Lentils and Football Part 249: Vandals End Sooners’ Title Hopes Behind Myrick, Swinton
There was plenty still left to play for at the Kibbie Dome on Saturday night, but an overpowering Idaho offense was able to knock the #4 Oklahoma Sooners off the tight-rope they’ve been walking all season long. Both Kellen Myrick and Cleveland Goolsby ran for over 100 yards, and Myrick accounted for 6 TDs for the seventh time this season. The Vandals ran roughshod over the Sooners by a score of 59–17 to finish the regular season undefeated and advance to the Tier-1 Conference Championship for the eighth straight year.
Welcome to Lentils and Football, an alternate history of the Idaho Vandals. In the early 2010s events began that lead to the Vandals to be the first college football team to voluntarily drop from FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) to FCS (Football Championship Subdivision); Lentils and Football imagines a world where these events went very differently with the hiring of fictional coach Merlin Gibbs. This story is told via the NCAA 14 video game and a bit of imagination.
The Sooners came into the regular season finale with a record of 10–1, but they have been flirting with disaster seemingly all season long. Their only loss came back in Week 4 against Georgia Tech, but that it was a pretty well decided contest that the Yellow Jackets easily won by a score of 48–13. Since then the Sooners have gotten by on a series of narrow victories that include nine of their 10 wins coming by less than 7 points. That’s made their average score of a game this year be 34–32. It’s the type of nightmare fuel that coaches dread. Just a constant state of trying to hold things together while the universe seems to have it out for you at every turn.
On the flip side to that coin is the Idaho Vandals. Their average game score this year is somewhere in the 60–11 neighborhood. Starting fast has become the rule and not the exception, and with a team that’s had a season like Oklahoma has, it couldn’t have been more imperative for the Vandals to put them away as soon as possible.
Head Coach Merlin Gibbs knew allowing the Sooners to hang around would only fuel their fire, so when the Vandals dominated the 1st quarter you could feel the collective exhale of all the fans in attendance. Despite that domination, it wasn’t quite reflected on the scoreboard the way Coach Gibbs would have liked.
“There was plenty to like about how we looked out there to start, we just picked a bad time to have a turnover. We sort of left the door open for things to stay close enough for them to feel like they had a shot. I think if we get up on them a little bit earlier they probably would have folded up like a lawn chair. Would have liked us to start more like we did after halftime. Defensively I like the way we kept the energy up. We’re pretty intent on bringing a lot of pressure, and that creates a feeling of chaos. Whether we’re up by 7 or 35, I want the other team to feel relieved after every play is over. They should feel like everything will fall apart at any moment and they should be grateful every time it doesn’t. They should thank us for being so merciful every time they gain a yard.”
That’s a pretty strong position from a guy who’s team was only up 7–0 at the end of the 1st quarter, but as we now know, things were just getting started.
It looked like Oklahoma had basically sealed their fate right from the get-go when they turned in a lightning-fast three and out to start the game. Even a 68 yard punt by Trevor Mills did little to hold the Vandal offense at bay. Idaho used the no-huddle offense extensively on Saturday, getting off 72 plays to just 52 for the Sooners, and Oklahoma was hellbent on eliminating the big play from Idaho’s arsenal. That left things a little soft underneath, and Kellen Myrick worked the short passing game to perfection. A 14-play drive would have the Sooner defense gasping for air, and perhaps we should consider Myrick’s 2 yard TD pass to TE Billy Swinton as the first showing of mercy for the day.
The Vandals were all set to make it 14–0 on their second drive, but were turned away as Myrick was looking in Swinton’s direction again but would be intercepted by Oklahoma LB Trent Horton in the endzone. The Sooners were not able to capitalize on the turnover, and all it seemed to do was delay the inevitable. Myrick and Swinton would eventually find each other again, this time for a 7 yard TD that gave the Vandals that 14–0 lead they were looking for with less than a minute gone by in the 2nd quarter.
Oklahoma’s offense spent the day switching gears between “totally inept” and “hotter than a super-nova”. It seemed like for every three-and-out they’d stumble through, there was an explosive play waiting for them on the other side. The 411 total yards of offense (376 passing & 35 rushing) are the most that Idaho has allowed so far this year, and after falling behind by two scores the sleeping giant was finally awoken. Sooner QB Craig Burley was sacked 8 times on Saturday, but the times when his O-Line was able to hold up and give him time, he was spectacular. Burley would convert a 3rd and 18 with a 24 yard TD pass to WR Tyler Stewart, overcoming a sack by Tim McKnight and finally getting Oklahoma on the board.
That score would be wiped out rather quickly, and of course it was the Myrick-to-Swinton connection again. Another 7 yard TD made it the third score for each in the 1st half, and while it was clear that Idaho had figured out how to attack Oklahoma’s defense, the Sooners didn’t offer up any adjustments until after halftime. The two sides would trade long field goals before the end of the 2nd quarter, with Oklahoma’s Brett Anderson and his 50 yard try being bested by Idaho Freshman Bobby Cannon and his 54 yard surface-to-air missile that split the uprights as time expired.
