Vandals manhandled by Bobcats on national TV

The Idaho Vandals were steamrolled by Montana State in a battle of two top-10 FCS programs in a game that was nationally televised Saturday in Bozeman, Mont.

No. 3 Montana State showed its dominance the entire game and gave No. 7 Idaho one of its most one-sided losses in recent memory. The Bobcats won 38-7.

Idaho (4-3, 1-2) had its worst performance offensively under head coach Jason Eck and the defense had no chance at stopping the Bobcats.

The Vandals also lost another quarterback to a collarbone injury. Starter Nick Josifek broke his collarbone in the first half six weeks after first-string QB Jack Layne did so on Aug. 31 against Oregon.

“Hats off to Montana State. They’ve got a really good football team,” Eck said. “I think they played really well tonight, kicked our butts probably every way you can look at it. You know, I have to do a better job having us ready to play.”

Montana State (7-0, 3-0) has won its first seven games of the season for the first time since 1978.

Bobcat rushing attack is just too good

Montana State entered the game averaging 298.7 yards per game on the ground, and even against a tough Idaho run defense, that average went up. The Bobcats ran the ball 54 times for 360 yards.

Running back Scottre Humphrey had 19 carries for 124 yards to push his season total to 793. Quarterback Tommy Mellott scored twice on the ground and was the leading MSU rusher with 140 yards on 11 carries. The quarterback broke a 65-yard run for the first score of the game.

It was the most rushing yards that the Vandals had given up since the Southern Utah Thunderbirds had 402 yards on the ground on Oct. 20, 2018.

Worst offensive performance under Eck

Idaho avoided a shutout with a Jack Wagner 9-yard connection to wide receiver Deshaun Buchanan with 43 seconds remaining in the game. The Vandals used two timeouts to extend the game and completed a fourth-down conversion on the drive.

The last time Idaho was shut out was the year before Eck took over the head coaching duties. The Beavers of Oregon State shut out Idaho 42-0 on Sept. 18, 2021. The last time a FCS team shutout Idaho was back in 2019 when Portland State defeated the Vandals 24-0.

The 267 total yards were the lowest offensive production against an opponent in the FCS for Idaho since it had a 242-yard performance against Montana in 2021. Idaho failed to reach 200 yards until the final three minutes of the game. The last time the Vandals failed to reach 200 yards of offense in a game was in 2021 against Oregon State when Idaho only mustered 192 yards.

“Offensively, we couldn’t get much of a rhythm. They did a good job stopping the run,” Eck said. “We weren’t very good on the third down. We had a couple of turnovers that really hurt us. We had a few opportunities to hit Dwyer for big plays, and we couldn’t connect on him.”

It was the first time that Idaho this season did not have a single snap inside the opponent’s red zone until the final 70 seconds. It would have been the first time the Vandals failed to do so since Sept. 29, 2012 in a 66-0 loss to North Carolina.

Josifek given starting role, but doesn’t finish the game

Josifek, a walk-on freshman, was named the starting quarterback for Idaho. It was a week after Josifek and Wagner shared passing duties in the win over Northern Arizona. Josifek is the third different starting quarterback for the Vandals in the first seven games.

Unlike last week, it seemed to be Josifek’s job for the day as he played the first four drives. On a second down play early in the second quarter, the Walla Walla, Wash., native was sacked by MSU’s Paul Brott and left the game with a broken collarbone. Wagner took over for the rest of the contest.

Josifek was 5-of-8 passing for 42 yards before he left with the injury. Wagner finished 11-of-23 for 134 yards with one touchdown and one interception.

Missed opportunities on the opening drive

The Vandals opened the game with a nice strike from Josifek to Mark Hamper for 19 yards. Two plays later Idaho was across the 50-yard line facing a third-and-3.

Josifek kept it for a 2-yard gain and it left a big decision for Eck early. The Vandal coach decided to be aggressive and went for it, but the QB keeper ended up short of the line to gain.

On Montana State’s first drive the focus was on Humphrey who had back-to-back 14-yard gains on the ground. The Bobcats were quickly down to the Vandal 24-yard line.

Adam Jones lost five yards on a rushing attempt to set up third-and-long. Mellott had a pass tipped up into the air and wide receiver Taco Dowler caught it behind the line of scrimmage for a 6-yard loss.

Montana State settled for a 51-yard field goal attempt that drifted wide. Both teams had a chance early, neither were able to score.

Vandal mistakes turn into Bobcat points

After a long touchdown run by Mellott on the previous drive, it looked like Idaho was in prime position to stop Montana State on a third-and-7. The Bobcats were called for their second consecutive false start, but Idaho’s defensive end Keyshawn James-Newby did not hear the whistle and hit Mellott. James-Newby was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and MSU was given a fresh set of downs.

“I thought that was a rough play for us,” Eck said. “It’s really loud in the stadium. Hats off to their fans, their fans brought a lot of energy, so I don’t think they (heard) the whistle.”

Two plays later Mellott found Dowler for a 34-yard touchdown pass.

In the second quarter it looked like the Vandals had pinned back the Bobcats after a great punt by LJ Harm. Idaho’s Corry Thomas Jr. had Dowler wrapped up at the 5-yard line, but Mathias Bertram ran in late and lowered his shoulder and hit Dowler high.

Bertram was called for targeting and was disqualified from the rest of the game. Montana State would go 78 yards on 14 plays on the drive, finished off by another Mellott touchdown run.

With under a minute to go in the first half, Wagner forced a third-down throw into coverage and Danny Uluilakepa jumped the route for an interception. The Bobcats were able to add three more points as time expired on a 34-yard field goal by Myles Sansted.

“Sometimes life kicks you in the teeth. You can’t feel sorry for yourself because that’s not a very effective strategy. You’ve got to bounce back,” Eck said. “You’ve got to not hang your head, not feel sorry for yourself. We’ve got to learn from this because there will be a lot of things that we can fix off this.”

Idaho 0 0 0 7— 7

Montana State 14 10 7 7—38

First Quarter

MSU — Mellott 65 run (Stansted kick), 5:34.

MSU — Dowler 34 pass from Mellott (Stansted kick), 0:11.

Second Quarter

MSU — Mellott 7 run (Stansted kick), 1:44.

MSU — FG Stansted 34, 0:00.

Third Quarter

MSU — R. Jones 11 pass from Mellott (Stansted kick), 12:48.

Fourth Quarter

MSU — A. Jones 4 run (Standsted kick), 12:44.

IDA — Buchanan 9 pass from Wagner (Pope kick), 0:43.

RUSHING — Idaho, Buchanan 9-49, Cummings 6-30, Williams 4-18, Wagner 5-2, Cortez-Menjivar 1-0, Josifek 3-(minus-8); Montana State, Mellott 11-140, Humphrey 19-124, A. Jones 11-39, Coon 3-26, Wilson 3-17, White 4-9, Duchien 1-4, McCullouch 1-2.

PASSING — Idaho, Wagner 11-23-1-134, Josifek 5-8-0-42; Montana State, Mellott 11-15-0-121, Wilson 1-2-0-4.

RECEIVING — Idaho, Harste 3-48, Hamper 3-42, Higgins 2-34, Cortez-Menjivar 2-22, Dwyer 2-14, Moore 2-9, Buchanan 1-9, Cummings 1-(minus-2); Montana State, R. Jones 3-28, McCullouch 2-28, Dowler 2-28, Province 2-7, Alexander 1-23, A. Jones 1-7, Lonergan 1-4.

Missed field goals — Stansted 51.

Isbelle can be reached at 208-848-2268, risbelle@lmtribune.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @RandyIsbelle.