Idaho takes a beating
HONOLULU – One play was all it took for the Idaho Vandals to fall behind and never catch up.
Ross Dickerson returned the opening kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown and Colt Brennan threw for 333 yards and five touchdowns as Hawaii rolled to a 68-10 win over Idaho.
“Everything they did was right,” Idaho coach Dennis Erickson said. “I didn’t have an answer. … I’ve never been in a football game like this in my life.”
The victory Saturday night was Hawaii’s fifth straight and gave the Warriors (6-2, 4-1 Western Athletic Conference) sole possession of second place in the WAC standings behind No. 15 Boise State, which had a bye.
The Warriors, ranked No. 1 in the nation in total offense and No. 2 in scoring, had their way behind Brennan’s sharp passing.
He was 31 of 38 and picked apart Idaho’s defense before he was replaced in the third quarter with a 38-point lead. Brennan also rushed five times for 63 yards.
Brennan had scoring passes of 10, 2, 18, 34 and 11 yards to five different players to push his NCAA-leading TD passes to 33. He has passed for 1,920 yards and 24 TDs with just one interception during Hawaii’s winning streak.
The Warriors have won by an average of 30 points in that stretch of games.
Ryan Grice-Mullen returned from an ankle injury that sidelined him for four games and caught two second-half TD passes, including an 18-yard pass from backup Tyler Graunke that gave Hawaii a 45-point advantage in the fourth quarter.
Grice-Mullen also scored on a 34-yard pass play from Brennan to put Hawaii up by 31 points. He finished with five catches for 83 yards.
Jason Rivers led all of Hawaii’s receivers with six catches for 108 yards and a touchdown.
Nate Ilaoa scored twice in the first half, on a 1-yard sweep and a shovel pass from Brennan that he turned into an 18-yard score just before halftime to give Hawaii a 35-10 lead.
The Warriors scored just eight seconds into the game on Dickerson’s 100-yard kickoff return. Dickerson, who had a 100-yard return against Appalachian State in 2003, caught the ball at the goal line, followed a wall of blockers and sprinted untouched down the left sideline.
Hawaii punted just once, late in the game. It was the Warriors’ first punt in two games.
Idaho (4-5, 3-2) came into the game tied with Hawaii for second in the WAC and couldn’t get much going against Hawaii’s aggressive defense.
Steve Wichman’s 2-yard scoring pass to Wendell Octave cut Hawaii’s lead to 14-7 in the first quarter. That’s as close as Idaho got as Wichman struggled to find his range.
Wichman was 13 of 29 for 192 yards before he was replaced by Brian Nooy in the third quarter.
Idaho tight end Luke Smith-Anderson had five receptions for 88 yards.
The game featured two former NFL head coaches in Idaho’s Erickson and Hawaii’s June Jones.