Bryan Harsin and his coaching staff visited with the Boise State fire department for a firefighting crash course built to test them mentally and physically.
Harsin and his staff were equipped with all the customary firefighter gear and went into a simulated house fire where they had to put out the fire, perform a search and rescue of a "person" trapped inside the building, and then get that person out after a simulated roof collapse that forced them to change course.
"Everything that we do, when we roll up to a fire, based on that first company officer's initial report, it sets the play that we use in motion" one firefighter explained to the Boise State coaching staff before they geared up.
It looked to be an eye opening experience for the staff, and while football and firefighting may have a few similarities, Boise Fire Chief Dennis Doan helps to keep it all in perspective at the end of the clip.
"Just like football, our firefighters are training each and every day so that they can just react, and they have a slight deck of things in their mind and they know what to do. In football, if you miss a block, or you make a bad play, or you don't do your job, someone scores a touchdown and you may lose the game."
"As firefighters, if they make a mistake, if they don't sweep the building, they might not find a person. It's literally life and death at stake for them. So while there are some similarities, there are also some differences. The stakes are really, really high for the firefighters."