All season Idaho football coach Robb Akey said how close to success his Vandals were in every losing contest.
In Saturday’s season finale, Idaho was farther from success, leaving Reno the victim of a 53-point drubbing at the hands of the Wolf Pack.
Idaho (2-10, 1-6 WAC) held Nevada (7-5, 5-2 WAC) scoreless through nearly the entire first quarter, but once the Wolf Pack put seven points on the board with 20 seconds remaining in the first quarter, the screws came loose and the wheels fell off for the Vandals.
“The way things started, I thought we’d have a chance,” Akey said. “Then we didn’t get the stops made. We didn’t play well on offense.”
Idaho didn’t play well on defense either, allowing Nevada to accumulate almost 600 yards of total offense and nine touchdowns in the 56-3 loss at Mackay Stadium.
Idaho athletic director Rob Spear said he would be meeting with Akey Monday to “evaluate every point regarding (the) football team.”
“I don’t even know what to say about this,” Spear said. “It was an unacceptable performance from our football team …we are going to get better.”
Speculation has flown regarding job security for multiple positions on the Idaho coaching staff, but no further announcement has been made regarding the details of the meeting between Akey and Spear.
Not many positives were brought back to Moscow, but senior linebacker Tre’Shawn Robinson pocketed nine tackles, including one-and-a-half tackles for loss, a sack and a forced fumble. Fellow senior running back Kama Bailey accounted for 69 all-purpose yards and punter Bobby Cowan maintained his punting average for second place in the nation, just 0.59 yards off first place.
The Idaho offense was not able to score a touchdown and netted only three points off 306 total offensive yards.
“We were moving the ball,” Bailey said. “We just weren’t finishing. This is not how we wanted to go out.”
The game chalks up as the worst loss since Idaho fell to Arizona 0-70 in 2008.