What Boise State’s Spencer Danielson, Washington’s Jedd Fisch said ahead of LA Bowl

Boise State head coach Spencer Danielson and Washington’s Jedd Fisch previewed the LA Bowl during a press conference on Friday in Southern California.

“Our team’s just been really fired up to get here,” Danielson said. “We’ve been through a lot this season. Love our team, proud of what they’ve been through.”

The fifth and final LA Bowl will begin at 6 p.m. Mountain time on Saturday. According to multiple reports, the LA Bowl will cease operations following the matchup between Boise State (9-4) and Washington (8-4).

Broncos left tackle Kage Casey will not play in the LA Bowl, Danielson said. The Huskies are not expected to have any opt-outs.

Here are the highlights from Friday’s press conference.

Danielson on getting 10th win

“We’re no different than I’m assuming almost every football program around. You want to win your conference championship, and then you always want to win your bowl game, and that’s our goal. We haven’t done that at Boise State since 2017, right? So it’s been a long time. We’ve been blessed to be able to win three (Mountain West) championships in a row, but have not won the bowl game.

“That’s a huge deal for both teams. You always want to win your last game as momentum going into the offseason, and you want to do that for your seniors. We’ve got a great group of seniors, I know coach Fisch has a great group of seniors. So you really want to finish it the right way and put a completion stamp on the season, and that’s what we’re working hard to do.”

Fisch on gap between Power Four and Group of Five

“You want to give a bunch of locker room material right now for coach Danielson? (Laughter). I think things … it’s certainly always changing. We’ve all seen what it looks like really on a weekly basis. You look at a game like USF going into Gainesville and winning the game against Florida. You look at teams constantly going back and forth, the fact that Washington State went across the country and then had a field goal game against Ole Miss, had a game against Virginia that went down to the very last second with a two-point play. You look across the country at the Mountain West, how good of programs they are.

“But with this situation, with the (College Football Playoff), with Tulane, with James Madison, I haven’t played those teams so I would have no idea how good they are. Our goal is to get to the playoffs. … Our plan is to get there next year, and whoever we play, we’ll be ready for them.”