Bye won’t be vacation

RENO, Nev. – A bye week probably never looked so good.

The Idaho Vandals have a week off to heal and try to relocate the decent brand of football they’ve displayed in roughly three of six games this season. It was absent Saturday as Nevada crushed the Vandals 62-14 at Mackay Stadium.

Problem is, big bad Fresno State will be waiting for the Vandals on Oct. 22 in the Kibbie Dome.

“It’s too bad we didn’t play better,” head coach Nick Holt said. “We have a lot of work to do, so maybe we might end up practicing every day next week, because we sure the heck weren’t a very good team today. I thought we were getting better, but we definitely weren’t better today. We regressed.”

Coaches typically give players a few days off from practice during a bye week.

“Like Coach said, it was just a bad day,” said quarterback Steve Wichman, who was 25 of 49 for 275 yards. His two touchdown passes came in the final minute of each half.

Idaho should be healthier when it emerges from the bye week. Running back Antwaun Sherman (ankle) and guard Jade Tadvick (appendectomy) should be available against Fresno State. Offensive tackle Billy Bates will have some time to rest his bruised shin. He didn’t make the trip to Reno.

Defensive tackle Jeff Edwards (concussion) was the only new entry to the injury list.

No help for Snyder

“Tackle by Snyder.”

Those three words were heard often over Nevada’s P.A. system as Vandals senior linebacker Cole Snyder collected 11 tackles. His average tackles per game actually went down because he entered Saturday’s contest second in the WAC and eighth nationally at 12.6 per game.

Snyder made a couple of shoe-string tackles, one on a punt return that probably kept Nevada from tacking up more points.

While Snyder seemed to be involved in every tackle, he didn’t always have a lot of company. Nevada running backs B.J. Mitchell and Robert Hubbard often found huge holes in the middle of Idaho’s defense, despite a couple of changes on the offensive line.

Charles Manu moved in at guard to replace Dominic Green, who slid over from guard to center. Two Wolf Pack centers were injured a week ago.

“We had a good game plan (with a) lot of pressures we were going to run,” Snyder said. “They did a great job of picking them up.”

Notes

Michael Barrow‘s first punt was a low liner that Kevin Stanley returned 27 yards, but he was steady after that. Barrow averaged 44.5 yards per punt and pinned Nevada inside the 20 four times. … Nevada, which came into the game with only seven sacks, dropped Wichman three times and forced numerous hurried throws. Idaho was ineffective running the ball, with just 61 yards on 23 attempts. … The Vandals have had difficulty converting on third and fourth downs, a trend that continued Saturday. Trailing 7-0, Idaho went for it on fourth-and-1 at Nevada’s 49, but Rolly Lumbala was stuffed for no gain. Idaho was just 4 of 15 on third downs. … Desmond Belton saw his first action at safety. The former wide receiver had one tackle and broke up two passes.