The score was only 24–10, but it was apparent to everyone that the Vandals were in complete control of this one. With the Sooners defense offering little to no resistance, that left Coach Gibbs and his staff to try and predict what they’d be facing in the 3rd quarter.
“I’m sure if we just kept on the same path we would have still been fine, but they’re too good of a team to just keep rolling the same defense out there and getting their dicks handed to them. With our no-huddle stuff being so effective, we were able to show them so much stuff. Just the sheer number of plays we ran was enough to put the thought of limitless possibilities in their mind. Everything was on the table for us because they really couldn’t key on any one thing. I have to think that playing defense against us is like playing Russian roulette with a fully loaded revolver. Spin the cylinder all you want, there’s a bullet in every chamber.”
Kellen Myrick and the Vandal offense would empty the clip during the 3rd quarter and wasted no time getting started. Their opening possession lasted barely thirty seconds as Myrick would complete passes to Desmond Novak (27 yards), Jordan Dukes (23 yards) and TE Joel Callahan (29 yards), then finished things off himself with a 3 yard run for his fifteenth rushing TD of the season.
That scoring drive was the equivalent of punching someone in the face before they even knew they were in a fight. The Sooners never recovered after that and all their thoughts of mounting a comeback never got off the ground. Craig Burley’s shot at trying to respond to the Vandals score would be disastrous as his deep ball for WR Tyrone Quincy would be intercepted by Cedric Ayers. Idaho would switch gears on offense and start to work the ground game, which meant Cleveland Goolsby was free to cause a ruckus.
Goolsby only had 4 carries in the 1st half, but he and Kellen Myrick started getting some big chunks working the option game. It would be Myrick’s arm that would do the finishing however as another pair of short TD passes would help bury the Sooners. A 6 yard strike to Jordan Dukes came first, followed by the fourth score of the day for Billy Swinton when he was left wide open thanks to some play action near the goal line. The 2 yard TD was Swinton’s tenth score of the season, putting him behind only Desmond Novak for the team lead.
A pair of TDs for Cleveland Goolsby would come for the Vandals in the 4th quarter. Runs of 3 and 5 yards made the score 59–10, which meant that Idaho had ripped off 35 unanswered points in the 2nd half without so much as a sniffle from the Oklahoma offense. Perhaps the Sooners were just holding in a sneeze, because after the last TD by Goolsby they’d hit their biggest play of the day. QB Craig Burley would get rid of the ball quickly as WR Andre Pruitt would beat the press coverage from Kerry Hollingsworth, and with no help in coverage it was a foot race to the endzone that Pruitt would win. The 76 yard TD would have been a tough pill to swallow if not for the celebratory champagne (of beers #TeamHighLife) that awaited the Vandals in the locker room.
Cleveland Goolsby used a big 2nd half to have one of his best days of the season. The 166 yards rushing were his second highest total in a game this year, and he added another 48 yards receiving on 5 catches. Myrick finished with exactly 100 yards on the ground, along with 368 yards and 5 TDs passing while hitting season-high marks in completions (34) and attempts (40).
It wasn’t just the four trips to the endzone that made it a big day for TE Billy Swinton either. The Junior had career highs in receptions (15) and yards (145), making this one certainly a day to remember. Jordan Dukes chipped in with 44 yards and a TD among his 4 catches and Desmond Novak grabbed 6 balls for 75 yards. It may have been cold outside, but the Kibbie Dome was built for chucking that pigskin around.
Saturday was the fourth time this year the Vandals have recorded at least 8 sacks in game on defense. That brought their season total to 73, putting them within striking distance of last year’s record setting total of 82. Chet Downs turned in a 4-sack effort that brought his season total to 22. It’s truly been a remarkable season for the first-year starter. Tim McKnight had 3 sacks of his own among his team-leading 9 tackles. DBs Cedric Ayers and Archie Alexander each had 5 tackles and an interception, while another pair of DBs (Freshmen Reuben Jefferson and Stephon Landingham) both had 4 tackles a piece.
“I really liked the way we finished this regular season. Four straight ranked opponents is a tough gauntlet to go through, but we had some really good stretches of football and every part of our repertoire had to carry some extra weight at some point. Being in this position is our goal every year, and we know as good as anyone that it takes a lot of work to get here. I know these guys are excited to get on the field next week and keep this party going. Lentils and football. It’s Miller time.”
News and Notes: As usual, the time we’ve all been waiting for has arrived. The Vandals have advanced to the Tier-1 Championship game next week, and we’re a for a rematch.
Idaho will take on the #10 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets for a chance to go to their 8th straight National Championship. Georgia Tech was the last man standing in the Tier-1 East division that also had #5 Texas and #7 Florida State, but the 9–3 Yellow Jackets held the tie-breaker over the Longhorns.
#2 Arkansas, #3 Syracuse and #4 Connecticut are all participating in their respective conference championships next week as well, plenty of chances for a shake up in the rankings.
