Idaho and the Miami Hurricanes are in an exclusive club — the scored touchdowns on Florida State in November club.
Both were able to hit paydirt twice on the staunch Florida State defense. Both were also systematically dominated by the Seminoles in games that were hardly ever in doubt.
The only difference is that with Idaho the outcome of the game was more or less known before kickoff, with what played out on the field not varying from expectation.
Florida State cruised on Saturday evening to a 80-14 victory.
Senior Taylor Davis was Idaho’s starting quarterback. Josh McCain saw time coming in to open up the playbook for quarterback runs and Chad Chalich didn’t see the field at all. It’s unclear whether or not Chalich will be healthy enough to play next week in Idaho’s season finale.
Realistically, Idaho had little chance on Saturday going into the home of the No. 2 ranked team in the country. Florida State paid Idaho $950,000 to come to Tallahassee in late November, in what is intended to be a close-to guaranteed win to strengthen its position in the BCS.
It just so happens that that’s what this game does for the Seminoles, who are now two more wins away from a spot in the BCS National Championship game.
For Idaho coach Paul Petrino it seemed hard for him to find what his program could get out of a game like this, especially after he called it like it was four weeks ago when his team lost another “guarantee” game at Ole Miss. When asked what his team got out of the trip to Mississippi, Petrino responded “money.”
At Florida State, it might have been those few special moments. For three Idaho freshmen this game meant a trip to their home states. For Richard Montgomery, that meant a touchdown in front of family and friends.
In the second quarter Montgomery took a dump-off pass from Taylor Davis, made a move up the sideline and slid into the endzone for a 15-yard score.
Montgomery, a Jacksonville, Fla. native, was playing in front of family and friends including his Atlantic Coast high school coach Kevin Sullivan.
Offensively, Idaho gained more than either of the two ACC opponents Florida State faced the last two weeks with its 345 yards of offense and 14 points.
The positives might have ended there. Idaho threw four interceptions and gave up the most amount of points as it ever has as an FBS program with the 80 conceded points.
Idaho fell behind 35-0 with Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston’s mastery of the football field. Through the better part of three quarters he put up 225 passing yards and four touchdowns before being sat for back-up Sean Maguire mid-way through the second half.
Junior receiver Dezmon Epps had another exceptional day for Idaho with 126 yards receiving on seven catches.
The Vandals fell to 1-10 on the season but have one of their most winnable games of the season on the schedule next week with a date against New Mexico State. The Aggies are also 1-10 with their only victory a come-from-behind win over Abeline Christian, which is in the process of transitioning to FCS from Division II.