QB Steve Wichman Earns WAC POW

Junior quarterback Steve Wichman earned WAC Offensive Player of the Week honors for his impressive effort against UNLV this weekend. In addition, senior middle linebacker Cole Snyder was nominated for the Defensive Player of the Week award.

Junior Steve Wichman played an outstanding game Saturday at UNLV, completing 19 of 30 passes for 390 yards, 3 touchdowns and 1 interception in Las Vegas. It was the most passing yards by an Idaho quarterback since Brian Lindgren lit up North Texas for 402 yards on October 11, 2003.

In the first quarter against UNLV the passing game made progress but the Vandals couldn't punch it into the endzone.

That all changed in the second quarter as Wichman connected with junior Daniel Smith for a 51-yard touchdown that gave Idaho its first lead of the game.

By the end of the third quarter Wichman had already thrown for 287 yards and two touchdowns in just 15 completions. He had doubled his yardage from a week ago against Washington State, and still had another quarter to play at UNLV.

In the fourth quarter Wichman threw another touchdown pass, completed four passes for 103 yards, and put Idaho in position to win the game on the Vandal’s last possession. He's currently ranked 18th in the nation in passing efficiency (166.0), has completed 60.38% of his passes, and has thrown for 533 yards through two games.

For this effort, Steve was named the Western Athletic Conference's Offensive Player of the Week.


COLE SNYDER NOMINATED: Senior middle linebacker and Lombardi Award watch list member Cole Snyder was nominated for this week's Defensive Player of the Week award. He didn't win the award, but his 19 tackle performance against UNLV moved him up to a tie for FIFTH Nationally in Average Tackles Per Game with a 14 TPG average through two games. He's tied with Jason Allen of Tennessee and Michael Richardson of Eastern Michigan.

Fellow WAC linebacker Jimmy Cottrell of New Mexico State (this week's Defensive POW) leads the nation with 37 tackles in two games, followed by D'Qwell Jackson (Maryland, 34), Matt Muncy (Ohio, 32), and Patrick Willis (Mississippi, 15 per game).