Hall of Fame Class of 2002
Many believe Ian Johnson is the face of Boise State football, and this is with good reason. His touchdown run and ensuing marriage proposal following the Broncos’ classic win over Oklahoma will forever be entrenched not only in the minds of the BSU faithful, college football fans (and sappy women) nationwide. And a great number, especially those with memories that only go back about five years, believe Mr. Johnson to be the only legendary fantasy back to ever run around the blue turf. And these people are woefully misinformed. On December 31, 1999, the day before the world was tossed into the chaos of Y2K, a freshman running back named Brock Forsey ran for 152 yards in a 34-31 Humanitarian Bowl win over Louisville, and this kicked off a career for the ages.
Why:
Brock Forsey’s bowl performance was pivotal in leading Boise to its first ever bowl win as a Division 1-A program. And it began what would be a three-year stretch of running dominance, one that would culminate in a record setting senior season, and would allow Forsey to join some pretty elite company.
Prior to Kevin Smith’s 30 touchdowns in 2007 only three other men had scored more than 30 times in a single season. Barry Sanders electrified Oklahoma State fans on his way to 39 touchdowns in 1988, and Louisiana Tech wide receiver extraordinaire Troy Edwards ended his 1998 season with 31 scores. And then Brock Forsey gained 1893 yards from scrimmage while finding paydirt on 32 occasions in 2002.
The stats:
Forsey emerged as an every-down, dual-threat back as a sophomore, and he finished the campaign with 914 yards rushing and 399 yards receiving. On the way to 16 scores Forsey was able to post four games with two touchdowns, and one three-score performance in the season finale against rival Idaho.
Brock Forsey’s junior year was even better as he scored in all but one game. He again scored 16 touchdowns and posted another three-touchdown game, this one coming in a blowout win over San Diego State. Two seasons, each with 16 scores. But even the most optimistic fantasy owner couldn’t have anticipated how Forsey would cap off his collegiate career.
Running for 1611 yards, catching for 282 and adding six receiving touchdowns to his 26 touchdowns on the ground, Forsey put up the best fantasy season since Barry Sanders…and let’s be honest, how many were playing college fantasy football when Sanders was running wild back in 1988? Most of us were too busy playing Nintendo's RBI Baseball, watching Coming to America and ashamed to admit we knew all the words to Kokomo.
Forsey scored four touchdowns on five different occasions. He scored three times in the bowl win over Iowa State, and only in an early-season loss at Arkansas was the Boise State running machine held scoreless.
Signature moment:
On October 12, 2002 Brock Forsey led his boys down to Tulsa and what ensued was a 25 carry, 208 yard rushing performance with four touchdowns. He scored on two runs of 25 yards, one for five yards, and one for six.
This game kicked off an eight game stretch during which Forsey would score 26 touchdowns.
I looked around for some Brock Forsey highlights, and fortunately I came upon this gem:
Final thought:
In an attempt to put Forsey’s season into context let me remind our loyal readers that Ball State’s MiQuale Lewis led all running backs in fantasy scoring this season. He posted an impressive 269 points. The Boise State legend accounted for 318 points in 2002.
Boise State has seen tremendous football highs in recent years, and much of today’s success began with #36, who was scoring touchdowns in record numbers nearly a decade ago.