A healing win: Vandals will find out this morning if they’re in the FCS playoffs

POCATELLO — At the end of an emotional week, and heading into a must-win game with a backup quarterback — and a true freshman at that — the Idaho Vandals delivered.

QB Jack Layne came up big in his first college start, Idaho got back in the turnover business and the Vandals stated their case for an FCS playoff bid by handling the Idaho State Bengals 38-7 on Saturday afternoon before 7,706 at Holt Arena.

The game came six days after four University of Idaho students were killed in a Moscow rental home.

“Really proud of our team; it’s been weighing on us all week,” first-year Idaho coach Jason Eck said. “The loss of Xana and Kaylee and Maddie and Ethan has been hard on our community, our whole town, and our team. That was kind of our goal coming in, to have a three-hour diversion where we were able to put a smile on the faces of Vandals and take their minds off everything that’s been going on.

“Just so happy for our players, too, to get to seven wins; that’s a heckuva turnaround, to be 7-4, 6-2 in the Big Sky, third place. I think we deserve to be in the playoffs, and we’ll find out tomorrow morning.”

Idaho (7-4, 6-2 Big Sky) finished tied for third in the Big Sky with Weber State (9-2, 6-2), behind Montana State (10-1, 8-0) and Sacramento State (11-0, 8-0).

The 24-team FCS playoff team will be revealed this morning (9:30 a.m., ESPNU). The top eight teams will receive first-round byes; the other 16 teams will play this weekend.

Quarterback Gevani McCoy, who has had a splendid redshirt freshman season, didn’t play because of a knee injury: Eck said he should be ready to go next week.

In stepped Layne, who was 18 of 29 for 255 yards and one touchdown, and one interception.

“By the end of Wednesday we were pretty sure that he was going to start,” Eck said of Layne. “‘Vani was a little limited. ‘Vani warmed up today, but at the end we didn’t think it was worth him going. We have a lot of confidence in Jack. Jack was right in the heat of the quarterback battle in camp and he ended up breaking his finger and that kind of slowed him down a little bit. But we had a ton of confidence in him, and I thought he played well, except for a few plays where he forced it a little bit.”

“I was excited for an opportunity like this,” said Layne, from Lake Oswego (Ore.) High. “I just wanted to come out with a win, not just for our team and our seniors, but for the community of Moscow, because it’s been a rough week.

“Football’s so great, because it gives you an outlet for three hours on a Saturday to direct your focus on something else. I hope we were able to make the healing a little bit better, for our community and the state.”

Hayden Hatten continued his superb season with nine catches for a career-high 158 yards, including a 9-yard TD catch for his 15th receiving touchdown of the season, breaking the Vandal single-season record of 14, set by Jerry Hendren in 1968.

“He’s my roommate on these road trips,” Layne, who threw his first TD pass as a Vandal, said of Hatten. “He’s been through a lot of losing seasons, and he’s worked so hard, and I wanted to get him that (record).”

Roshaun Johnson scored on three short touchdown runs, giving him 26 career rushing TDs, tied with Ken Hobart for fifth all time.

Cornerback Marcus Harris had a 56-yard pick-6 early in the second quarter to boost the Vandals’ lead to 21-7.

“Really just trying to make a play,” Harris said. “Needed a spark, so just trying to make a play, and once I got my hands on the football, just trying to score.”

Murvin Kenion III and Ormanie Arnold also had interceptions for Idaho. The Vandals also recovered an ISU fumble at the 1, then marched 99 yards in 9 minutes, 10 seconds, capped by Johnson’s third score of the game for a 31-7 lead late in the third.

“I brought that up with the players and the coaches — the last two weeks we hadn’t gotten any takeaways,” said Eck, whose team led the turnover battle 17-7 heading into Saturday. “Three interceptions, and that fumble on the goal line, then to go on a 99-yard drive afterward, that was a turning point of the game. That’s our recipe for winning — winning the turnover battle.”

Wyoming transfer Tyler Vander Waal was 8 for 21 for 121 yards and three interceptions for ISU (1-10, 1-7), under first-year coach Charlie Ragle. Forty nine of those yards came on a first-quarter flea-flicker that tied the game at 7.

Losses by Montana (7-4, 4-4) and UC Davis (6-5, 5-3) will help Idaho’s playoff cause. The Vandals last made the FCS playoffs in 1995 — their last year in the Big Sky before moving up to Division I (now FBS) for 22 seasons.

Eck said they didn’t show any score updates in Holt Arena during the game, so he grabbed his phone after the game and started checking scores.

“I think we’re one of the best teams,” he said. “I think Montana State winning helped us today. I think the Big Sky has shown to be one of the best conferences historically, especially this year … I think to be a third-place team in that conference, you deserve to be in … we’ll see what happens.”

While the outside world might have been skeptical, Harris said he and his Vandal teammates knew at the beginning of the year there was a potential for a special season.

“We knew what we had in the room; we just had to bring it all together,” he said. “A lot of talented guys on the team; a lot of guys that came from FBS (schools), so we knew we could get to the playoffs, it was just a matter of bringing it all together.”