I’ve already clearly stated my opinion that a contest between Idaho and Bowling Green isn’t exactly a bowl game people look forward to watch with anticipation. And if that matchup is the best you can do, it doesn’t speak well for the future of your bowl game.
But expressing that sentiment doesn’t mean I’m not going to tip my hat to what occurred in Wednesday’s Humanitarian Bowl in Boise.
The Idaho Vandals — who play in bowl games about as often as it snows in Death Valley — pulled out a dramatic 43-42 victory over Bowling Green in a fabulous ending to a back-and-forth contest.
The winning points came when Idaho scored a touchdown with four seconds left and then converted a two-point pass instead of settling for one point and heading into overtime.
Gutsy move from Idaho coach Robb Akey, who did a fantastic job in getting the Vandals to a bowl game for only the second time in their major-college history. Akey could see his defense was struggling to stop Bowling Green’s passing attack and made a decision that would have been hard to second-guess even if it had failed.
You see, Bowling Green receiver Freddie Barnes was a one-man wrecking crew. Barnes caught 17 passes for 219 yards and three touchdowns and set an all-time college football record with 155 receptions on the season. He was inexplicably left uncovered by the Vandals defense in catching a 51-yard scoring pass from Tyler Sheehan with 32 seconds left to give Bowling Green a 42-35 lead.
But Idaho quarterback Nathan Enderle hit Preston Davis with a 50-yard bomb to the Bowling Green 16-yard line. Two plays later, Enderle hit a sliding Max Komar on a 16-yard scoring pass with four seconds left.
Then came Akey’s decisive call to go for two points and Enderle hit a wide open Davis in the back of the end zone to give Idaho the win.
Nice win for Idaho, a program that hasn’t had a lot of happy days over the past decade. The Vandals are expected to reward Akey with a contract extension and it will be interesting to see if he can build on this year’s 8-5 campaign.
Another interesting thing about Idaho is that its best football player this season was a guard — Mike Iupati. I saw Iupati in nonfootball gear the night before the Humanitarian Bowl and he’s definitely got the type of build NFL teams crave. I know better than to forecast a player’s possible draft position prior to the NFL combine in late February but most draft experts rate him as a second-round pick.
It’s probably highly doubtful that he can move into the first round because NFL talent evaluators don’t put a high priority on guards the way they do tackles. But it wouldn’t surprise me at all if Iupati becomes an NFL standout.
MrSportsBlog 