Idaho will try to carry momentum of consecutive wins into matchup with No. 11 UC Davis
MOSCOW, Idaho – Having gone through its own purgatory of a four-game losing streak, Idaho finds itself entertaining the 11th-ranked UC Davis Saturday bolstered by the momentum of a two-game win streak.
The Aggies (6-2, 4-1 Big Sky) are wounded and eager to rally from an unexpected 38-36 defeat to Idaho State (3-6, 2-3).
The Vandals (4-5, 2-3) rose as high as eighth in Football Championship Subdivision polls before dropping consecutive games to San Jose State, Montana, Northern Colorado and Eastern Washington then stiffening to beat 19th-ranked Northern Arizona 35-32 in overtime on Halloween. The Aggies were sixth before falling to the Bengals.
It is the lot of ranked teams to prove their stumbles are aberrations not predictive.
Idaho coach Thomas Ford Jr. said Monday the Vandals’ 49-33 homecoming loss last month to then 1-4 Northern Colorado was a shock Idaho needed to get its season back on the rails.
“At the beginning of the season, we were ranked high,” Ford said. “We were getting lots of praise. We were doing well (with close losses to Football Bowl Subdivision Washington State and San Jose State), but we were still losing. We got punched in the mouth by Northern Colorado. That really hurt our confidence.
“It really helped our focus. It really helped our young players not think so much outside of the now.”
After reaching the quarterfinals of the FCS playoffs the past two seasons “we had high expectations. But we were also a very young team,” Ford said. “Maybe our expectations didn’t match our experience. But you see us getting experience now.”
Getting two crucial offensive stars back to full strength didn’t hurt.
Quarterback Joshua Wood played the second half against Montana with a sprained knee and missed the next two games before returning for Idaho’s 45-6 win against Portland State.
For the season, Wood has passed for 1,366 yards and 12 touchdowns, and he has rushed for 396 yards and six more touchdowns. Tailback Eli Cummings played through lingering injuries in Idaho’s first six games before rushing for 171 yards against PSU and NAU with two touchdowns and catching nine passes for 178 yards and two more scores.
“As a defense, you have got to know where he is,” Ford said of the rejuvenated Cummings.
Renewed confidence also extended to sophomore kicker Owen Adams. With the Vandals trailing 29-26 against the Lumberjacks with five seconds remaining, Adams hammered a 42-yard field goal to tie the score and send the game to the overtime Idaho won. Adams was stalking the sideline before his kick, according to Ford.
“He said ‘Coach, I’m going to hit that thing. I’m going to boom that thing,’ ” Ford revealed.
After surrendering their late lead before forcing overtime and getting the win against NAU, “maybe we didn’t play our best,” Ford acknowledged. “But we stuck together. We never had any doubts.”
In five meetings against UC Davis, the Vandals are still looking for their first win. They came close last year, falling 28-26.
Nonetheless, on Saturday in the Kibbie Dome, Idaho will be riding the momentum, while UC Davis will shoulder the burden of showing that despite a recent setback it is as good as advertised.