Boise State moved up to Div I-A in 1996 under Pokey Allen, who died at the end of that year of cancer.

Houston Nutt made the step up to NCAA Division I-A the next year when Boise State University hired him to take over their program, which was the lowest ranked of 112 Division I-A schools and had posted a 2–10 record the year before. Two years after making the Division I-AA finals in 1994, the Broncos had an interim head coach in 1996 as head coach Pokey Allen battled cancer. Boise State's first year in Division I-A had been difficult and was looking for a recruiter and motivator to jump start their program following Allen's death in late December, 1996.

Nutt's team posted a 5–6 record in 1997, playing at the Division I-A level with its Division I-AA players. Nutt's team beat rival Idaho on the road in overtime for the first Boise win in Moscow since 1981. Additionally, Boise State almost pulled off an upset against Wisconsin of the Big Ten.

We can use this time as a baseline for comparisons with Houston Nutt equating to Rice University Head Football Coach Todd Graham, and Pokey Allen's last season of 2-10 at Boise State in 1996 equating to Rice University head Football Coach Ken Hatfield.

1997 5-6 (3-2 Big West 3rd) no bowl
Dirk Koetter took over for Nutt who went to coach Arkansas after his one season (sounds familiar).
1998 6-5 (2-3 Big West 4th) no bowl
1999 10-3 (5-1 Big West 1st) W Humanitarian Bowl
2000 10-2 (5-0 Big West 1st) W Humanitarian Bowl
Dan Hawkins took over for Koetter who went to coach AZ State of all places after his 3 seasons at Boise State.
2001 8-4 (6-2 WAC 2nd) no bowl
2002 12-1 (8-0 WAC 1st) W Humanitarian Bowl #15AP
2003 13-1 (8-0 WAC 1st) W Ft. Worth Bowl #16AP
2004 11-1 (8-0 WAC 1st) L Liberty Bowl #12AP
2005 9-4 (7-1 WAC tie-1st) L MPC Computers Bowl

Chris Petersen took over for Hawkins who went to coach Colorado after his 5 seasons at Boise State.

Record over first 9 seasons of Boise State's rise from 2 loss team and the worst team in all of Div I-A: 84-27 .756

Taking away the equivalent of The Toad's first season, which for Boise State would be their 1997 season under Houston Nutt
leaves an 8 year record (equivalent to DBD's tenure) of: 79-21 .790

Now let's see how Boise State did in what would be equivalent of the ninth season (Chris Petersen's first season):
they went undefeated:
2006 13-0 (8-0 WAC 1st) W Fiesta Bowl* #5AP

Leaving a record after that of: 92-21 .814

DBD's 8 year record at Rice is: 48-53 .475

For fun, let's say DBD goes 11-1 this upcoming season:
After 9 years that would be: 59-54 .522

* This was the Ultimate Signature Win: then #9 ranked Boise State beat an 11-1 and #8 Big 12 champion Oklahoma by a score of 43-42 that was seen by a ton of college football fans on January 1, 2007.

Boise had 3 one-loss seasons in this period. They only had 1 losing season of 5-6 during that time.
They went to 6 or 7 bowls, depending on if you're comparing the upcoming 9th season under Rice University head Football Coach David Bailiff and went 4-2 in the 6 bowls or 5-2 if you count the 7th Fiesta Bowl Signature Win over Oklahoma in their 9th season scenario above.

These are the 9 seasons that Transformed Boise State from a laughingstock and worst team in Div 1 to their perception today. Mostly, their remote location way up in Boise,ID holds them back from P5 status. But they almost went to the Big East in a weird deal that might have changed things a bit from where they are now, if the Big East had not broken apart, with TCU splitting for a lifeboat in the Big12.