Fiesta forever, folks!

Penn State football is 8-0 all-time in the Fiesta Bowl after its 31-14 victory over Boise State in this season’s version of the contest, which also served as a College Football Playoff quarterfinal.

Two of our photographers traveled out to Arizona for the game, taking in all the sights and sounds.

Boise State Fans Are Legit

The Boise State crowd significantly outnumbered Penn State fans. If I had to make an educated guess, I’d say it was probably 70/30 in favor of the Broncos fans. Idaho is significantly closer to Arizona than Pennsylvania is, so that could’ve certainly played a factor. I also think many Penn State fans were counting on a Nittany Lion victory and will be more likely to attend the semifinal game in the much closer Miami.

Not only were Boise State fans out in numbers, but they were loud. Amplified by the acoustic effects of an indoor stadium, the fans were impressive when the Broncos had a big play or wanted to disrupt the Nittany Lion offense. That was one of the loudest crowds I’ve ever seen.

Flavor Flav Is A Penn State Fan?

Apparently, Flavor Flav, the famous American hip-hop recording artist, is a Penn State fan. As the story goes, Flavor Flav’s cousin Shep Garner played men’s basketball for Penn State, and Flav’s been a fan ever since.

He was in attendance at the Fiesta Bowl cheering on the Nittany Lions, meeting the team when they arrived at the stadium, and introducing himself to some of the players. He also talked to James Franklin for a few minutes pregame and briefly showed Franklin someone on FaceTime. I wonder who.

‘Blitz The Dog’ Is A Very Good Boy

Blitz is a black Labrador retriever who traveled with Boise State as its kickoff tee return dog. Every time Boise State kicked off, Blitz came bolting onto the field to quickly pick up the tee and run it back to the sidelines.

It was clear that Blitz was a fan favorite among both Boise State and Penn State fans. Every time he appeared up on the jumbotron, the entire stadium cheered. He was also very excited to be there, barking enthusiastically on the sideline for most of the game.

State Farm Stadium Is A Great Venue

During my time with Onward State, I’ve been lucky enough to shoot in four NFL stadiums, all of which have been indoors. Each has its own pros and cons, but I think State Farm Stadium is one of my favorites.

To start, I like the fact that the stadium manages to use a real grass field despite being indoors. The bowl is also structured in a way that keeps the fans close to the action and makes the stadium quite loud, as I talked about earlier. The main downside is that the stadium is far from pretty much every other part of the greater Phoenix area, making it a bit hard to get to.

Arizona In The Winter Is Awesome

I’ll talk about this more later in our road trip recap article, but getting a few days in Arizona was an amazing way to spend the end of 2024. The weather was perfect, with sunny days warming up to right around 70° and cool but comfortable evenings.

Every night we were in Arizona there was a beautiful sunset, with the sun illuminating the sky over vast rolling hills and mountains dotted with cacti. Coming from a snowy and cold Pennsylvania, it was a dream.

The Confetti Was Blue

Going into the Fiesta Bowl, the Nittany Lions had lost two back-to-back “confetti games”: the 2023 Peach Bowl and the 2024 Big Ten Championship. I’ve been shooting Penn State football for a few years now, so in my senior season it was a treat to get to photograph some blue confetti instead of red or green.

This won’t be the last time this season the Nittany Lions will play to make the confetti blue. Their next chance will come on January 9 when they will face the winner of Georgia vs. Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl.