t have full control over that. And we only want to set our goals that we can totally control. So, we talk about it, but we also know that hey, like last year, the kids did everything they could do during the regular season and it still didn’t happen. And we’re not going to cry or complain about that. It is what it is. But we know that if we take care of those other things we set, we know we’re going somewhere good to play, we’re going to play a good team and we’re going to have a good time.”

On his defense, which is led by Kyle Wilson and poised to be one of Boise State’s best units in school history:

“Well, the one thing that I’ve always kind of said – and I said this when I was the offensive coordinator – I’ve always felt that our defense has been underrated. You know, sometimes the stats don’t always bare out what’s going on. And certainly when you play a style of offense that we play, that’s pretty wide open, you know, taking chances and those types of things – it can put your defense in a bad situation. And so I’ve always felt that our defense has played at a really high level and has been kind of underrated. And this last year, I don’t think people were expecting a whole lot out of our defense, and the kids really stepped up and statistically, had the best year that we’ve had in a long, long time statistically. And that’s why I think we were the team that we were – it really started with our defense.”

On if he has any thoughts about moving to the Mountain West Conference, a possibility that the BSU President has hinted at recently:

“Yup, same thing with our situation with the BCS. We know there’s some really good teams in the Mountain West and location wise, it seems like such a good fit. But again, I have no real control or say in that situation, and so hey, as coaches, we play who they tell us to play.”

Listen here to Petersen on KZNS in Salt Lake City

Tags: Boise State Broncos, Chris Petersen, KZNS, undefeated teams in college football last year, WAC football