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Ever since Jared Zabransky moved back to Boise, Idaho, last year to start a real estate business, he has found that more than a decade of time has done little to diminish his celebrity there. And he’s perfectly fine with it.

“People typically start with, ‘Man, I’m sure you get tired of talking about this, but … ’ ” Zabransky said with a laugh. “The thing is, I never do. I don’t think you can get tired of something so great.”

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Generally speaking, “something so great” refers to Zabransky’s 33-5 run over three seasons as Boise State’s starting quarterback. More specifically, though, is the final game of that run — the one still considered one of the greatest college football games of all time.

Not only was Boise State’s 43-42 overtime victory against Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Day 2007 a wildly entertaining game, but it also firmly established the Broncos as a legitimate college football force. Since that night, Boise State is 121-25 — including two more Fiesta Bowl wins — and has won at least 10 games in nine of 11 seasons.

Though college football’s championship format has changed since 2007 and no team outside the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12 or SEC has made the Playoff, Group of 5 teams have followed Boise State’s lead and regularly beaten Power 5 competition in the postseason. After its Peach Bowl win against Auburn last season, UCF felt emboldened enough to declare itself the national champion.

“That game was the pinnacle of what we had been trying to get to,” Zabransky said of the 2007 Fiesta Bowl. “We’d finally beaten a blue blood on a big stage.”

The way in which Boise State beat the Sooners made it especially memorable. The Broncos jumped out to a 28-10 lead early in the third quarter, but Oklahoma gradually fought back, eventually taking a 35-28 lead on an interception-return touchdown with 1:02 left in the fourth quarter.

With 18 seconds to go, Zabransky dropped back to pass and hit Drisan James across the middle. James flipped the ball back to Jerard Rabb on a hook-and-lateral, and Rabb went the remaining 39 yards to score and force overtime.

On the first play of overtime, Oklahoma and future NFL superstar Adrian Peterson rushed for an easy 25-yard touchdown to put the Sooners back on top. That score made it clear that Oklahoma’s talent and depth advantages were coming into play as Boise State’s defenders began to wear down.

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“I remember Adrian scoring distinctly, and I remember looking at a couple of our linebackers walking off the field hanging their heads a little bit, and I could just tell they were dog tired,” Zabransky said. “Our whole defense was tired. The coaches knew that. They were rotating guys, staying fresh, and that makes it tough. It didn’t matter how good of condition we were in.

“I knew that we needed to make something happen on that next possession.”

On fourth-and-2 at the 6-yard line, Boise State direct-snapped the ball to receiver Vinny Perretta, who tossed it over the Oklahoma defenders’ heads to Derek Schouman for the tying touchdown.

“We hadn’t talked about going for two until we scored,” Zabransky said. “But knowing the play we had in our back pocket, it was a no-brainer.”

Zabransky faked a pass to his right and handed the ball to running back Ian Johnson behind his back. Johnson breezed into the end zone on the Statue of Liberty play, threw the football into the stands and the Boise State faithful went wild celebrating their historic victory.

Zabransky finished the game completing 65.5 percent of his passes for 262 yards and three touchdowns and was named the Fiesta Bowl’s Offensive MVP.

Less than two weeks later, Zabransky was in Honolulu preparing for the Hula Bowl — a former college all-star football game — when someone there with a connection to EA Sports told him he was a finalist for landing on the cover of the next NCAA Football video game.

“Yeah, right,” Zabransky responded.

A few days later, still in Hawaii, Zabransky received a phone call informing him that he had been selected for the NCAA Football 2008 cover. A few months later, he was in New York for an EA Sports event.

“I used to play that game all the time,” Zabransky said. “That was so cool. I brought six of my childhood friends to the launch party with me.

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“It’s unfortunate they don’t have that game anymore.”

The video game cover is another thing people in Boise sometimes bring up when they approach Zabransky.

After finishing up his professional career in 2011, Zabransky entered the business world. He’s traveled to 25 countries for work and lived in Houston for a few years recently, but he hasn’t found a place he loves more than the Northwest — he was born in raised in Oregon — and specifically, Boise.

The capital city of Idaho, Boise has grown rapidly in recent years. This month, Forbes magazine ranked Boise as the fastest-growing city in the United States. According to Forbes, Boise’s 3.08-percent growth in population was the highest among major U.S. metropolitan areas.

So this was naturally a good time for Zabransky to not only return to Boise, but also get into the real estate business. Along with his cousin, he opened Zabransky & Clark Real Estate, and the company will celebrate its one-year anniversary next month.

“My cousin asked me if I had given much thought to getting back to Boise,” Zabransky said. “My response was, ‘Yeah, I think about it every day.’ ”

The worst part of the move, he said, has been leaving his children — 6-year-old daughter Savannah and 5-year-old son Rowan — in Houston with his ex-wife. That aspect is something he’s still getting used to, but he has used his time back in Boise to become re-ingrained in the Broncos’ football program.

Zabransky’s company is a sponsor for the team, and he is involved in a still-developing program designed to reconnect football alumni to the program. That first Fiesta Bowl win — now more than 10 years in the past — did a lot to advance the university, but there remains work to do. Boise State has only been an FBS program since 1996.

“We need our media market to get a little bit larger, and I think that’s gonna happen with growth,” Zabransky said. “A lot of this comes down to dollar bills. I want to see this program get to the next step and get into a Power 5 conference. I think we’re close.

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“I really consider myself to have two legacies: my children and Boise State University and the program.”

The most outsized part of the latter legacy — at least to the average college football fan — is the victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl.

And Zabransky is good with that.

“Everyone is defined by certain moments and certain memories in life, right?” Zabransky said. “That doesn’t bother me. I’m about as blessed as I can be for a simple farm kid who had some talent and got an opportunity.”

(Top photo: Steve Conner / Boise State University via Getty Images)

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