Two things went right Saturday in Provo for the Idaho Vandals. Punter Bobby Cowan regained the national punting average at 47 yards per-punt and running back Princeton McCarty had the longest run of his career.
Other than that, the Brigham Young Cougars throttled the Vandals 42-7 Saturday and dropped Idaho to 2-8 on the season.
McCarty’s 82-yard touchdown run proved to be the only Idaho score of the game, and accounted for one-third of Idaho’s total offense.
Idaho coach Robb Akey gave credit to BYU, but said he was confused as to what happened.
“We didn’t make any plays tonight (Saturday). That was the problem,” Akey said. “We did a poor job executing offensively. We need to execute those things better … It’s the whole offense.”
The offense started with quarterback Taylor Davis, played Brian Reader in the fourth and gave snaps to third string quarterback Logan Bushnell as the clock expired. The three quarterbacks and the offense only tallied 241 yards, one touchdown, two interceptions and one fumble.
Senior offensive lineman Tyrone Novikoff said the team could not get anything going.
“This game was two steps forward and three steps back,” Novikoff said. “We just couldn’t get on a roll. That’s frustrating.”
To make matters worse the Vandals amassed a season high 11 penalties.
Cowan, who accumulated 322 yards on seven punts, was listed last week as a finalist for the Ray Guy Award. He did everything he could to prove he deserves the honor against BYU by outkicking the Vandal offense and getting Idaho its first, first-down of the game when BYU was called for running into the kicker.
On the season, the Vancouver, Wash., native has punted 42 of 50 kicks longer than 50 yards, with two more than 70 yards and a career-long 76 yards at Virginia.
Cowan is one of 10 semi-finalists up for the award. On Nov. 21, the list will be narrowed to three finalists and the winner will be announced Dec. 8 at the Home Depot College Football Awards live on ESPN.The Vandals take on the Utah State Aggies at 2 p.m. Saturday in the Kibbie Dome. The game is the final home game of the season and Senior Night for the Vandals.