Huckleberries Online

Idaho 43, Bowling Green 42

Posted by DFO

Dec. 30, 2009 5:38 p.m. • 44 comments

APhotographer Matt Cilley captured several scenes of Idaho’s dramatic 43-42 victory over Bowling Green in the Humanitarian Bowl earlier today in Boise. Click the arrow on the rights side above to see the slide show. Then, hold your cursor over the photo to read the cutlines.

Max Komar made a sliding 16-yard touchdown catch with 4 seconds left and Nathan Enderle passed to Preston Davis for the 2-point conversion, lifting Idaho to a dramatic 43-42 victory over Bowling Green in Wednesday night’s Humanitarian Bowl. ESPN game story and boxscore.

Josh Wrights Sportslink story and notebook here.
Idaho Statesman Humanitarian Bowl photo gallery here.

44 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

JIMMYMAC on December 30 at 5:17 p.m.
Holly Crap!!! Unfreakingbeliievable!!!!!!!

Just got done watching in my office. I peed my pants.

Hollaaaaaaaaaaaaa Vandal Nation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BrandonHansen on December 30 at 5:18 p.m.
Hey as a joke can you run all the “Fire Rob Akey” comments that were left on Sportslink? Those seem quiet comical right now.

Brandon Hansen
Just South of North
http://justson.blogspot.com
Don_Sausser on December 30 at 5:19 p.m.
What a last 10 minutes!!!
idawa on December 30 at 5:19 p.m.
Balls
lew2nl on December 30 at 5:21 p.m.
My heart is still pounding. Yeah Vandals!
Cindy_H on December 30 at 5:23 p.m.
In an AMAZING coincidence I just HAPPENED to be at the gym for the last half hour of the game. (No ESPN at home).
Now that’s what I call football!
I think all the extra jumping around and screaming I did burned up more calories than my time on the treadmill :-)
BrandonHansen on December 30 at 5:26 p.m.
Ron Akey once fought Chuck Norris and Jack Bauer in the street and won.
DFO on December 30 at 5:26 p.m.
66 yards in 32 seconds — for the record. I can’t remember when I’ve enjoyed a college football game as much. Bowling Green’s mistake was letting Freddie Barnes score with so much time left on the clock. Wow! Just wow!
Cindy_H on December 30 at 5:27 p.m.
LOL Brandon. I believe it :-)
chatterbox on December 30 at 5:28 p.m.
Yay Vandals! Take that Dennis!
DFO on December 30 at 5:38 p.m.
For those keeping score at home, Boise State beat Oklahoma 43-42 in overtime in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl by going for a two-point conversion.
JohnA on December 30 at 5:43 p.m.
Gutsy call by Akey. All but lost and then a great win.

I’m afraid if they had lost this one, after leading in the second half, it would have been an Akey-breaky heart.

Go Vandals!
hmoffsuite on December 30 at 5:46 p.m.
I am so proud of Akey. He has done a fantastic job building the program. And, this win on national tv won’t hurt the program either. Happy for the fans, players and everybody associated with Vandal football. I watched the entire game and am proud of them.
fortboise on December 30 at 5:47 p.m.
Wow. I remembered the 2-pt. for the win in the Fiesta Bowl, but I didn’t remember the score.

Astounding day for the Vandals. Great game.

(And I stayed away from HBO and its RSS feed spoilers until I’d seen the end.)
Cindy_H on December 30 at 5:52 p.m.
@fortboise: Good! I was worried about that.
DFO on December 30 at 6:09 p.m.
Also, for those keeping score at home, Idaho last beat Boise State — in 1998 — 36-35 in overtime when Joel Thomas scored on a two-point conversion at Bronco Stadium. If you remember that play, you are a true Vandal fan.
mia on December 30 at 6:09 p.m.
Watched the game at Capone’s Cd’A, what a great game! @Brandon, Nice! @ John A, you never disappoint :)

Go Vandals! Go Idaho!
Sam on December 30 at 6:14 p.m.
That … was … AMAZING! I’m the only Vandal on the news side at my office (our advertising director was wearing his Vandals T-Shirt under his biz clothes today ,which inspired me to go home and put mine on, too, hahaha!) but we had a pretty good crowd for the last 1:40 of the game.

I was pretty fired up when Barnes caught that third pass, even going so far to post on Facebook that it was over and at least there was a next year. I’ll admit it publicly. It was a moment of passionate frustration. My office was laughing at how worked up I was.

And then they all gasped and cheered when Enderle threw his hail mary pass! AMAZING!

