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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The first time Spencer Danielson watched Boise State football was the first time for a lot of people: the 2007 Fiesta Bowl.

Danielson was a senior in high school, watching from Southern California with his father as the Broncos pulled off one of the most preposterous upsets in college football history: the last-ditch hook-and-lateral, the Statue of Liberty handoff in overtime to defeat Oklahoma, running back Ian Johnson’s post-game proposal on one knee.

Danielson didn’t know then that he would be hired by that same program as a graduate assistant 10 years later, or that he would be named head coach seven years after that. But he witnessed something special, something that lingered.

“I’ll never forget watching at home with my dad, not knowing a ton about Boise State football and the tradition, the legacy, but being blown away,” he said. “Those moments are what really put Boise State football on the map.”

Boise State is 3-0 all-time in the Fiesta Bowl, winning again in 2010 over TCU and in 2014 over Arizona, a trio of defining victories for a school that didn’t start playing at the FBS level until 1996. So it’s fitting that Danielson, at 36, has led the Broncos back here, in his first full season at the helm, to a game that encapsulates so much of that legacy.

No. 3-seed Boise State (12-1) and No. 6 Penn State (12-2) will meet for the first time Tuesday in the quarterfinals of the College Football Playoff, with Penn State 7-0 all-time in Fiesta Bowl appearances.

It makes for another tailored storyline: Boise State, college football’s OG giant slayer, emerging in the first season of the 12-team Playoff to grab a Group of 5 bid out of the Mountain West and a first-round bye, punching up once again. Except that before this season, that identity had dimmed. The 2014 Fiesta Bowl was the school’s last New Year’s Six bowl. The typical seasons of double-digit victories were interrupted by 7-5 in 2021 and 8-6 in 2023 — not a collapse, but below the established standard at Boise, amid missing out on another wave of power-conference realignment.

“We weren’t bad, but we were just a middle-of-the-road team,” said offensive lineman Ben Dooley, who has been with the Broncos since 2019. “Maybe good enough for others, but not at Boise State.”

The road back has been swift and unassailable this season, led by superstar running back and Heisman runner-up Ashton Jeanty, and just in time for the expanded Playoff to give a renewed Boise State the chance to do something those other Fiesta Bowl teams could not: keep playing.

“In years prior, that was the last game. Now it’s a whole new season,” said Danielson. “Our goal is to go win a national championship.”

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Those are admittedly steep odds. The Broncos are well aware of how an atypical regular season and first-year Playoff kinks unlocked a path to a first-round bye, and why they are still underdogs against Penn State even as the “higher” seed. But thus far, everything is coming up Boise. The team has a generational talent in Jeanty and faces an imperfect Playoff field, featuring a top-seeded Oregon squad that the Broncos played as tough as anyone all season.

But the most overlooked (and maybe most important) piece of this Boise State revival is the Playoff’s most anonymous head coach. Danielson recaptured what Boise State football is all about — and has dared to push it even higher.

“Boise has always been about impossible standards, reaching for more, standing on the shoulders of giants,” said Dooley. “I was worried that’s not how my career here would go. That instead I would be part of the downfall of Boise State.

“And then we found Coach D.”

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According to Danielson, the journey of this dream season started with Jeanty’s decision to return to the Broncos.

“I’ll never forget last December when a player said, ‘I ain’t going nowhere,’” Danielson said.

But as Jeanty will tell you, the journey started a little earlier. In November 2023, Boise State fired head coach Andy Avalos. The former Broncos player and assistant was 22-14 over the course of three seasons, but a 5-5 record in 2023 wasn’t up to those blue-turf standards. Athletic director Jeramiah Dickey named Danielson, defensive coordinator at the time, as interim coach. He led the team to three straight wins, including a definitive road victory over UNLV after sneaking into the Mountain West championship.

An awakened team rallied around Danielson and advocated for him to get the permanent position — Jeanty included.

“It was unanimous. The (team’s) leadership council wanted coach Danielson,” Dickey said. “So I walked away from meeting with them thinking they were going to hate me.”

Dickey had a ton of respect for Danielson, but he was convinced the culture needed to be reset with a fresh face from outside the program.

“I had no thought whatsoever that Spencer was going to be the guy,” Dickey said.

Much like he did with the locker room, Danielson quickly won his AD over. Danielson impressed in his interview, and in one-on-one meetings with Dickey during the interim process, and in the way the team responded on the field under him. It became too much for Dickey to ignore.

“Spencer has a level of authenticity you normally don’t get. What he says, he lives out in action,” Dickey said. “It’s just contagious.”

Danielson had the interim tag removed and was officially named head coach on Dec 3, 2023. Jeanty announced his return two days later. The support from Jeanty and others wasn’t the sole or even chief reason, but it reiterated why Danielson was the right hire and provided a springboard into 2024.

“They told me before they even told the team that he was getting the job. Once I knew that, there was no question in my mind I was coming back too,” Jeanty said. “Having him in my life has been a blessing. He’s helped me grow tremendously since I’ve been here.”

Hearing those inside the program talk about Danielson is akin to describing a home-cooked meal. There’s an intangible, ineffable quality to it, but the reviews are glowing.

Edge rusher Jayden Virgin-Morgan, who leads the team with 10 sacks: “It’s the way he holds us accountable while also holding himself accountable. The balance in that attracts a lot of players. He’s one of the most humble people I’ve ever met.”

Kage Casey, offensive tackle: “Coach D is always texting you, always saying what’s up, making sure you’re OK. He comes down to our lifts, he interacts with us and builds those relationships.”

