Ben Dooley spent six years with the Boise State football program and was honored during Senior Day in November before the Broncos’ game against Oregon State.
Anthony Mori | Elko Daily Free Press
Two-and-a-half years ago, Ben Dooley’s collegiate career was put on ice.
The 2019 Fallon grad missed eight games battling a bone spur in his foot that became infected. One of the six games he saw the most action that year came on a snowy Saturday night in November at Mackay Stadium when Boise State overwhelmed the home team. Dooley, who started in all 12 games the previous season, helped carve a hole for a first-half touchdown
“Ben has seen adversity like that ankle injury that was really debilitating for him, and not just physically, but it really played with his head about starting or not starting, or whether he was ever going feel whole enough to attack that ankle and really put pressure on it, and work, and work,” said Jared Dooley, Ben’s father. “He has really come out of that now, and he feels strong, and it's been awesome to watch him kind of work through some adversity.”
And it’s not just adversity from the injury.
Dooley’s been with Boise State since 2019 and he’s seen players and coaches come and go. But he stuck it out and is reaping the rewards in his sixth and final year, picking up all-conference first-team honors as an offensive guard. Dooley and the No. 3-seeded Broncos, who won the Mountain West Conference championship over UNLV in December, will face heavily favored Penn State, the No. 6 seed, in the College Football Playoff quarterfinal in Tuesday’s Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Ariz.
“He has seen so many people come through the program, leave the program, work just as hard, never see the field,” Jared Dooley said. “At some point, not everybody gets to work hard, and then see the fruits of their labor, and that's what's really special. ‘Ben,” I go, ‘It's your last year, and you're seeing the most success that you've ever seen. All this work has come to bear on this beautiful moment in time.’”
But this wasn’t the first time Dooley faced and overcame adversity.
During his sophomore year on the Fallon wrestling team, he injured his ankle in the state tournament and settled for second as the Greenwave finished second to Spring Creek at Spanish Springs High School in 2017. The next year, though, Dooley won his first state title.
The following season, Dooley and the Greenwave football team won the state title over Truckee, and then three months later, he won his second state wrestling title.
“The ankle injury in his state championship was devastating for him and he came back the next two years on a mission,” Fallon wrestling coach Trevor deBraga said. “It’s not very often you get someone that big and that athletic in a small town like Fallon. We would travel all over the west to national-level tournaments and he was placing in the top three. It was a fun time for me because I had all these Division I college coaches drooling over him. He was 285 pounds and could move like a 165-pounder. Ben was a workhorse.”
LOYAL TO THE BLUE AND ORANGE
The landscape of college sports changed while Dooley was halfway through his career.
Name, Image and Likeness didn’t exist and the transfer portal wasn’t as crazy as it is now with hundreds of Division I football players seeking better – and wealthier – homes.
But not Dooley.
“I knew that Boise State was different even back then before NIL was a thing,” said Dooley, who wears No. 66 and is now 6-foot-5 and weighs 320 pounds. “There were programs who were trying to find ways around developing players, developing people, developing men. Now it's really just evidence of the kind of culture and place that Boise is when they put that emphasis on development.”
Outside of the program is a supportive community that packs the stadium, cheering on the Broncos from the opening kickoff to the final whistle.
“Boise State's a special place. It attracts a certain, specific type of person that is into that and does not necessarily care about all the other stuff that's going on in college football,” said Boise State offensive line coach Tim Keane. “The guys who are recruited are hungry to win championships, win at a high level, play in front of a great crowd and a great environment and live in an awesome town. We're extremely, extremely fortunate to be able to represent Boise State, the city of Boise and the state of Idaho.”
Despite his injury setting him back, Dooley wanted to play football and graduate with a degree in criminal justice from Boise State. He knew before leaving Fallon that he wanted to go into law.
“I love his commitment to Boise. And I believe that they've developed a great young man and his love for Boise State is very apparent when you talk to him,” said Chelle Dalager, Dooley’s aunt who also worked with him on strength and conditioning during his high school career. “And I just love that part of it and that was part of the thing that Jared was worried about when they were trying to pick a school because he's still an 18-year-old boy going to a university and he wasn't quite sure what that was going to look like.”
It was Boise State’s assurance of Dooley’s wellbeing and future that sold his family.
“That's all come true. He has just grown up to be just awesome,” Dalager said. “He's a totally different guy now. He's always been confident, but just seeing this Christmas break when he came home, I was like, man, he just exudes confidence. And that is part of kids being successful. They have to believe in a system and they have to have the confidence that they are, and can be successful.”
Dalager believes his work ethic and buy-in of the Boise State program has helped incoming Broncos.
“Boise has done a great job in developing that, and he really loves the tradition there,” she said. “For the younger kids coming in, he's been a great role model because of how he talks about Boise and what he's been able to go through.”
BROTHERS IN BLUE
One of the faces of Boise State and college football this year has been Ashton Jeanty.
The junior running back was runner-up to Colorado’s Travis Hunt in the closest Heisman vote since 2009 and is 131 yards shy of tying Barry Sanders for the single-season rushing record. The Broncos have the fifth-best rushing offense in the country at 250.5 yards per game, which is the best in the program’s FBS era.
The ground game starts in the trenches with Dooley and the rest of the offensive line. With injuries early in the season, Boise State was able to rebound because of the group’s unified approach.
