Boise State ultimately defeated Fresno State during the college football game on Saturday. It appeared as though a man in the crowd was trying to blind the Bulldogs’ kicker with some kind of laser pointer.
It also could’ve been a flashlight or the light on the back of a cellphone…
Fortunately, this specific controversy did not have a direct impact on the college football game. Unfortunately, there are a lot of questions that remain unanswered.
Boise State defeated Fresno State.
Two 5-1 teams met on the gridiron in central California on Saturday. There was a spot in the College Football Playoff on the line. Boise State and Fresno State had legitimate hopes to make the field of 12 as the new Pac-12 Conference champion. Only one lives.
The Broncos took a 25-20 lead into halftime and went on to win 38-31. The score was much closer than reality.
Boise State totaled more than 500 yards of offense (238 passing, 274 rushing) with 29 first downs (4-for-4 on fourth down) and held the ball for 17 minutes more than its opponent. Nine penalties for 83 yards allowed the Bulldogs to stay in the game but Fresno State could not capitalize on the mistakes and never took back the lead after the first three minutes and 50 seconds.
As I said up top, this was an important result for the College Football Playoff picture. However, the most interesting storyline from the seven-point game had nothing to do with the final score. It had to do with a fairly unimportant field goal in the second quarter.
Was a fan using a laser pointer or a flashlight to blind the kicker?
Down 22-13, Fresno State got the ball back on offense with just over three minutes and 30 seconds remaining in the second quarter. The Bulldogs went 59 yards on nine plays to score a touchdown with just under one minute left in the half.
True sophomore kicker Manaki Watanabe trotted out to attempt the extra point. As he lined up to kick, a light shined in his face. A man who was standing behind the end zone pointed some kind of light at him during the PAT. This is how it looked on the broadcast:
Yeah let’s get this Boise state fan banned. Wtf pic.twitter.com/U2WOFg8ton
— Ethan Schultz (@ETschu_wsu) October 11, 2026
There are a few different things to discuss.
First and foremost, what was the man it actually appears as though the man behind the end zone was wearing a Fresno State shirt. Why would he want to distract his own kicker?
Lets also try to figure out what he was holding. One theory suggests that it was an unaware Bulldogs fan who wanted to film the extra point on his cameraphone and did not know his flash was on.
The other theory is far more problematic. Was it an attempt to blind the kicker?
If you watch the above video closely at the 15-second mark, you will notice how the fan is holding the unknown object with the light. He does not appear to be holding a phone in a way that you would record. If you watch the above video again, you will notice how the light briefly goes off at the 10-second mark. That would not be true if it was a cellphone light.
Plus, the light appears to flash on the television broadcast— almost like a strobe. If that is how it looked to the naked eye, there is an obvious issue there. A strobe light is intentional.
However, this could be an illusion. The light might actually be consistent in real like but it might look like a strobe on the broadcast because of the TV camera refresh rate, and because the video posted to social media was filmed on a phone of the TV.
All of this goes to say that nobody knows the truth. It could be a laser pointer or it could be a cellphone light. If it is the former, the man should not be allowed back in the stadium. I have my questions…
What do you think? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below!