Idaho football showed flashes of brilliance, couldn’t sustain it this season
It’s been a theme of “which Idaho team will show up in a given quarter” for the 2014 football season.
The Vandals show flashes of what the program could be at times only for inconsistency to doom the team in the end.
Stephan Wiebe
Two of Idaho’s losses this season were games the team was picked to win. The Vegas line predicted the Vandals to beat Western Michigan in the home opener and predicted a win against Troy Saturday during Senior Day. Both losses were by double digits.
Then, on the other side, Idaho has put up a fight with some of the Sun Belt’s heavy hitters. The Vandals led Arkansas State late in the game Nov. 1, stuck with the Mountain West’s San Diego State for much of the game Nov. 8 and lost by one score to Louisiana-Monroe and Texas State earlier in the season. It’s hard to tell which Idaho team is going to show up on any given quarter or any given game.
If Idaho put together its best quarters from several different games, the Vandals would easily have three or four wins at this point in the season — especially looking at the second halves of several games. In the second halves of games, Idaho has outscored its opponents on three occasions. On eight other occasions, the Vandals have led, been tied or been behind by one score in a half.
Early in the season, Idaho’s running game struggled while the passing game looked spectacular, while lately the passing game has struggled and the running game has improved. Several games this season, Idaho coach Paul Petrino said the offense was on-point only to falter later on when the defense finally got its act together.
The up-and-down play can also be examined on an individual player level. To begin the season, quarterback Matt Linehan looked like a freshman sensation with three consecutive games of 300 or more passing yards. In his last three games, his most remarkable stat has been his six interceptions.
Senior wide receiver Josh McCain has been a staple on offense with six 100-plus yard receiving games, 1,115 receiving yards and nine receiving touchdowns. He leads the Sun Belt in every major statistical receiving category. Then there was the receiver who stopped on his route in Idaho’s loss to Troy resulting in an interception returned for a touchdown by Trojan safety Montres Kitchens.
The mantras “defense wins championships” or “you have to score to win” are nice, but Idaho needs to start with consistency to find success. Most of the other pieces are already there.
Stephan Wiebe can be reached at [email protected]