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Week 8 vs. The University of Louisiana at Monroe

Cave_Johnson

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Ah yes, the Indians...er....I mean Warhawks. Well, they were the Indians the last time they came to Moscow. That was 11 years ago during Idaho's first stint in the Sun Belt, and the Vandals lost that game 16-14 behind Joey Harrington's younger brother Michael, current BC Lion Rolly Lumbala, and Jayson Bird who is one of my favorite Vandals of all time.

This is the second straight week Idaho will be play a team without an FBS win on the season, and next week may be the third if Troy does not beat NMSU this week. The Indi....Warhawks have already faced the top two Sun Belt teams in Georgia Southern and App. St as well as the likes of Alabama and Georgia. If nothing else this team is battle tested. However.......

ULM comes into this one just as injured as Idaho if not more so. From what I understand they are missing 6 of their top 8 WRs, an all conference DT (suspended), and 3 more defensive starters. Idaho will be dealing with 2 scholarship corners for the first half after Dorian Clark was kicked out of the game last week due to a laughable "targeting" call. Don't get me started on that horse shit. Expect Epps to line up at the nickel and Khalin Smith to see plenty of reps at LB. Both guys played well last week on the other side of the ball. I can't imagine Idaho suites up more than the 20 active defensive players they had last week, but I may be wrong. Most of the depth issues are in the secondary but luckily ULM averages over 2 turnovers ( 1.5 picks ) per game. Idaho won the turnover battle 4-0 last week so if they can take care of the ball I like their chances.

Speaking of the Troy game, even with the late arrival in Alabama and the injuries the Vandal defense managed to shut out Troy in the first half and hold the Trojans to 16 total points overall. Of course a lot of that has to do with the Troy coaching staff not realizing how terrible their back up QB was until the fourth quarter but I'm not complaining. This defense needs all the confidence they can get. Maybe the secret to their success is only getting 3 hours of sleep? Seemed to work last week, perhaps Breske gives that a try again on Saturday.

On offense Idaho gets WR Callen Hightower back from injury and David Ungerer will likely see more reps in Idaho's base 3 WR set. With those two and Epps they've got a solid starting WR corps. Linehan is going to be banged up again but I don't see Luton coming in much this game after Linehan showed he was able to move the ball much more effectively than the freshman back up even when injured. Luton has been a magician at the goal line this year however so we may see him take the snaps inside the 5.

Prediction: U of I spoiled Troy's homecoming game last week so I'm sure they don't want that happening to them tomorrow. I picked Idaho to win this one at the beginning of the year and I haven't seen or heard anything that makes me believe they can't make that prediction come true. ULM won't be stupid like Troy and avoid throwing deep on the injured Idaho secondary. They get their points but Idaho comes away with the win on a last second FG by Austin "Uncle" Rehkow ( Mid season all american placekicker. That's right, not punter, placekicker. USA TODAY Sports Midseason All-America team).

Score: Idaho 33 ULM 31

The #10 stadium with the best atmosphere in college football ( The 10 stadiums with the best atmosphere in college football ) will be rocking ( I hope ).
 

Cave_Johnson

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Well this team has already met the win total I predicted at the beginning of the season. First 2 game winning streak since the 2009 season which was also the last time this team made a bowl game (Michigan State's win over Michigan: Most improbable in past 10 years? - Stats & Info - ESPN).

Really, this game was not as close as the score indicated. Idaho turned the ball over 3 times in the first half and twice inside their own 20. 10 of ULM's 13 points came directly from Idaho turnovers. Luckily something has awoken in the Vandal defense. Sure their recent success on D may be partially due to the fact that they've just played two of the worst teams in FBS, but since the bye week they've given up 14.5 points per game. Kaden Ellis had a fantastic day and all members of the secondary really showed up despite all the injuries. The run defense was excellent, pass defense was solid ( even if they needed some help from dropped balls), and they did not make it easy for ULM to score in the red zone. Despite the -3 turnover difference the D held strong.

Offensively Linehan fumbled and had one under thrown ball that resulted in a pick in the first half but other than that was spot on. Big TD to Cowan at the end of the first half really got the team fired up and Deon Watson had his best game as a Vandal with two other big TD catches. Epps had clutch catch after clutch catch and Elijhaa Penny punished the Warhawk defense to the turn of 184 yards on 36 carries. Just a great overall team win. And can't forget game ball recipient Jace Malek. Fucking great story if nobody knows about it Cancer can't hold Jace Malek back .

Really solid performance by Idaho when you get right down to it. Could have easily been something like 37-3.

On to NMSU who IMO is not as bad as their record indicates. The Vandals better come out ready to play, the last time they won in Las Cruces was........2009.
 
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