Khalil Shakir, former Boise State wide receiver now with the Buffalo Bills: “You talk about a true players’ coach — a coach who guys want to go out there and literally blood, sweat and tears, just play for — that’s the guy.”

It extends to the coaching staff as well. Few know the Boise State program better than Dirk Koetter. The Idaho native was head coach of the Broncos from 1998-2000, then came out of retirement as an analyst and eventually offensive coordinator under Avalos in 2022. Koetter returned to retired life in 2023 but remained in Boise, which made him a convenient resource for Danielson, who tapped Koetter and Chris Petersen, another former Broncos head coach, to assist in his own offensive coordinator search last offseason.

Danielson initially offered the job to Koetter, who turned it down but said he would help identify and interview prospects.

“We had some good candidates and I kept thinking, this is the guy. But Coach D knew exactly what he was looking for, and he held true,” Koetter said. “Every time we talked to somebody, he would come back to me again. He finally beat me down.”

Koetter agreed to come out of retirement (again) for one season.

“I have four kids, including a son that played college football, and I can say with all honesty that you want your kid to play for a coach like Spencer Danielson,” Koetter said. “He does a great job of making it about the players. He’s very much a glass-half-full positive person, but at the same time, he holds them to a high standard.”

Quarterback Maddux Madsen distilled it to one word — the one that gets mentioned most when discussing Danielson and this Boise State team: Love.

“We hear that word all the time. It’s a big part of who he is as a coach, and it rubs off on everyone around him,” Madsen said. “This is a team that plays full of love. It’s very simple, but that’s the truth. It’s a love-built team.”

That sentiment can come off as saccharine. It sounds great during an 11-game winning streak or at a post-championship podium, but love doesn’t run block or make open-field tackles, and love won’t shut down Penn State’s Tyler Warren or Abdul Carter. Yet Danielson’s message of sacrifice and accountability has resonated for this group, providing that extra variable needed to elevate a good team, at a school that has always had to do a little more with a little less and be greater than the sum of its parts.

Boise State improved across the board in 2024. More points scored, fewer points allowed. Better efficiency on offense and tackling on defense. Fewer turnovers. Jeanty’s ascendence fueled and defined the Broncos, but he’s also a prime example of that added Danielson edge. Jeanty led the Mountain West with 1,347 rushing yards as a sophomore in 2023. This year’s numbers — 2,497 rushing yards, 30 total touchdowns — vastly exceeded that, but so did his work ethic and influence, embracing his role as the team’s vocal leader.

“Ashton’s maturity and leadership has been cool to see develop, and Coach D is a big part of that,” Dooley said. “Ashton has every reason to be the biggest prick on the planet and big-dog everybody and take all the credit, but instead he pours outside of himself so much for the team.”

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Ask Danielson why he became a football coach and you get a free history lesson.

“The term ‘coach’ comes from stagecoach, which is a thing that takes you places,” he said. “If you can go and achieve everything in life with or without me, I’m wasting your time. But the only way to truly pull the most out of a young man or a staff member is to build a relationship to the point that they know I really care about them.”

That pull started when Danielson was a try-hard linebacker at Azusa Pacific University, an NAIA school outside Los Angeles. He worked as a counselor at a Northern California high school football camp during the summer and still gets choked up talking about how the kids opened up to their coaches. He went into that summer as a business major preparing to start his MBA and find the quickest path to make money.

“But I knew when I came down from that mountain, I wanted to coach,” he said.

Danielson’s faith is the foundation of who he is as a coach and a person. He opens every news conference by thanking Jesus and keeps a Bible and his journal on his office desk.

“That’s one thing we love about him: how true of a person he is,” said Casey, who earned second-team All-America honors at left tackle. “He’s not hiding any of himself.”

Players note that he can be strikingly honest, but is also quick to take the blame when he didn’t do enough to prepare the team. It makes him oddly well-suited for this new era of college football, where coaches are required to wade into the transfer portal, high-school recruiting, revenue sharing, NIL agents, fundraising and more, all at the same time, all while delivering results on the field. Danielson embraces it with his own brand of clear-eyed conviction.

“There are a lot of old-timers, me included, that some of this crap just drives you crazy,” Koetter said. “He’s got the right mentality for how to navigate the changing landscape of college football.”

It makes for a promising if uncertain future, with Boise State set to join a refurbished Pac-12 in 2026 as it attempts to keep pace financially. In the meantime, Dickey is working toward a contract extension for Danielson that would bolster the staff salary pool while continuing to strive for increased resources.

“I want him to coach here as long as he possibly can,” Dickey said. “He’s earned it.”

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All of that will have to wait. Right now, Danielson’s approach has propelled Boise State through a gilded but challenging season, breathing new life into the program’s David vs. Goliath roots. It’s also instilled a confidence Danielson has preached all season, including the Week 2 game at Oregon, which Boise State lost on a last-second field goal. Danielson is fond of the phrase, “Our best is enough, but our best is required.” That game exemplified it.

“We lost the game. But I think after that, our team knew that our best is enough here,” he said. “We know we can beat any team in the country.”

Boise State will get a chance to prove it, finally receiving a legit shot at a national championship. First up, Danielson, Jeanty and the Broncos must deliver yet another Fiesta Bowl memory.

“We walk by those trophies every day,” Danielson said. “Being able to work our tail off to add to that legacy or even push it past where it is, that’s something we’re very excited about.

“Even in this, there are people who count us out,” Danielson added. “We hear how it’s an easy road for somebody to go through Boise in the quarterfinals. That’s awesome. That’s what this place is built on: blue-collar, chip on your shoulder, count us out.”

— The Athletic’s Joe Buscaglia contributed reporting