ESPN’s Week 11 stop in Boise delivered the kind of scene College GameDay loves to find: a loud crowd, a little pageantry, and a dog carrying on one of college football’s most charming routines.
The spotlight belonged to Bourbon, the black Labrador now handling Boise State’s tee-fetching duties on the blue turf. ESPN reporter Jess Sims introduced Bourbon to the crowd with trainer Ayla Garner, who has worked with the 7-year-old Lab for seven years. “This is a rowdy crowd, so let’s make some noise so she knows she’s at home,” Sims said.
Bourbon’s role is part of a family line that has become a Broncos staple. She took over from Blitz, her older half-brother and the son of original tee dog Cowboy Kohl. Blitz retired on senior night last November, then returned for one last appearance in the Mountain West title game against UNLV before handing the job to his sister.
Garner said the transition was built on plenty of shared work. “Absolutely. We did a ton of practices together,” she said.
Bourbon spent the 2025 season learning in the background as Blitz’s understudy, showing up for his final two regular-season games and even racing him in a 40-yard dash. Boise State made her the official tee dog before the 2026 home opener. Her first game in the role came with a little drama, since she missed her first two tee attempts before finally getting the third.
“It’s a lineage at this point,” Garner said on the GameDay set, pointing back to Kohl.
That lineage started with a dog who first caught Boise State’s attention while retrieving bats at Boise Hawks baseball games. The Broncos asked whether he could handle kickoff tees too, and he became a fixture on the blue turf before his death in August 2021 at age 11. Blitz then took over that fall.
Garner said the work is about more than just the sprint. “We put a lot of time into these dogs, teaching them to deal with the crowd, and they love to retrieve,” she said.
Bourbon’s owner, Tasmyn Green, said she used to bring her to Hawks games as a puppy to watch Kohl do the job. “It’s super exciting for us to be able to have that privilege to carry the torch,” Green said.
The tee-dog moment came during a big morning for Boise State, which hosted GameDay for only the second time after ESPN selected Boise for Week 11. The show’s first visit was on Sept. 25, 2010, when 13,250 fans showed up before dawn and No.
3 Boise State beat No. 24 Oregon State 37-24 that night.
This year’s Broncos enter the rematch at 8-1 overall and 5-0 in their first Pac-12 season. They’ve won eight straight since a 34-27 loss at Oregon in the opener, and they remain the favorite for the Group of Six’s College Football Playoff bid. A loss to the 5-4 Beavers would open the door for challengers like New Mexico.
Former Boise State running back Ian Johnson, the hero of the 2007 Fiesta Bowl, was the guest picker. Oregon State at Boise State is set for 6 p.m. ET on USA Network.
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