Looking back at Vandals’ thriller

Headlines in the Spokesman and other regional papers this morning summed up yesterday at the Kibbie Dome pretty well: It was seventh heaven indeed for the Vandals. Idaho secured its seventh win in improbable fashion, and there’s a whole lot of links and thoughts to get to.

UPDATE: The Vandals received eight points in the coaches’ poll and two votes in the AP poll released today. You can find them here.

Click below for more.

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Let’s start with a few articles from reporters that crammed into the Dome’s pressbox:

• Here’s my game story and John Blanchette’s column — a very good read as usual that discusses Nathan Enderle’s performance in detail.
  
• Here’s the Lewiston Tribune’s story and notebook.
• Here’s what the Monroe News Star had this morning.

Jonathon Smith’s comments in John’s column were fascinating, I thought. The fact he said the staff was perhaps close to pulling Nathan Enderle went against what Robb Akey emphatically told reporters after the game. Here’s what Akey said when asked if he thought about yanking the QB: “Nope. I thought about maybe about kicking some people’s tails, but I didn’t think about pulling him. He took us and down and won the game. I’m proud of the boy.”

Enderle could have had four interceptions if it weren’t for two Louisiana Tech drops. He ended up with two and did look sharp when he needed to be in the two-minute offense at the end of the fourth quarter. But unlike previous weeks, he wasn’t accurate with deep balls. His last interception, on a heave intended for Max Komar in the end zone, could have cost Idaho the game. But the defense came up big and La. Tech’s coaches made some interesting (read: questionable) play-calling decisions to keep time on the clock.

Here are some other quotes of note from last night:

• Shiloh Keo on what it means to get the seventh win: “For me, it means so much because since I’ve been here, I always told my family, ‘Hey, don’t expect to see my come Christmastime. And we’ve never been able to pull off the (feat) until now.”
• Max Komar on the scene after Nelson’s missed field goal: “I’m really exhausted. That final kick, I don’t think I’ve ever been that nervous in my life. And for some reason after he missed that kick, I just ran into the locker room. I was like what I’m doing in here by myself.
  It’s one of the better feelings I’ve ever had in my life.”
• Akey on whether he thought his club had run out of time to come back after missing a field goal and losing the ball on an interception: “No. … It was a matter of talking about what we needed to do to give ourselves opportunities. We try to keep them from ever thinking those things.”