A seven-point deficit at halftime was all Idaho had to overcome to earn 19 seniors their last win inside the Kibbie Dome. But freshman quarterback Matt Linehan had three interceptions in the third quarter — all to Troy safety Montres Kitchens, one of which was returned for a touchdown.
The Kitchens pick-six was the only touchdown scored by both schools in the second half — but that’s all Troy needed. The Trojans added a field goal for good measure, and handed Idaho a 34-17 Senior Day loss.
“We just played bad,” Idaho coach Paul Petrino said. “Put it all on me — I’m the head coach. I thought it was a really disturbing day. I thought the defense was terrible in the first half and the offense was terrible in the second half. So, that’s all on me, it’s my job.”
Linehan finished the game 14-of-36 for 269 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions. Petrino said one of the interceptions wasn’t Linehan’s fault because the receiver stopped his route too early.
Sophomore quarterback Chad Chalich was still nursing the hip injury he suffered in the San Diego State game. Petrino said he asked Chalich all week to let him know if he could or couldn’t play. During pre-game warm-ups, Chalich still had a noticeable limp.
Troy found success in the run game and finished with 322 yards as a team. Sophomore running back Jordan Chunn picked up most of those yards, as he rushed for 194 yards and one touchdown against the Vandal defense.
Petrino said during the week, he felt like Idaho could have success running the ball against Troy — who came into the game ranked near the bottom of the country in run defense.
The Trojans didn’t do anything special on defense to stop the run. Petrino said they mostly ran cover-two.
“It wasn’t rocket science, we just didn’t execute very well,” said Petrino of the running game. “We really thought we’d run the ball better against them.”
Jerrel Brown was the Vandals leading rusher with 77 yards and one touchdown on 12 carries.
Petrino said the performance against Troy reminded him of last year’s team.
“I don’t think we’ve played like that all year,” he said. “We’ve came so far in this program and we’ve played so much better — and today we took a big step back.”
Korbin McDonald can be reached at [email protected]
Doug Wood
One of "witch". Dear me.