Friday nights in the fall are normally reserved for high school football, but the college game had some pretty entertaining matchups that served as an appetizer for an absolutely loaded Saturday slate.
Northwestern proved their close loss to Indiana was not a fluke, as they bludgeoned Penn State at home to give the new coaching staff in Happy Valley some more tough questions that need answering.
There was also Virginia Tech and Pitt’s thrilling (and controversial) ending in the battle of “why aren’t we ranked in the AP Poll” occupying the primetime slot.
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But, the most entertaining and consequential ending of the night happened in a small town in Idaho while the rest of the college football watching world was likely asleep.
Montana State waltzed into the Kibbie Dome in Moscow, Idaho, expecting to take care of business against a winless Vandals team.
Instead, the Bobcats bit off a bit more than they could chew.
Let’s start with the actual ending of the game on the field.
Idaho had the ball at midfield trailing 34-27 with eight seconds left and no timeouts – that’s an important detail.
As Vandals quarterback Joshua Wood completed a pass for a first down, the clock ticked closer to zero.
That is, until Montana State coach Brent Vigen inexplicably called a timeout, essentially gifting the Vandals one last play.
That strategy backfired horrifically, as Wood fired a pass to wide receiver Ryan Jezioro smack dab in the middle of the endzone.
An extra point would have tied the game and sent it to overtime, but Idaho said “no thank you,” and ran a QB draw to cap off a 14-point fourth quarter comeback with an outright win in regulation.
Pretty insane, right?
It gets even crazier when you consider that the Vandals were winless this season while the Bobcats were undefeated and the number one team in FCS.
Oh, and by the way, Montana State is the reigning FCS national champion and carried a 19-game winning streak into the Kibbie Dome on Friday night.
Talk about David vs. Goliath!
There might have been some extra motivation in this one too, as the Bobcats knocked Idaho out of the FCS Playoffs in 2024.
High level, Power 4 college football is awesome, there’s no question about it, but if you can’t appreciate a good FCS matchup like this, then you don’t actually love college football.
Who knows what could happen to games like this if the highest level of the sport continues down the path it’s on, but for now, I’m going to keep enjoying some damn good football.
Thanks for an entertaining start to the weekend, Idaho.
