2011 Week 17

The Idaho Vandals have offically won 10 games this season.

It didn't take long for the Vandals to assert their authority on 6-6 ECU, who came into the game with the lowest overall rating for a bowl team with C- (62 OVR). The Vandal defense provided a three-and-out and the Idaho offense responded with a quick touchdown pass from Nick Foles to Matt Jackson.

"I couldn't be more proud of this team, we showed a lot of moxie and gained a lot of momentum for our program in the last three games.. I bet there weren't a lot of people who thought we'd have a 10-win type of season, especially after starting out 0-2."

The Vandals took advantage of what seemed to be a down year for almost every opponent they faced, and for the first time in Coach Guru's tenure were actually the most talented team on the field (or very close to it) in most of the games this season.

As far as the Hawaii Bowl is concerned, the offensive line was downright destructive once again, an advantage that Coach Guru has chalked up to recruiting.

"We make offensive linemen a priority each offseason and try to get ourselves some big, powerful players that can learn to be great with experience. But to be honest, I think we're having so much success because of the lack of athletes available for our opponents to recruit in the trenches: all the big-time linemen seem to go to big-time schools, and there aren't nearly as many sleeper players to go around for the smaller guys."

The Vandals have had recruiting classes in the top end of the WAC each offseason, something that should continue to improve with their program's budding prestige.

"If nothing else I'm hoping this gets us a payraise and some more pub for the program. Idaho football is on the rise, heck, just as ECU."