Boise State didn’t just show up in Eugene and play Oregon close. The Broncos brought a little theater with them, too.
During the fourth quarter of the Ducks’ 34-27 win at Autzen Stadium, Oregon’s “Shout” celebration started up, and instead of standing by, Boise State players joined in. Blue and orange jerseys bounced along to the music while Oregon’s players stayed still. After the game, Spencer Danielson made it clear that wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment reaction.
When Ally Osborne of Oregon Ducks on Sports Illustrated asked about it, Danielson said the Broncos had been preparing for that moment since fall camp.
"It was," Danielson said. "You know, we've worked that for really since fall camp. So whenever it goes fourth quarter, we're gonna always bring it up in that in between the 40s and go high fours, and we played the "Shout" song every time, knowing that 'Hey, this is what it's going to be, regardless what the score is.'"
"We have to be a team that plays our best the fourth quarter, and we're going to have a lot of joy. So what everybody saw today is what we've been doing at practice for weeks now, and I'm proud of our guys find a way to continue to fight."
Danielson said the plan was tied to the Broncos’ identity in the final quarter, not the scoreboard.
That moment came in a game that stayed tight deep into the night. Boise State hung around until the end of the third quarter, and while the Broncos finished with a 36-yard field goal, the trip to Eugene still turned into a real test for Oregon.
The Ducks have used similar tactics before, including when they visited Wisconsin in 2024 and danced to “Jump Around.”
After the loss, Danielson didn’t try to dress it up. He said the Broncos came up short, and there was no silver lining in that.
"We didn't get it done tonight, man," Danielson said. "There's no moral victories.
We're gonna talk about that more. My heart hurts.
You know, when you put your all into something, when you go all the chips on the table, and you come up short, it hurts."
He added that Boise State still has work to do to match the level it wants to reach.
"We knew going in the season we have to be a team that plays hard, plays physical, and we're not there yet. But we got to continue to take steps.
So what's delayed is not denied. Hats off to Coach Lanning and the Oregon football team.
That's a really good football team we played tonight. Great schematically in all three bases.
They played really hard, and they obviously found a way to get it done tonight, and we didn't," Danielson said.
Even in defeat, Boise State had some numbers to point to. The Broncos went 4-for-4 in the red zone and converted 2 of 3 fourth downs, while Oregon missed on multiple short-yardage chances when it needed a conversion.
Danielson also singled out the defense, especially the tackling, as a bright spot. Boise State’s tackling has been an issue in the past, but against Oregon, the Broncos showed up with force. Safety Travis Anderson had a fumble recovery and 11 tackles, and Boise State finished with 16 tacklers overall.
"Yeah, our defense blew around today. We obviously got to tighten somethings up in some of these situations. We gave up too many explosive plays today, but man, they did a really good job finding ways to create turnovers on downs and made some really big time stumps," Danielson said.
There was also a curious subplot before kickoff. Boise State had reportedly planned to release a two-deep depth chart, but after Oregon declined to release its own, the Broncos held theirs back as well.
Asked whether that decision helped or hurt in the opener, Danielson didn’t have a clean answer.
"I have no idea. Good question.
I think going into a game , I mean, there's a lot of semantics when you go into game one, a lot of question marks on both sides. Yeah, I don't know," Danielson said.
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