Pre-game Buildup
During the summer preceding the season, Oklahoma was hyped to be a top 5 team and national title contender. They initially were the favorite to win the Big 12 South. Following the dismissal of OU's returning quarterback Rhett Bomar, many felt the defending national champion Texas Longhorns were now the favorite (the Sooners dropped six spots in the Coaches Poll during the first two weeks of the season despite winning both of those weeks). The Sooners opened their season 3–2 with a controversial loss to Oregon and a loss to Texas. The Sooners also lost their Heisman-hopeful running back Adrian Peterson during their sixth game to a broken collar bone. Many had written the Sooners off at this point. However, the Sooners won their next seven games while Texas lost their last two and the Sooners became the outright winners of the Big 12 South and faced the Big 12 North winner, Nebraska, in the Big 12 Championship Game. They won that game 21–7 and were given an automatic berth to represent the Big 12 in the Fiesta Bowl.
The Boise State Broncos, who returned more starters from 2005 than any other team in NCAA Division I-A football, began the year with high hopes; according to one major source, anything less than a BCS Bowl berth would have been a disappointment. First-year head coach Chris Petersen led this perennially strong non-BCS conference school to an undefeated 12–0 record. Some of the Broncos key wins this season came over Oregon State of the Pac-10 Conference, Hawaii and Fresno State. Boise State was the champion of the Western Athletic Conference.
Read more about this topic: 2007 Fiesta Bowl
Famous quotes containing the word buildup:
“I think those Southern writers [William Faulkner, Carson McCullers] have analyzed very carefully the buildup in the South of a special consciousness brought about by the self- condemnation resulting from slavery, the humiliation following the War Between the States and the hope, sometimes expressed timidly, for redemption.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)