HONOLULU -- Ben Hartman's kicking is a lot better than his
sense of humor.
Hartman kicked a 34-yard field goal as time expired and Chris
Johnson set an NCAA bowl record with 408 all-purpose yards to give
East Carolina a 41-38 victory over No. 24 Boise State in the Hawaii
Bowl on Sunday night.
During a timeout called by the Broncos to put pressure on the
kicker, Hartman told a joke to third-year coach Skip Holtz, just as
he did before hitting the game-winner against North Carolina on
Sept. 8.
"He goes, 'I've got a good one this time," Holtz said. "When
he told me, I laughed but it wasn't worth it. I was just trying to
get him to loosen up a little bit."
After Hartman split the uprights, the Pirates stormed the field
in celebration and chased after the kicker, who dashed toward the
locker room to avoid being piled on by his teammates.
"I had a game-winner against North Carolina and that's the last
time I'll let them jump on me," he said. "It's like a bunch of
tractor trailers on top of you."
Hartman said he wanted to make the kick for the seniors,
especially for Johnson.
"I felt good going out there. I felt real confident," Hartman
said. "I just knew if I did my thing, it was going to go in."
Johnson ran for 223 yards, caught three passes for 32 yards and
returned six kickoffs for 153 yards. But he committed a costly
fumble late that almost sent it to overtime. It was his first
fumble of the season.
With East Carolina trying to run out the clock near midfield,
Marty Tadman scooped up Johnson's fumble and returned it 47 yards
for a touchdown to tie it at 38 with 1:25 left.
The Pirates took possession at their 39 with 1:16 left and drove
to the 17 to set up Hartman's kick.
"We can't give a team 30 points and play terrible in the first
half and expect to win," Tadman said. "We didn't deserve to win
the game."
The Pirates (8-5) earned their first postseason victory since
the 2000 Galleryfurniture.com Bowl and first win over a ranked
opponent since beating TCU in 2002.
"I'd love to stand here and beat my chest and take credit but
this is a story about the group of young men that were extremely
determined to turn this program around," Holtz said.
The Broncos (10-3), making their sixth straight bowl appearance,
almost repeated their last-minute magic from last season when they
stunned Oklahoma in overtime in the Fiesta Bowl to finish 13-0.
But this time, it was the Broncos who fell a little short
without any trick plays and an ailing Ian Johnson. Johnson, who was
nursing a sprained left ankle, finished with 11 yards on four
carries.
It was Chris Johnson who stole the show.
"I wasn't worried about the Johnson versus Johnson thing," he
said. "I just wanted to come out here and get a win ... and show
who we are and that the year they beat Oklahoma that was last
year's team and this is a different team."
Johnson had 181 rushing yards in the first half, including a
68-yard TD run that put East Carolina ahead 10-7. He also caught a
screen pass from Patrick Pickney and went 18 yards for a score to
make it 24-7.
"It feels good to end my career like this. I wanted to come out
here and show the country that I am the best back in the country,"
said Johnson, who was selected the Most Valuable Player and broke
the all-purpose yards record of 359 yards set by Alabama's Sherman
Williams against Ohio State in the 1995 Citrus Bowl.
He entered the game leading the nation in all-purpose yards and
finished the season with 1,423 rushing yards, 528 receiving yards
and 1,009 kickoff return yards.
Jeremy Avery, who rushed for 68 yards and caught four passes for
43 yards was Boise State's MVP.
"For some reason we weren't clicking at the right time and
players weren't making the right plays like we usually do and
turnovers just killed us," Avery said.
The usually explosive Broncos looked rusty and unprepared in the
first half. They went three-and-out on their first four
possessions, followed by an interception, touchdown and fumble. "That first half was very frustrating," second-year Broncos
coach Chris Petersen said. "You have to come through when the
money is on the line. It is some hard lessons for us, but we will
learn and get better."
Boise State, a 10½-point favorite, managed just 3 yards of
offense in the first quarter while East Carolina had 181 behind
Johnson's 106 rushing yards.
The Broncos' lone highlight in the first quarter was Austin
Smith's 89-yard kickoff return for a TD.
Of Boise State's three losses this season, two occurred in
back-to-back games in Aloha Stadium. Boise State chose the Hawaii
Bowl over its hometown Humanitarian Bowl despite visiting here just
a month ago in their regular-season finale against Hawaii.