Going into the two-point conversion I was totally fine and at peace and told everyone that even if we didn’t get it I was absolutely happy with how the game went.

I do hope next year we can work on our D. I’m glad we’ll have more seniors out there next year as opposed to just two starters this year. We need more maturity. We need to be able to defend the Fred Barneses of the Division I!

BUT AWESOME! I-D-A-H-O IDAHO IDAHO GO GO GO!
jreighley on December 30 at 6:29 p.m.
I have been telling the Joel Thomas story all day, actually.
JohnA on December 30 at 6:32 p.m.
There will be no keeping Akey after this season. He’ll be like the other successful ones before him and take the big money somewhere else. I mean, why stay in Moscow when living anywhere else is an upgrade?

Although that will be a shame, I’ll always remember the great job he did to restore some prestige to a program badly in need of it. Thanks, Rob, and good luck.
Ashley on December 30 at 6:33 p.m.
I’m not usually much of a football fan, but today I crossed the line into full-fledged fan :-) Those boys sure do know how to keep someone or the whole nation on the edge of their seats.

I’ve never been so proud to be a Vandal :-)
Sam on December 30 at 6:47 p.m.
OMFG - John, you’re making me sad right now. Come on, it hasn’t even been HOURS since we won. Seriously, dude. Let’s bask in the glory first, a bit, please. Please!?
jazzyvandal on December 30 at 7:07 p.m.
What a game. I went to a lot of games with this group of friends while I was a student at UI. We were there during the Cable, Holt, and the first year of Akey. We are spread out now, and we were calling and texting each other during the game. The win means a lot to the hardcore Vandal fans. I remember when the Vandals won the H-Bowl in 98.

I’ll never forget how terrible the Vandals were under Tom Cable. I saw those games in the dome and at Martin Stadium. He was such a terrible coach and demoralized Vandal Nation. Erickson and Holt weren’t any better. They brought in criminals and ruined the morale of the team. I didn’t know what to expect when Akey was hired.

The 98 season seems so long ago and it is nice to win again. And the basketball team is pretty good too. It’s great to be a Vandal. Idaho not only has pretty decent head coaches, but also the right president to lead the university.

Idaho has the right head coach in there. The team has stability, which it hasn’t had for a very long time. I hope the boosters can step up and have him stick around.

Plus, you can’t beat this kind of exposure. An exciting game on ESPN will help bring in more students and better recruits.

Congrats to the Vandal players, coaches, alumni, and hardcore fans.
Sam on December 30 at 7:20 p.m.
That was the first thing my dad and I talked about, Jazzy - this will definitely help recruiting! And I hope Akey will continue his tradition of bringing in guys that aren’t going to be out there kicking down fraternity doors, hitting women, stealing from others, getting DUIs, etc. etc. Those are all things I covered as a young journalist at UI during the Cable, Holt and Erickson years.

We need to get away from that. Idaho is better than that and I’m so pleased we’ve got a team doing well that will try to be respectful on and off the field.
MusicalChair on December 30 at 7:40 p.m.
What an unbelievable game. I was on the edge of my seat (er, barstool at Ft. Ground) the whole time. I thought for sure it was over after BG got that last touchdown. Decided to go to the restroom before heading home—and missed a Vandal TD! Wow! And then the all-or-nothing final seconds. What a great day and season finish for Vandal Nation. Congratulations! GOooooooooooooooo IDAHO!!!!!!
Cindy_H on December 30 at 7:44 p.m.
@MusicalChair: Never, ever go the restroom with less than a minute to go in a game.
keithincda on December 30 at 8:07 p.m.
Holey cow, what a game….

Akey to Montana next? National championship for the Griz with him at the helm?
JohnA on December 30 at 8:12 p.m.
Sorry, Sam. It’s a natural reaction for a long-suffering Idaho alum (‘79) to expect the worst result from such a great day. :)

Of course, I hope Akey will stay. He’s done more in one year to restore Vandal pride than anyone in the prior ten years. With their new facilities and fired-up alumni, I would hope he’d do a Chris Peterson and stick around to build a nationally-known program at Moscow.

After that, we might expect to hear “And, now, the next govenor of the great state of Idaho…”
JohnA on December 30 at 8:14 p.m.
Govenor = governor. Duh, only Marnie would say “Guv-nah”.
JohnA on December 30 at 8:18 p.m.
Speaking of the ‘smurf turf’ (we were weren’t we?) was I the only one thinking about the irony of the Vandals playing Bowling Green while on the Humanitarian Bowl-ing Blue?
IdahoDad on December 30 at 8:38 p.m.
John, don’t be surprised to hear about a HUGE contract extension for Robb Akey in the next few weeks. From what I hear, the alumni are stepping up big time to keep these coaches happy.

