Boise State is making its first-ever trip to the College Football Playoff, set to take on Penn State in the Fiesta Bowl on Dec. 31. As the first non-power conference champion to make it to the playoff, this is a big moment for the Boise State program.
But this isn’t the first big stage that Boise State has been on. In fact, close to 17 years ago, the Broncos burst onto the national stage with an iconic 43-42 upset victory over the Oklahoma Sooners in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl.
The game in itself was wild, including a wild fourth-quarter that sent the game into overtime. But the main reason the Broncos were able to upset the Sooners? Boise State head coach Chris Petersen’s Statue of Liberty play call on the Broncos’ two-point conversion attempt in overtime.
Let’s run through what exactly the play is, how it helped Boise State defeat Oklahoma, and how it’s been used in the years since.
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How Boise State shocked Oklahoma with trick play
In overtime of the Fiesta Bowl, Oklahoma struck first with a 25-yard touchdown from Adrian Peterson. The Sooners kicked the extra point and led Boise State 42-35.
On Boise State’s ensuing possession, The Broncos were facing a 4th-and-2. Broncos running back Vinny Perretta took a direct snap and threw the ball to receiver Derek Schouman for a touchdown.
Instead of kicking the extra point to force a second overtime, the Broncos went for the two-point conversion. Boise State quarterback Jared Zabransky faked a pass, but had the ball behind his back, handing it off to running back Ian Johnson. The play completely fooled the Sooner defense, and Johnson ran untouched into the end zone:
Here are how some Boise State players remember working on the play during practice, via a 2017 NCAA story:
“The Statue of Liberty never worked like that ever in practice,” [Boise State safety Marty] Tadman said. “They might have gained a few yards but it never worked like that where there were no defenders there.”
But the offensive unit has more positive recollections of fooling the scout defense every time with the play. So when “Statue Left” was relayed into the huddle, there were plenty of smiles.
“You run a play with any sort of trickeration or misdirection, the scout team would pick up on it after two or three times seeing it. They never picked up on that play,” Zabransky said. “We weren’t really concerned with that play, or at least I wasn’t. I knew as long as we got that handoff and didn’t have any false procedures or penalties, we were going to win that game.”
“We hadn’t talked about going for two until we scored,” Zabransky told The Athletic in 2018. “But knowing the play we had in our back pocket, it was a no-brainer.”
What is a Statue of Liberty in football?
Although there are different versions of the play that has been run, the trickery involves the quarterback simulating as if he is going to throw a pass.
The quarterback first grips the ball with two hands, then places the ball behind his back with his non-throwing arm. While he simulates a pass without the ball in his throwing hand, he hands the ball off behind his back to either a running back or receiver. The runner then runs on the opposite side of the field, usually fooling the opposing defense with ease.
Here’s how the play is drawn out:
1923 image from The Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, Mississippi)
As for the play’s history, it’s a long one, dating back to the 1900s. There are reports that suggest that legendary football coach Amos Alonzo Stagg first ran the play first in the late 1800s. The play has evolved over the years. In fact, the play was called primarily as a fake punt back in the day. Via Football Archeology on Substack:
While the Statue of Liberty play today is typically a fake forward pass, it originated as a fake punt. Rather than an end circling behind and grabbing the ball held behind the passer’s back, the end took the ball from the punter. It worked well as a fake punt since teams in that era often punted on early downs, and end-around and tackle-around plays were in every team’s playbook.
The play enjoyed a resurgence in the 1930s, perhaps due to the popularity of the spinner and other misdirection efforts in backfields.
One of the more famous applications came when Fordham visited Chapel Hill in October 1937. Fordham, which ended the season ranked #3, tied Pitt 0-0 earlier in the season for the third year in a row and was 3-0-1 entering the game against #15 North Carolina.
Fordham’s first score came on a 26-yard Statue of Liberty run from a fake pass that finished an 88-yard first-quarter drive, providing all the points needed for Fordham’s 14-0 win.
Per Football Archeology, Georgia Tech head coach Bill Alexander was the first to use it as a fake pass. Using an unbalanced line, the play looks similar to the modern iteration of the play that Boise State used, in that the runner goes to the left. But it differs slightly in that instead of giving the ball to the right wing, the tailback keeps the ball and follows a block from the quarterback.
As one can imagine, using a quarterback as a lead blocker surely didn’t work as well as the modern call of the play.
Since the 2007 Fiesta Bowl, we’ve seen the play used a few times. In 2007, the New England Patriots used it against the Jacksonville Jaguars in the divisional round of the playoffs. But that version was a bit different in that it was the Statue of Liberty in reverse—using the run instead of the pass as the fake element.
Boise State successfully used it twice in 2016 against Wyoming and vs. Arizona in the Fiesta Bowl. Both resulted in Jay Ajayi touchdowns. The New York Giants also successfully ran it during its 2023 wildcard victory over the Minnesota Vikings.
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Ian Johnson Fiesta Bowl stats
Ian Johnson was named the Fiesta Bowl MVP, much-deserved for running in the two-point conversion. But outside of that play, he still had a great game.
|
Carries |
Yards |
Avg |
TD |
Rec |
Yards |
|
23 |
101 |
4.4 |
1 |
2 |
4 |
Johnson also famously proposed to his Boise State cheerleader girlfriend on national television after the victory.
Jared Zabransky Fiesta Bowl stats
Boise State quarterback Jared Zabransky also had one of the better games of his 2006 season.
|
Comp-Att |
Yards |
TD |
INT |
Rush Yards |
|
19-29 |
262 |
3 |
1 |
8 |
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