Fien Sensational In Idaho Defeat Botched Trick Play By Vandals Sends Wyoming To 40-38 Win

How’s this for creativity?

On a crucial fourth-down play from his own 46-yard line, a tailback lined up as an upback in punt formation, steps under center and takes the ball from a defensive end-turned long snapper with the idea of falling forward and gaining the two feet needed for a first down.

Give it an A.

Now, how’s this for execution.

On the exchange, the ball hits the tailback high on his top hand, bounces loose and is recovered by a teammate near the exact spot from where it was snapped. No gain. No first down. Loss of possession.

Give it an F.

And while you’re at it, give Idaho a tough 40-38 season-opening loss to Wyoming in a non-conference football game it could have - maybe even should have - won.

Despite a school-record passing performance by transfer quarterback Ryan Fien, who threw for 542 yards and four touchdowns, Idaho failed to protect a 12-point third-quarter lead in front of a War Memorial Stadium crowd of 17,279.

And one of the biggest reasons why was the fourth-down gamble involving Vandals tailback Joel Thomas and long snapper Ryan Smith.

After Idaho’s Chad Berry recovered Thomas’ fumble short of a first down, the Cowboys marched 46 yards in just five plays to score the touchdown that put them ahead for good, 34-31, early in the fourth quarter.

Wyoming added two more field goals by Cory Wedel, who kicked six on the day to tie a school record, and went up 40-31 to render Fien’s fourth touchdown pass - a 14-yarder to Deon Price with 6 seconds left in the game - meaningless.

Afterward, Vandals coach Chris Tormey stepped up and took the blame for the botched fourth-down gamble, which came shortly after the Cowboys had cut a 12-point third quarter deficit to 31-27 on Josh Wallwork’s 15-yard touchdown pass to Heisman Trophy candidate Marcus Harris.

“We had lost the momentum a little bit, but we had gotten a couple of first downs and I just felt like we needed to take a chance to keep the drive alive and stay in the game,” he explained when asked about the logic that went into his decision.

“It was just an instinct call - a reaction - and (the play) was there if we’d have just executed the thing. But it didn’t happen and it’s my fault for making the call.

“You live and learn.”

Thomas, who had never taken a snap from center before, said the ball hit him up high on the hands and he could not control it.

“I just got the snap too far up and lost it,” he explained. “I was kind of not ready for it, but I’ll take the responsibility for it. I have to handle it, that’s my job.”

The Vandals, who came into the game as 16-point underdogs, had chances to recover from the muffed exchange, but lost the ball on downs after driving to Wyoming’s 36-yard line on their next possession and then had a promising drive that reached the Cowboys’ 35 late in the fourth quarter snuffed out by an intentional grounding call against Fien.

The call came on a screen pass and resulted in a loss of down and 10-yard penalty from the point where Fien had released the ball - which was well behind the line of scrimmage.

The penalty moved Idaho back to its own 46 and on the next play Fien fumbled and Wyoming recovered, setting up Wedel’s final field goal.

Fien, who completed 36 of 58 passes to break Ken Hobart’s singlegame record of 527 passing yards set against Southern Colorado in 1983, voiced objection to the grounding call, noting that the intended receiver, Jerome Thomas, had been held up at the line of scrimmage and was nearly hit on the foot with the pass.

“They’ve got to call a quarterback when he’s intentionally grounding it,” said Fien, who was badgered and banged around all day in the face of Wyoming’s aggressive pass rush, “but with your running back right there? He was getting tackled by one of their lineman and he was right there.

“But you can’t dwell on it. We just killed ourselves with penalties and mental mistakes.”

Wyoming did some things to help itself, too, like getting a school-record passing performance from Wallwork and a Heisman-like second-half effort from Harris.

Wallwork, a senior, completed 29 of 53 passes for 485 yards and three TDs. And Harris, after dropping a couple of early throws and being held to three first-half receptions, finished with 10 catches for 186 yards and two touchdowns.

“He’s phenomenal,” Wallwork said of Harris, a 6-foot-2, 215-pounder, who is trying to become the first wide receiver in NCAA history to gain more than 1,400 receiving yards in three consecutive seasons.

“He might drop a ball, but then he’s right back there catching those ones over guys,” Wallwork said.

Harris’ two touchdown receptions were those kinds of catches. He went over Ryan McGinnis to haul in a 15-yarder late in the third period and outjumped Tommy James on his 24-yard TD reception that put the Cowboys ahead for good early in the final quarter.

Harris’ two touchdown catches helped complete a Wyoming comeback that was necessitated by Idaho’s quick start.

The Vandals jumped to a 14-3 first-quarter lead and later held leads of 21-6 and 31-19.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Wyoming 40, Idaho 38 Idaho 14 7 10 7 - 38 Wyoming 3 10 14 13 - 40 First quarter Wyo-FG Wedel 30, 1:10 Ida-Joel Thomas 1 run (Scott kick), 3:20 Ida-Griffin 19 pass from Fien (Scott kick), 14:36 Second quarter Wyo-FG Wedel 26, 2:21 Ida-Wilson 10 pass from Fien (Scott kick), 7:59 Wyo-Peace 7 pass from Wallwork (Wedel kick), 12:51 Third quarter Ida-FG Scott 30, 3:58 Wyo-FG Wedel 42, 6:20 Wyo-FG Wedel 46, 7:36 Ida-Scott 44 pass from Fien (Scott kick), 8:52 Wyo-Harris 15 pass from Wallwork (Saraf pass from Wallwork), 12:46 Fourth quarter Wyo-Harris 24 pass from Wallwork (Wedel kick), 1:34 Wyo-FG Wedel 29, 8:12 Wyo-FG Wedel 40, 12:33 Ida-Price 14 pass from Fien (Scott kick), 14:54 A-17,279 Ida Wyo First downs 30 29 Rushes-yards 29-78 26-65 Passing 587 485 Comp-Att-Int 37-59-1 29-53-1 Return Yards 35 32 Punts-Avg. 3-43.6 4-42.7 Fumbles-Lost 5-3 0-0 Penalties-Yards 11-105 8-84 Time of Possession 33:44 26:16 Individual statistics RUSHINGIdaho, Joel Thomas 15-53, Jerome Thomas 11-36, Fien 3-(minus 11). Wyoming, Sexton 15-49, Brigham 6-15, Wallwork 4-(minus 3), Patolo 1-4. PASSINGIdaho, Fien 36-58-1-542, Scott 1-1-0-45. Wyoming, Wallwork, 29-53-1-485. RECEIVINGIdaho Wilson 7-142, Joel Thomas 3-23, Jerome Thomas 3-50, Robert Scott 12-178, Griffin 6-92, Gilroy 1-13, Gamelin 2-29. Wyoming, Saraf 6-127, Peace 4-36, Harris 10-186, Brigham 1-30, Hooker 3-36, Sexton 2-19, Montgomery 1-35, Derenoncourt 2-16.