“That's something that it seems simple, but you have to invest if you want to develop meaningful relationships, like, we, everyone in the building has to invest in it and spend time doing stuff that's not necessarily football-related,” Keane said. “That's hard because these guys do a lot, I mean, they spend a lot of time doing football activities and going to school, so, there's not a lot of free time, and coaches, we spend a lot of time trying to find teams and recruit and get these guys in the best position to be as successful as possible.”
It’s what makes this week special for Dooley and his teammates.
Unlike the last three Boise State teams to win the Fiesta Bowl, more is at stake. The winner advances to the CFP semifinal and one game closer to playing for a national title. On a personal level, too, Dooley and his team have a chance to rewrite history with Jeanty gunning for the rushing record.
“The way that we care about getting Ashton what he deserves and what we know what he deserves and needs, and getting (quarterback) Maddux (Madsen) the time and space to throw that ball, it means a lot more to me and to the O-line this year just because of how close we've gotten to each other off the field and in the locker room,” Dooley said.
Redshirt sophomore All-American left tackle Kage Casey has played alongside Dooley the last two years and knew that their team would be ready for this moment.
“All the work in the offseason with us pushing harder and harder, getting better every day, we knew something like this was ready for us,” he said. “We have trust in God. It’s the work and the brotherhood we have as a team. We’re all hanging out and going to battle for each other.”
GREENWAVE ROOTS
Dooley didn’t become part of the Greenwave family until his sophomore year after moving from Idaho where he only wrestled.
Playing for Brooke Hill’s football team as a sophomore was the first time he stepped on the field. Hill, who retired from coaching after the 2023 season, knew Dooley was going to be a hot commodity. Working out with his program, Dooley developed into one of the best linemen in the Silver State by his senior year when Fallon won the 3A state title over Truckee.
Dooley played both sides of the ball and was named the region’s Lineman of the Year while picking up all-state first-team honors during his senior year. As a junior, he was named to the region’s first team and all-state second team.
“We saw that early on, as big as he was, how well he moved for his size and things like that,” Hill recalled. “What he did in wrestling showed us a lot of that, too. But I think he picked a good school to go to that fit him well, and that's important.”
“Wrestling is the No. 1 way to turn a kid into an O-lineman or D-lineman, just to figure out how your body moves like that, how to move other people like that, your base, your foundation, your leverages,” Dooley said. “Wrestling's the No. 1 indicator that a kid's going to be a good O-lineman.”
When deBraga met Dooley the summer before his sophomore year, he was asked to join the summer wrestling program and compete in the duals at Spanish Springs. Unsure if Dooley would stay in Fallon or return to Idaho for his sophomore year, deBraga had nothing to lose.
“He came out that weekend and was beating everyone,” deBraga said. “After the weekend, I got to chat with his parents and was hopeful he would move to Fallon. He did and he was unbelievable for my team.”
While the Dooley family has traveled to most of his games this season, supporters have tuned in on TV to watch Dooley and the Broncos, made the trip to Mackay Stadium or more recently watched the Wolf Pack play in Boise two months ago.
“We have just such an outpouring from old coaches and from just people who really wanted to see Ben play football and to succeed,” Jared Dooley said. “I think it's been really special. Fallon has been a great town for Ben, for our family and for the support that he has received. It's always been fun to be everywhere with them and watch them cheer just as hard as you do. Fallon has been really, really special for our family and for Ben.”
WHAT’S NEXT
While he’s been focused on putting his team in the best position to succeed this year, Dooley’s eying the NFL.
Only two Greenwave football players have made an NFL roster. Harvey Dahl and Josh Mauga, who both played at Nevada, went undrafted but made it to the sport’s biggest stage.
Dahl, an offensive lineman like Dooley, played for the 49ers but spent most of his time with the Falcons. Mauga, a linebacker, played on third downs and special teams for the Jets, making the AFC championship more than a decade ago, before ending his career as a starter with the Chiefs.
Hill has no doubt that Dooley can take on the NFL but understands that his goal is finishing strong at Boise State.
“Knowing Ben and how team-oriented he is, I'm sure for him it's 100 percent about winning for the team and obviously supporting his running back, “ Hill said. “If those opportunities are there, which I truly believe they'll be there for him, then all the better. But, the other thing about him, he's such a good student. He's going to have tremendous opportunities outside of football, too.”
With a bachelor’s degree already in hand and law school knocking on the door, Dooley wants to leave his football career with no regrets.
“I've had people who I respect, and I think whose advice matters, tell me that I can be that kind of caliber of a player,” Dooley said about testing the NFL waters. “I think in my mind, I'm like, I want to live with no regrets. I want to give football my everything, my last shot here. I think that I'll go for it as hard as I can and train and try to make an NFL team. And if I don't, then, I have kind of a good plan B. I think being a lawyer is a good plan B. But why not give everything for football?”
His father’s excited for the future whether it’s pancaking defenses on Sundays in the NFL or winning arguments in a courtroom.
“Ben is definitely a smart kid and he's a hard-working kid,” Jared Dooley said. “But to listen to Ben, I don't know that you would ever, you know, as a father, you always talk to him about what's your backup plan? But Ben is about football right now. Ben wants to pursue this dream to go as far as he can go with it. This is new ground for me, but I have every confidence that the team that Boise has in place for Ben as it concerns NFL prospects. I know that Ben has what it takes. I know that Ben knows he has what it takes and I'm excited for the NFL future.”