Boise State fullback’s touchdown was a ‘surreal moment’ for a ‘blue-collar Idaho kid’

Bouncing off four or five Portland State defenders, Tyler Crowe lunged for the bright orange turf of the end zone last Saturday with the football clasped tightly to his chest.

As quickly as Crowe fell to the ground, he bounced back up, pretending to shotgun a beer as the Albertsons Stadium lights flashed and the crowd went nuts.

It was a pretty wild celebration for a guy listening to Zach Bryan and Rod Wave — “chill music,” as Crowe describes it — before the game.

But the celebration was well-deserved — and a long time coming.

Crowe’s touchdown in the fourth quarter of Boise State’s 56-14 victory over Portland State was his first score since 2021 and just the second of his career. That 2021 touchdown came in the fourth quarter of a 40-14 road victory over Fresno State — Crowe said it was so quiet in the stadium, you could hear a nickel drop.

That wasn’t the case Saturday. The sixth-year fullback’s first touchdown at home meant the crowd was roaring.

“It felt awesome,” Crowe said. “You know, I’ve never scored on The Blue, and that’s always been a goal of mine. It was really a surreal moment for me.”

Crowe’s been around the program long enough to have been here the last time Boise State played Portland State, in 2019. He made his collegiate debut against the Vikings — as a freshman linebacker.

This time around, he was playing on the offensive side of the ball. He came into the game prepared with his beer-shotgun celebration in mind, but it didn’t go quite as expected.

“Me and Ashton (Jeanty) were gonna do it together if he scored on a little fullback package,” Crowe said. “But it ended up just being me, and I hit it solo.”

Crowe’s final Boise State season

Crowe knows he might not have many more chances to get on the field and score. He’s at the point in his career that when something is especially challenging, he makes sure to “enjoy it to the most.”

These final few months with the program will mean even more to a guy who grew up a Boise State fan. Crowe graduated from Skyview High School in Nampa.

“T Crowe is just one of the guys that this program was built on,” Boise State offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter said. “He’s a blue-collar Idaho kid who wanted to always play here, does exactly what he’s supposed to do, tries to do everything right. He can play and fill a lot of different roles, and he is always there when you need him.”

Crowe switched to running back his redshirt freshman year in 2020, and having such a long playing career has meant lots of other changes, too.

Crowe has played for three head coaches — Bryan Harsin, Andy Avalos and Spencer Danielson — and has had five different position coaches.

He’s also seen Albertsons Stadium undergo a massive face-lift and been at the program through some tumultuous times. The team’s current No. 25 ranking is its first AP poll appearance since the COVID-shortened 2020 season, and there were 15 losses over the previous three seasons — not exactly typical Boise State football.

But there have been plenty of positives.

“The biggest difference has got to be the resources coming in here,” Crowe said. “I don’t think there’s ever been a time where there’s three games in the future sold out here. I remember we played Portland State, but my first year wasn’t even close to being sold out. So just the buy-in from the fans, the community, and the resources we’re getting now are unlike anything when I first came here.”

The No. 25 Broncos host Washington State this weekend, a team that just missed out on the Top 25 by a couple of votes this week. The matchup should be one of the toughest for Boise State all season and a chance to ignite a budding rivalry with a future Pac-12 opponent.

The teams have played a few games and a couple of those have been classics. The Broncos beat the Cougars 31-28 in 2016 at Albertsons Stadium, and a year after that Washington State got revenge in a triple-overtime thriller in Pullman, winning 47-44 in a game that ended at nearly 1 a.m. Mountain time.

“If we want to make the playoffs, we can’t be losing games like this,” Crowe said. “Every single game from here on out is going to be a huge one because we’re in it, and we have super-high playoff hopes.”

Boise State vs. Washington State

When: 8 p.m. Saturday

Where: Albertsons Stadium (36,363, Turf)

TV: Fox Sports 1 (Dan Hellie, Petros Papadakis)

Radio: KBOI 670 AM/KTIK 93.1 FM/Sirius XM Ch. 160 or 201 (Bob Behler, Pete Cavender)

Records: Boise State 2-1; Washington State 4-0

Series: Washington State leads the series 5-1

Vegas line: Boise State by 7.5 points

Weather: High of 92 degrees, low of 58 degrees, humidity 34%, few clouds, 0% chance of rain