Mistakes pile up, Jeanty bottled up: Boise State’s banner year ends with Fiesta Bowl loss

The start was too slow, the mistakes too many.

Superstar running back Ashton Jeanty, the Heisman Trophy runner-up, fumbled twice, losing one of them.

Kicker Johan Dalmas, who has had one of the tougher seasons of his high-scoring career, missed a pair of field goal attempts.

Quarterback Maddux Madsen, going for broke on third-and-25 in field goal range, lofted a prayer of a deep pass that was intercepted — one of three picks on the night.

There were 13 penalties, a season high, including three that aided scoring drives.

It all added up to trouble Tuesday night for Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl, which ended in a 31-14 loss to Penn State (13-2). At the end of a superb season, the Broncos (12-2), the No. 3 seed in the College Football Playoff, will head into 2025 with a quarterfinal loss and a bad taste in their mouth.

They fell behind 14-0 in the first quarter on New Year’s Eve at State Farm Stadium, and it was an uphill fight the rest of the night. Always game for a fight, Boise State got within 17-14 with 11:38 remaining in the third quarter — but failed to score again.

“I‘m so proud of this team. It didn’t go our way tonight,” head coach Spencer Danielson said. “ ... But they re-established the standard in Boise to be a light on the hill, to the country, that had been lost for a little bit. I’m so proud of them doing that. That’s a legacy that can never be taken from them.”

Jeanty was naturally the focus of the No. 6 seed Nittany Lions, and they mostly kept him in check. He was held to a season-low 104 yards on 30 carries — that’s 3.5 yards per rush — had the two fumbles and was tackled for a loss five times. As a result, he failed to break Barry Sanders’ single-season NCAA rushing record.

Jeanty entered the game leading the nation with 2,497 yards, meaning he was 132 yards away from surpassing Sanders’ 2,628 yards, set in just 11 games in 1988, when he won the Heisman. (Sanders’ 222-yard effort in the Holiday Bowl did not count toward his total under NCAA rules at the time.)

Jeanty’s effort left him 28 yards from breaking Sanders’ record, meaning he put together the second-best season in NCAA rushing history.

Jeanty’s lost fumble along the sideline late in the first quarter came after Penn State had jumped ahead by scoring touchdowns on its first two possessions. After a 20-yard run, the Nittany Lions then had a first-and-10 at the BSU 31-yard line and all of the momentum. But PSU quarterback Drew Allar mishandled a handoff, and the Broncos’ Seyi Oladipo pounced on the fumble.

That play seemed to breathe life into Boise State, which fought itself back into the game with a second-quarter touchdown drive and started playing much better defensively, forcing three straight punts after the fumble recovery and limiting Penn State to 26 total yards on those possessions.

Jeanty had just 39 rushing yards on 13 carries in the first half, with a long run of 12. In addition to the lost fumble, Jeanty had the ball stripped on a run on Boise State’s scoring drive, but lineman Roger Carreron recovered.

The All-American still affected the game, though. He went in motion to the left out of the backfield on a third-and-2 play from the Penn State 8-yard line, and three defenders ran with him. Fullback Tyler Crowe took a handoff and burst through a huge hole in the line before bulling his way into the end zone at the 8:41 mark of the second quarter.

That score allowed the Broncos to cut the lead to 14-7, and they trailed 17-7 at the half after a late field-goal drive from the Nittany Lions that was aided by a pass interference penalty.

Madsen was able to pick apart Penn State’s pass defense much of the game, taking advantage of a unit that relies heavily on quarterback pressure. That pressure mostly failed to materialize once the Nittany Lions lost All-American edge rusher Abdul Carter to an arm injury in the first half.

Madsen was rarely under duress for stretches of time as he drilled passes to tightly covered receivers and played catch with those who were wide-open — none more open than tight end Matt Lauter, who was closer to fans in the stands than to any defender when he hauled in a 53-yard touchdown catch in the third quarter.

That made it 17-14 and had the Boise State fans going wild, but Penn State responded with an 11-play, 75-yard scoring drive to go ahead 24-14 on the second TD connection of the game between Allar and All-American tight end Tyler Warren, this one from 13 yards out.

“This is a one-score game into the fourth quarter, and we just didn’t make the plays enough at the end as we needed to,” Danielson said.

Allar finished the game 13-of-25 for 171 yards and three scores, with no interceptions. Warren had six catches for 63 yards.

But the Nittany Lions did most of their damage on the ground, rushing for 217 yards on 40 carries behind a strong offensive line. Kaytron Allen led the attack with 17 carries for 134 yards, and Nick Singleton had 87 yards on 12 carries, including a 58-yard touchdown run that made the final 5 minutes of the game academic.

Madsen finished 23-of-35 for 304 yards and a touchdown, but he had three picks. The most critical came on the first play of the fourth quarter, with Boise State trailing 24-14. Facing third-and-25 from the Penn State 36-yard line, he chucked a pass deep down the right sideline rather than trying to at least pick up yardage for a shorter field-goal attempt. Zakee Wheatley intercepted the throw.

On the next BSU drive, Jeanty had his biggest play of the night, rushing for 26 yards on a third-and-21 play. The Broncos drove 55 yards before Dalmas pushed a 38-yard field goal attempt wide right, failing to cut the lead to 24-17.

Six plays later, Singleton burst through the middle of the line for the long TD run to seal the win.