You just can’t get this kind of marketing for the University through any other venue.

My story of today’s game… Started off watching at Paddy’s, which is under new Vandal ownership BTW, then left to watch the second half at the Kroc Center. There was a group of about 20 of us in the Kroc Lounge watching on the big screen. When BGSU scored their final touchdown, pretty much everybody got up and left. One guy was mumbling, “I knew the Vandals would blow it.”

I was thinking, “There’s still 30 seconds left, am I the only optimist around here?”

And sure enough, that was the most exciting 30 seconds of football I can remember in awhile.

I almost jumped into the cove pool fully clothed!
JohnA on December 30 at 9:13 p.m.
Great story, I.D. I watched with Deena while our new Great Dane puppy was trying to nap. Needless to say, I woke him up when the Vandals scored and kept him awake while they set up for the two-point conversion.

Imagine two Idaho teams winning bowl games with the identical score on the last play by going for two-point conversions.
jazzyvandal on December 30 at 9:38 p.m.
I was on the phone with one of my college buddies during the last drive. I screamed and jumped around the house when Komar got that TD.

I probably scared the neighbors!

The exposure is great. You can’t beat this kind of marketing for the University of Idaho.
JIMMYMAC on December 30 at 10:21 p.m.
It was the right call, win or lose. BG and UI defenses are swiss cheese. Offense was going to win the game so why take the chance of having to put your defense on the field? Major NCAA football message boards are abuzz on Akey right now. His voice is very badass.
spokelooneh on December 30 at 11:17 p.m.
I LOVE games that are won in the final seconds by a two point conversion. It’s the ultimate!

Sorry I missed this game, good friend was in a bad car crash and in the hospital so of course I went to go see him. He’s pretty banged up and needs surgery on his eye socket but is gonna be OK.
Bent on December 30 at 11:55 p.m.
Crap!!! I had to leave at 7-7 in the first quarter…
JBelle on December 31 at 10:00 a.m.
You know what makes women bored with sprots and tune out? When the men start predicting what’s going to happen next. It’s as if to own a piece of the victory, or maybe their own special piece, they must foresee the next chapter unfolding in a team’s destiny. I’m warning you all: can the Rob Akey talk. Don’t want to hear it. We’re all Vandal alums and some of us are third and fourth generation alums. Let it rest and let it be. It’s great to be home now and especially since everyone else is here, too. Let’s just have this time together. Flap your banner of silver and gold in the New Years’ wind and never, ever stop believing…
Sam on December 31 at 10:57 a.m.
Thank you, Jbelle! From a third-generation alum as well I’m totally in agreement!
idawa on December 31 at 11:38 a.m.
her highness has spoken, I suppose …
Charles_Dixon on December 31 at 12:16 p.m.
I still don’t have my voice back yet from cheering so much at that game. Incredible to witness it. Have to admit that I wasn’t too sure about going for 2, but it was obviously the right thing to do and made it an extremely memorable finish. And it was heartening to experience it with over 20,000 other Vandal fans.

After 10 years of misery as a Vandal fan it feels so good to see this kind of light at the end of that tunnel. We now need the administration at UI to wake up and understand that a strong sports program helps the university all around. And it’s not that athletics need to come first, but for too long athletics have come last there. The program had been ignored for decades. We need leadership to ensure that this success is capitalized upon and maintained.
hhuseland on December 31 at 1:24 p.m.
Two amusing asides from this morning. The first was the Banner Headline that reminded me of “WORLD WAR 11 ENDS” in 1945.The other was the diminutive Cop probably 98 pounds soaking wet, holding back the Idaho players, just behind Coach Akey in this mornings S/R
jazzyvandal on December 31 at 1:31 p.m.
Amen JBelle!

I’m still basking in the victory. It means so much to the UI Alumni!

Go Vandals!!!
JBelle on December 31 at 4:50 p.m.
shut it, Idawa. Get back to me when you’re me and cast a real shadow.
Cindy_H on December 31 at 5:42 p.m.
Can I just say that I have unbiased, objective witnesses who heard me scream, “For God’s sakes Akey, don’t be a weenie! Go for two!”
And. Well. The rest is history.

« Back to Huckleberries Online

You must be logged in to post comments.
Please create a profile or log in here.

About this blog

D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.