The domed ceiling of Holt Arena, on a rainy Saturday afternoon in Pocatello, Idaho, sprung a leak, dousing the south bleachers before kickoff.
Holt Arena officials set up a trashcan to mitigate the damage, but it was not a good look. However, judging by the deafening noise rattling the rundown rafters, not a single Bengal fan seemed to care.
Their reason for celebration? The Idaho State football team put on a historic performance, led by quarterback Tanner Gueller. The Bengals’ leading man threw a school record eight touchdowns, absolutely demolishing the Idaho Vandal defense in a 62-28 blowout.
On the opposing sideline, Idaho teammates looked on with dismay, as Gueller and company torched their team’s defense with score after score, while the Vandal offense continued to stall, despite two quarterbacks taking snaps under center.
Brandon Hill
The game, which started in the Vandals’ favor early, wasn’t even close by the end of the first half. At the break, Gueller had thrown five touchdowns, leaving Vandal and Bengal fans alike completely stunned at the performance.
What precluded the matchup makes the historic beatdown even more ironic. Idaho State had not defeated its in-state rival since 1995. That’s four presidents, six Idaho head coaches and six Idaho State head coaches ago. Now, the Vandals are on a decade-long drought of in-state D1 victories.
So how did the Vandals get here, and what does the future hold?
In terms of the rest of the season, the Silver and Gold don’t have much to look forward to. With two victories coming against Idaho’s two weakest opponents of the season, the Vandals have yet to prove they are capable of anything other than dwelling in the basement of the Big Sky after decades of FBS play.
The Vandal pride from 2016’s glory is all but faded, and the feelings of Potato Bowl victories seems like a memory long past. In what could be Head Coach Paul Petrino’s final year with the program, Idaho would be lucky to reach .500 before the season’s end. With matchups against Eastern Washington and Montana still on the docket, that prospect seems highly unlikely.
Meanwhile, Idaho State seems to have stolen the Vandals’ narrative. After years of struggling to maintain any kind of season momentum, the Bengals are finally breaking through on the big stage, putting up ridiculous offensive stats with a team comprised of underdogs. After the dust settled on Week 7, Idaho State had earned a handful of votes in the NCAA coaches’ poll, placing them at No. 27 among FCS teams.
A 4-1 overall record and an undefeated run in the Big Sky now places the “orange-headed stepchild” from southern Idaho in second place.
And in Pokey’s Holt Arena, more than 11,000 fans packed into the aged stadium, providing an electric energy that has largely been absent from contests in the Kibbie Dome.
The Vandals need to be careful. They need to keep their pride in check and realize that, especially in college football, no legacy is sacred.
If serious culture changes don’t arrive on the Palouse soon, Idaho may slip back into its losing ways.
Brandon Hill can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @brandonmtnhill
This commentary was corrected from a previous version.
Joad Tanner
Fire the entire football staff today!
Ron Reynolds
The athletic culture at Idaho has never been anything but lukewarm even in the best of times. Students, alumni, faculty, Moscow residents and even "fans" have never been FAN-ATICAL about UI sports. Get used to it. If you came to Idaho to watch competitive athletics at a high level, well you're just 8 miles away from it. Until UI gets a President that understands, rightly or wrongly, that NCAA athletics is a window to the university we'll continue to wallow, at best, in mediocrity, just like we always have. THAT's our legacy.