Vandals Triumph!

Sparked in the second half by the interception and touchdown return of true freshman strong safety D.J. Dykes, Idaho overcame a 21-20 halftime deficit to post an impressive 45-31 home victory. It was the last home Sun Belt Conference game ever for Idaho, and an impressive Homecoming victory.

UNIVERSITY of IDAHO Official Game Article

LINK: Idaho / Arkansas State Game Story & Stats


This week we'll let the pictures do most of the talking. Quickly, however, we want to acknowledge the outstanding effort put forth in this game by virtually every senior on the team. We'll do a more formal acknowledgement of the seniors in couple weeks, but the effort by this group was outstanding.

Honestly, there were too many great efforts in this game to identify each and every one. Among the most notable were D.J. Dyke's 61 yard interception return for a touchdown in the 3rd quarter, Jayson Bird's 171 yards rushing and 2 touchdowns, interceptions by a trio of seniors in FS Simeon Stewart, DE Brandon Kania, and CB Chris Nathan, plus middle linebacker Cole Snyder's 14 tackles, quarterback Michael Harrington's 16 of 21 passing for 1 TD and no interceptions, and TE Luke Smith-Anderson's 60 receiving yards on just 2 catches. There are more. But the bottom line is that the entire team overcame moments of serious doubt, including a 21-20 halftime deficit after jumping out to a 14-0 first quarter lead, and came away from the game with a hard fought, inspirational 45-31 victory.

Congratulations to the team on an outstanding victory! Below is the first of a 2 part photo gallery.

PATRICK HAUGE / VandalVenue.com

Vandals prepare to take the field in tunnel.

PATRICK HAUGE / VandalVenue.com

Vandals take the field during opening pregame ceremonies. The seniors were individually honored before the team joined them on the field.

LARRY JOHNSON / VandalVenue.com

Vandal motorcade leads the Vandals onto the football field.

LARRY JOHNSON / VandalVenue.com

Close-up view of Vandalized ATV leading the charge.

PATRICK HAUGE / VandalVenue.com

LARRY JOHNSON / VandalVenue.com

Two angles of the same play. Arkansas State runningback dropped for a loss by MIKE #47 Cole Snyder, CB #19 Chris Nathan, and true freshman WILL #40 David Vobora .

LARRY JOHNSON / VandalVenue.com

Vandal defense applied heavy pressure all game. Senior DE Brandon Kania played much of this game at DT, with senior DE Curtis Bibolet lining up next to him on the outside.

MARLIN SMITH / VandalVenue.com

LARRY JOHNSON / VandalVenue.com

LARRY JOHNSON / VandalVenue.com

Three photo sequence of Jayson Bird's 40 yard burst off the left side in the 1st quarter. The top 2 photos were taken at about the same time with ASU defender #21 (Burns) breaking down for the tackle. The bottom photo shows Burns on the ground with his doors blown off and Jayson on the run.

LARRY JOHNSON / VandalVenue.com
 
LARRY JOHNSON / VandalVenue.com

LARRY JOHNSON / VandalVenue.com

Vandal faithful.

 
LARRY JOHNSON / VandalVenue.com

Senior cornerbacks #8 J.R. Ruffin and #19 Chris Nathan played well for Idaho. Among his efforts, J.R. pinned ASU inside their 3 yard line after downing the ball on a punt, and broke up a key 3rd quarter pass. Chris had far more balls thrown his way, but ended the up picking off one pass, had 1 tackle for loss and a quarterback hurry while recording 5 tackles..

LARRY JOHNSON / VandalVenue.com

Backup free safety #2 Brandon Mascorro and starting WILL #17 Robert Davis converge on ASU quarterback after a short gain.

Marlin Smith / VandalVenue.com

Marlin Smith / VandalVenue.com

The Vandal offensive line has sustained several key injuries all season, but fought through this game. With starting left tackle, sophomore Hank Therien slowed with an injury (fighting through the injury in the second half) and starting right tackle Nate VanderPol out with a concussion, Idaho made do. True freshmen #51 Marcis Fennell and #73 Desmond Clark worked the right side, with #50 Jade Tadvick and #67 Tony Kiel working the left. Junior center #63 Jarrod Schulte was also affected by an injury but played the entire game. The line did not give up a single sack on the day, and led the offense for 457 total yards, including 297 on the ground.

MARLIN SMITH / VandalVenue.com

True freshman starting strong safety D.J. Dykes took over punt return duties a couple weeks ago and had a solid afternoon Saturday against ASU.