2007 Week 13

November 24, 2007
MOSCOW, Idaho (AP) - The last time the Idaho Vandals (7-5 6-2 WAC) won 7 games in the season, the year was 1999. The seniors on this year's squad were entering high school. The Big West still competed in D-1A football. Since then, the Vandals haven't had a single winning season. To be frank, the Vandals became the doormat of a weak WAC conference.

Then again, these Vandals were different. They were humiliated in the first part of the season, starting out 1-4. They were led by a coach in his first year of coaching football at any level. They had experienced the joy of victory during their 5 game winning streak. They nearly upset their ranked rivals to the south. And they were poised to return to a bowl for the first time since the 1998 Vandals defeated Southern Miss in the Humanitarian Bowl. The only team that stood in their way of guaranteeing a bowl spot was the Utah State Aggies (2-10 2-6 WAC).

The Vandals quickly took out their frustration from last week's loss at Boise State on the visiting Aggies, going up 21-7 with two of the scores on passing plays of 50 yards or more in the first quarter. Then to begin the second quarter, Nathan Enderle found Max Komar for a 80 yard score to put the Vandals up by three touchdowns. An Enderle TD run and another deep touchdown pass to Max Komar put the Vandals up 42-7 with 3:30 still left in the second quarter. Coach Ghettoshark then decided to pull his offensive starters and give his second team offense a shot at some playing time.

"Did I think about letting my first team play the whole game? Damn right I did! Part of me wanted to show the entire nation that our old 5 game winning streak wasn't a fluke and that we were in fact, err...for real. But in the end, I decided that it wasn't worth the risk of losing one of our star players right before our bowl game. Besides, it teaches these kids a lesson in sportsmanship," said Ghettoshark.

Utah State struck back with a Lesue touchdown run to cut the lead down to 28 points, and they took advantage of Ghettoshark's kindness by intercepting backup QB Chris Joseph and taking it to the house as the first half ended. Both teams scored 6 points in the third quarter, albeit in different ways (Idaho missed an extra point following a Flowers TD run, USU kicked two field goals). Then to begin the fourth quarter, third string QB Brian Nooy (who replaced Joseph following his pick-6) found WR Lee Smith who outran the Aggie defenders on his way to a 68 yard touchdown catch. Then Utah State put two scores on the board with just over two minutes in the game to make it a two possession game. There wouldn't be any miracle comeback here though as Idaho held on to win comfortably, 55-41.

QB Nathan Enderle played a near perfect half. He completed all but one of 12 passes for 385 yards and 5 touchdowns. Granted, he had help from WRs Max Komar and Wesley Williams, who finished with 237 and 124 receiving yards, respectively in the first half.

The Idaho Vandals will now wait to see which bowl selects them.