Spartans handle Vandals

MOSCOW, Idaho – In many ways it served as a microcosm of Idaho’s season. Not a 60-minute microcosm because Idaho, again, failed to play a complete game.

The Vandals interrupted decent stretches of football with just enough critical mistakes in falling to San Jose State 28-13 in their regular-season finale Saturday at the Kibbie Dome. There were 10,435 tickets distributed, but probably closer to 6,000 in the stands.

Idaho dropped its last five games, not coincidentally to the Western Athletic Conference’s top five teams. The Vandals finished 4-8 overall, 3-5 in conference for sixth place. San Jose State (7-4, 4-3) moved closer to its first bowl berth since 1990.

“The big problem with our team the last five or six weeks was we never put four quarters together,” junior tight end Luke Smith-Anderson said. “Even when we won I don’t think we did. If we had played four quarters a lot of these games would have been different.”

Idaho was attempting to send 14 seniors out with a victory, but a promising first half gave way to a listless second half. The Vandals also might lose Smith-Anderson, who has been at UI for six years thanks to three season-ending injuries. He said there’s a “high probability” he’ll take a shot at the NFL, but he wants to meet with head coach Dennis Erickson before making a final decision.

“I thanked the seniors,” Erickson said. “They’ve been through so many things, three head coaches and not very many wins. They had some fun this year. We won three in a row (at midseason) and things were going pretty good. I wanted them to go out with a win in the worst way.”

That seemed to be a possibility when the Vandals overcame a sluggish start to take a 10-7 lead at half.

“I just told them (at half) that if I was a guy from the moon and I came down here and was watching the first half, I’m for Idaho because they were playing hard, playing physical and playing with their hearts and we weren’t,” Spartans coach Dick Tomey said.

But the Vandals didn’t always play smart. With San Jose State facing fourth-and-2 at the 50, Idaho standout linebacker David Vobora jumped offside. The Spartans quickly capitalized when John Broussard slipped behind cornerback Stanley Franks for a 50-yard TD catch.

The Vandals finally got untracked when Jayson Bird, who has seen his playing time dwindle in the last half of the season, had four straight carries for 30 yards, fueling a drive that ended with Tino Amancio’s 28-yard field goal.

Idaho took the lead with a 91-yard drive late in the second quarter. Steve Wichman, who had an otherwise spotty performance, fired 28-yard completions to Marlon Haynes and Max Komar, setting up Bird’s 2-yard touchdown plunge.

“At half we had all the momentum,” Erickson said.

It lasted all of one play. The Spartans’ Adam Tafralis connected with James Jones for 32 yards on the first play from scrimmage. Patrick Perry capped the drive with a 1-yard touchdown run to put the Spartans back on top 14-10.

The Spartans were poised to add to their lead when Franks stripped the ball from Broussard at Idaho’s 15-yard line. Idaho marched to San Jose State’s 7, but a Wichman pass was tipped and nearly intercepted and the Vandals settled for another Amancio field goal.

Idaho has been outplayed on special teams throughout the second half of the season and Saturday was no different. Waylon Prather’s booming punts changed field position several times and he dropped a dandy at Idaho’s 1-yard line early in the fourth quarter.

Two plays later, receiver Wendell Octave was open near the left sideline but Wichman’s pass was intercepted by Christopher Vedder at Idaho’s 15. Perry’s second rushing TD gave the Spartans a 21-13 lead.

Idaho went three-and-out on its next series as Octave dropped a pass that would have resulted in a first down. The Spartans sent fans streaming for the exits with a 67-yard scoring drive – 58 on the ground.

“We had a chance to beat a pretty good team, but we just aren’t consistent enough,” Erickson said. “We play well for a while. We’re just not experienced enough, we haven’t won enough to do a lot of things you need to do in the second half and that really jumped out.”