2011 Week 5

The Idaho Vandals defeated #24 Utah in a game that was really never even close. The Utes were quite overrated (75 OVR) for being ranked so high in the preseason polls, and the Vandals showed the country that the Utes did not belong in such lofty company.

The Vandals, led by quarterback Nick Foles in a slightly more spread out system, marched the ball up and down the field at will against a Utah defense that just couldn't seem to keep up.

"After our first two games, I started thinking about switching from Air Force's playbook (which has Ace, I, two flexbone formations, and some good shotgun formations) to something with a similar style that had at least one 5 WR formation."

The Vandals coaching staff settled on the Maryland playbook, where virtually the only change in system would be removing the flexbone and some of the other option plays and adding a few more elements of a spread passing attack.

"It just makes sense with our personnel this year: Nick has a great arm, with pretty good accuracy. Our running backs aren't quite as talented as they have been in the past, and our receiving corps is full of young, talented athletes that need to see the field. We had been tooling with it practice since the preseason, just never changed the actual playbook until this game."

We'll see if the results can carry over into next week, when the Vandals will get a chance to take on another team Coach Guru has never beaten: Nevada.

"They don't have the talent they normally do, and we've got some pretty good athletes with us right now.. To be honest, I think we've got a great chance to hit 'em in the mouth for all the hell they've given us for the past three seasons.