Vandals face another big test
The Idaho Vandals played for first place last Saturday. They are playing for second place tonight – and they may be facing a tougher challenge.
Idaho (4-4, 3-1 Western Athletic Conference) takes on point-happy Hawaii (5-2, 3-1) at 9 PDT at Aloha Stadium, with the winner claiming sole possession of second place. The Vandals fell from a share of the WAC’s top spot by losing 42-26 to nationally ranked Boise State last Saturday in the Kibbie Dome.
“We’re playing against a team that is as good as Boise State,” Vandals coach Dennis Erickson said. “They’ve proven that week in, week out. They’ve scored so many points I can’t even count that high. The thing that I see is they’re playing a lot better on defense.”
Hawaii has rolled up 42, 34, 44, 41, 68 and 49 points in its last six games. The only loss in that stretch was a 41-34 setback to Boise State at Bronco Stadium. The Warriors pounded Idaho 24-0 in Moscow last season and they appear much improved from a year ago.
Hawaii’s defense gives up plenty of yards and points, but it has forced 11 turnovers in the team’s four-game winning streak.
Junior quarterback Colt Brennan completed 68 percent of his passes, threw 35 touchdowns and had a rating of 155.5 last season. He’s even better this year. He leads the nation with a 183.1 passer rating and 28 touchdowns. He is on pace to challenge the NCAA record of 53 touchdown passes. He’s completed 73 percent of his attempts.
“The main reason is the quarterback,” coach June Jones said of the difference from last year’s 5-7 squad. “He didn’t really know what he was doing last year. We competed hard and played hard, but we lost four or so close games. I say this every year: If you win close games, you feel good about the off-season. If you don’t, you have a long off-season.
“The quarterback has to understand what we’re doing. We had a lot of first-year players (last year), true freshmen receivers and a bunch of young offensive linemen. Same thing on defense. We’re just more together.”
The Vandals rushed for only 41 yards and quarterback Steve Wichman was 8 of 25 for 112 yards against Hawaii last year. Idaho is coming off one of its better days on offense, picking up 397 total yards against Boise State’s WAC-leading defense.
“He (Wichman) made some huge plays for us,” Erickson said. “He managed the game well.”
Hawaii accumulates huge passing yardage but still averages 111.6 yards rushing per game, ranking one spot behind Idaho nationally. Nate Ilaoa, a 5-foot-9, 254-pounder with the nickname ‘Nasty,’ has three 100-yard games, including 151 against New Mexico State last Saturday.
Davone Bess is No. 2 nationally at 7.57 catches per game. Four Warriors rank in the top 72 in receptions per game – and that doesn’t include Ian Sample, who has a team-high seven touchdown catches, and Ryan Grice-Mullen, who was averaging a team-best 17.3 yards per reception before missing the last four games with an ankle injury. He’s expected to return tonight.
Notes
It’s homecoming for Hawaii. The Vandals were also the homecoming opponent for Louisiana Tech this season. … Brennan backed up Matt Leinart at Mater Dei High.… There’s a three-player race for the WAC’s top tackler. San Jose State’s Matt Castelo is first at 13 tackles per game, followed by Idaho’s David Vobora (11.4) and Boise State’s Korey Hall (10.0).