Perennial underdog Vandalizes Southern Mississippi
By Bert Sahlberg, Lewiston Tribune

December 31, 1998

All season, the University of Idaho football team was the underdog.

Well, the rest of the world be damned. The Vandals couldn't care less because they've risen to the top of their own little world.

And what a wonderful place it is.

The Vandals situated themselves in this euphoric position by defeating Southern Mississippi 42-35 in the Humanitarian Bowl before a loud partisan crowd of 19,664 at Bronco Stadium Wednesday afternoon.

Idaho entered its first-ever bowl game as a 16-point underdog, but showed a national television audience what it's made of with several big plays, which included the game-winning touchdown with 4:36 left.

"I'm still in awe of these guys," UI offensive coordinator Phil Earley said while taking part in UI's postgame celebration on the field, which lasted some 20 minutes. "These kids are so special that nothing they do surprises me anymore."

This, however, was a surprise. Southern Mississippi, which finishes the year at 7-5, was touted as the bigger, faster, more talented team. In the regular season it destroyed Nevada, which in turn destroyed Idaho.

Yet Idaho, 9-3, seemed unfazed by all this. Even when things didn't go its way early and it fell behind 21-7 early in the second quarter it didn't panic. Instead, it found answers.

"The better team won today," Southern Miss wide receiver Todd Pinkston said. "I still think we have better talent but we couldn't get anything going. We had dropped balls and fumbles and things just didn't go our way."

The contest, as expected, was an offensive battle. Neither team, however, could get its running game untracked and had to resort to the pass. Thus, 93 passes were attempted, and not one was intercepted.

Trying to run the ball, however, was a different story. Of the 74 running plays, the teams combined for nine fumbles; Southern Miss lost five while Idaho lost three, including two by usually reliable senior running back Joel Thomas.

UI freshman quarterback John Welsh, who was named Idaho's most valuable player for the game, completed 24 of 41 passes for 291 yards and four touchdowns. His MVP counterpart, Lee Roberts, was 31 of 52 for 362 yards and two touchdowns, but the Golden Eagles also dropped a number of passes.

"Lee Roberts did a great job but you have to give John Welsh a lot of credit too," UI coach Chris Tormey said. "He had an outstanding game."

A number of Vandals had huge games, including senior linebacker Ryan Skinner of Lewiston, who finished with a career-high 20 tackles. He also had one of UI's six quarterback sacks. Defensive tackle Mao Tosi had six tackles, four pass deflections and forced a fumble while linebacker Chris Nofoiaga (11 tackles, one pass deflection and one force fumble) and free safety Bryson Gardner (nine tackles, one deflection and two forced fumbles) also played well.

Despite this, Southern Miss was able to move the ball early by picking on UI cornerback Eghe Evero. Of Roberts' 225 passing yards in the first half, 179 came against Evero.

That helped the Golden Eagles take the lead early as Roberts threw a 2-yard touchdown pass while running back Derrick Nix scored on runs of 8 and 1 yards -- TDs set up by 27- and 42-yard pass plays.

Idaho's lone score of the opening quarter came on a 98-yard kickoff return by Jerome Thomas following USM's first score. That made it 7-7 before Nix scored his two touchdowns about six minutes apart.

To make things worse, Idaho has a 52-yard field goal attempt blocked. USM definitely had the momentum.

"We started off kind of shaky," Tormey said. "Defensively we couldn't stop them and we couldn't get the running game going. But we showed early that we could move the football through the air and I thought Jerome Thomas' kick return, even though it came in the first quarter, gave us a lift in our comeback."

The Vandals scored on three consecutive possessions to end the first half, taking a 28-21 lead. Welsh threw a 17-yard strike to Jeffrey Townsley and then a 21-yard TD pass to Mike Roberg. On both, Welsh was actually backing up and threw off his back foot, putting just enough loft on the ball to allow his receivers to run under the pass.

Southern Miss appeared to have an answer as Roberts completed six straight passes to move the ball to the Idaho 42. Tosi, however, put a stop to the drive with a quarterback sack/fumble that freshman nose guard Wil Beck recovered at the UI 41 with just 43 seconds left.

Welsh then completed three passes to move the ball to the USM 21 with just eight seconds left. Since it still had one timeout remaining, Idaho decided to run one more play and Welsh found Willie Alderson over the middle for a 19-yard gain, putting the ball at the 2 with just two seconds left.

In a scene similar to the Boise State game in November, Idaho called a timeout and decided to go for the touchdown. Welsh faked a handoff to Joel Thomas, rolled out to his right and found reserve tight end Michael Moody alone in the flat. That gave UI a seven-point halftime edge.

"Jim Mastro (UI's running back coach) gave us that play suggestion and we have another, but we decided to go with Mastro's play," Earley said. "There was no hesitation about going for it."

Both teams made some adjustments at halftime and UI's defense did a nice job of confusing USM and forced two fumbles on the opening drives of the second half. Idaho failed to take advantage when Ben Davis slipped while attempting another 52-yard field goal.

Again, it took a big play by special teams to give Idaho a spark. This time Vern Benard returned a punt 50 yards to the USM 32. Joel Thomas later scored on a 1-yard run and Idaho had a 35-21 lead late in the third quarter.

His second fumble, however, helped Southern Miss get back in the game as Roberts hit Sherrod Gideon for a 7-yard touchdown pass with 9:25 left.

UI then went three downs and out and a shanked punt gave USM good field position at the UI 45. Six plays later, Nix scored his third touchdown, this one on a 15-yard run, and the game was tied at 35-35 with 6:37 left.

"We got a little conservative in the third and fourth quarter and John was running hot and cold," Earley said. "So we talked with John and told him 'You are streaky right now.' So we asked him what his favorite route was, the one he was most comfortable with, and let him run it."

That would be a quick slant, which Townsley turned into a 13-yard gain. Then Welsh scrambled around and gained 21 yards to the USM 34. After a 6-yard pass to Chris Lacy, Welsh connected with Ryan Prestimonico for a 28-yard touchdown and, just like that, UI was back in the lead, 42-35 with 4:36 to play.

Roberts tried to help USM answer as he completed three consecutive passes, but on a second-and-1 Nix took a handoff and got past the first-down marker before UI strong safety Kevin Hill stripped him of the ball. Skinner recovered with 2:30 left.

Idaho ran out the clock.

"I'm so overwhelmed," Nofoiaga said. "This is great."

"Oh, I think so," Tormey said when asked if this was the biggest win of his career. "This is a quality Division I win against a team outside of the conference. This gives credibility to the University of Idaho and the Big West Conference.

"I've told this team all along it's not where you start, but where you finish."

That's on top of the world.

Back to the Vandal Sports Page