Since its victory in the Mountain West championship game, Boise State has enjoyed three weeks of rest leading into its College Football Playoff debut against Penn State in the Fiesta Bowl. Broncos Running back Ashton Jeanty, the Heisman Trophy runner-up ...

For starters, there’s a Heisman Trophy runner-up (Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty), the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year (Penn State’s Abdul Carter) and the Mackey Award winner (Penn State’s Tyler Warren) in the game.

He enters the CFP just 131 yards shy of college football’s official single-season record, set by Oklahoma State’s Barry Sanders in 1988.

The Boise State defense gave up nearly 30 points a game in their first five games, but in their final eight games they have only allowed 17 points per game as the defense improved through out the year.

In the quarterfinals of the College Football Playoff, the No. 5 Penn State Nittany Lions (12-2) will play the No. 8 Boise State Broncos (12-1) in the Fiesta Bowl, starting at 7:30 p.m. ET in

Beat writers from the Idaho Statesman and Centre Daily Times have different ideas how the College Football Playoff quarterfinal will play out.

Following its 38-10 win over SMU in the first round of the College Football Playoff, Penn State ascended to No. 7 in ESPN's SP+ defensive rankings. Even with the nation's best running back in Ashton Jeanty, Boise State's offense ranks 13th.

For as much as Penn State wants to keep everything as normal as possible this week before departing on Saturday for the Fiesta Bowl, the one person likely determining whether the

Ashton Jeanty, the Boise State running back and Heisman Trophy runner-up, spoke about the challenge of facing Penn State in the College Football Playoff quarterfinal.