Vandals' playoff hopes gone

From local reports, and wire and news services

MOSCOW — Whatever flickering hopes Idaho may have had of reaching the FCS playoffs for a fourth straight season were extinguished Saturday afternoon. 

The Vandals fell behind early and never caught up in a 28-14 loss to No. 11 UC Davis in Big Sky Conference football play before 10,712 at the P1FCU Kibbie Dome. 

“Very disappointed,” first-year Idaho coach Thomas Ford Jr. said. “You get a ranked opponent in your place, and you do so many things well, but we couldn’t put a full game together. I’m very proud of the way our defense played; our defense did an amazing job of getting stops when we needed to. We took the ball out of the air; we sacked a quarterback that has been really hard to sack this season. That’s one of the top offenses not only in our league, but in the country. Although we didn’t stop them, we certainly slowed them down.” 

Idaho (4-6, 2-4 Big Sky) has two games left — Saturday at Sacramento State, then Nov. 22 at home against Idaho State. 

“It does give us a clear path to what this season can be,” Ford said. “It could be a season where we pack it in and not go hard, or we can do what we can to finish strong.”

Redshirt freshman Caden Pinnick threw three touchdown passes and ran for a score for UC Davis (7-2, 5-1), which was coming off a 38-36 home loss to Idaho State last week. 

Idaho was 1 of 11 on third down and 2 of 6 on fourth down. 

“Offensively, we’ve got a lot of work to do,” Ford said. “We made a ton of plays, but we were just atrocious on conversion downs. That’s not good enough.” 

Pinnick staked the Aggies to a 14-0 first-quarter lead with an 11-yard touchdown pass to Ian Simpson and an 8-yarder to Samuel Gbatu Jr. 

Joshua Wood capped a two-play drive when he fired a 68-yard scoring strike to Michael Graves as Idaho pulled within 14-7 just 11 seconds into the second quarter. 

On fourth down from the Aggie six-yard line, Wood lobbed a pass to an open Nolan McWilliams in the back of the end zone. A flag was thrown, and the potential tying score was overturned by a ruling of illegal touching against McWilliams, who had stepped out of the end zone. 

Pinnick scored on a 22-yard run to finish off a 10-play, 94-yard drive with 2:17 left for a 21-7 advantage at halftime. 

Pinnick's 3-yard scoring toss to Stacy Dobbins was the lone score in the third quarter. 

Wood connected with Graves again for a 35-yard touchdown and the Vandals cut it to 28-14 with 11:35 left to play. Wood drove Idaho to a first-and-goal at the 10-yard line with 2:46 remaining, but Jayden Stanley intercepted his fourth-down pass to end the threat. 

Pinnick finished with 248 yards on 21-for-27 passing with two interceptions. Gbatu had seven receptions for 110 yards and Jordan Fisher rushed for 103 yards on 21 carries. 

Wood made good on 20 of 38 passes for 297 yards with an interception.  

Graves, a senior who was banged up in fall camp, caught three passes for 112 yards and the two scores. 

“I was so proud of the way he played. I thought the kid played exceptional,” Ford said. 

Cornerback Caleb Ricks and safety Hayden John had their first career interceptions for the Vandals. 

Sam Brown of Idaho blocked a 50-yard field goal at the end of the first half, the Vandals’ first blocked field goal since Dec. 2, 2023 in the second round against Southern Illinois. 

UC Davis     14    7    7    0    —    28 

Idaho    0    7    0    7    —    14 

First quarter 

UCD — Simpson 11 pass from Pinnick (Ridley kick), 9:34 

UCD — Gbatu Jr. 8 pass from Pinnick (Ridley kick), :33 

Second quarter 

IDAHO — Graves 68 pass from Wood (Forsman kick), 14:49 

UCD — Pinnick 22 run (Ridley kick), 2:17 

Third quarter 

UCD — Dobbins 3 pass from Pinnick (Ridley kick), 8:29 

Fourth quarter 

IDAHO — Graves 35 pass from Wood (Forsman kick), 9:52 

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS 

RUSHING — UCD, Fisher 21-103, Gbatu Jr. 4-44, Pinnick 9-40, Acia 4-16. Idaho, Cummings 10-52, Wood 12-48, Thomas 2-17, McWilliams 1-12, Kincheloe 1-4. 

PASSING — UCD, Pinnick 21-27-2-248. Idaho, Wood 20-38-1-297, Cummings 0-1-0-0. 

RECEIVING — UCD, Gbatu Jr. 12-110, Simpson 5-53, Dobbins 4-16, Dixon 2-7, Fisher 1-32, Nixon 1-15, Jones 1-5. Idaho, McCraney 5-85, Cummings 5-36, Graves 3-112, Bogan 2-25, McWilliams 2-21, Jezioro 2-18, Cox 1-0.