Bengals Fall to No. 11 Utah, 31-0

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SALT LAKE CITY, Utah -  The Idaho State football team lost 31-0 to No. 11 Utah on Saturday in front of a crowd of 45,989 at Rice-Eccles Stadium. 

The Bengal defense forced the first Utah turnover of the season when Garret Crane recovered a fumble in the fourth quarter. The fumble was forced by Luke Holloway.

The Utah offense had 543 yards of total offense while the Bengals had 116. Idaho State had 36 on the ground and 116 in the air.

Ty Flanagan rushed for 46 yards on 13 carries. Austin Campbell caught four passes for 33 yards and Michael Dean caught four passes for 28 yards.

Utah led 17-0 after the first quarter and 24-0 at halftime. In the second quarter the Idaho State defense also stopped the Ute offense on the goal line on a fourth and goal.

 The only points of the second was a third quarter touchdown with 7:51 left in the third quarter.

Idaho State returns to the field on Sept. 21 for a 3 p.m. (MST) contest at Northern Iowa. The game will be televised on ESPN3.

Idaho State Post-Game Quotes
Utah vs. Idaho State
Sept. 14, 2019 – Rice-Eccles Stadium
 
Head Coach Rob Phenicie
On what it was like playing the No. 11 team in the FBS…
"It was pretty much what we thought it would be. They are big and physical. Your margin for error is minimal when you play one of these games and you can't give up big plays. I would be content if they had to go on 20-play drives, that's fine. Some of the things we have to address is giving up big plays. Kudos to our defense. The Utes took the first drive down to the whatever yard line and we held them to a field goal. Like I said, are there moral victories? No. But we held them on fourth down at the other end. We created the first turnover they've had all year. So we did some good things."
 
"You could see that the difference with these Power Five teams compared to the Big Sky teams is we're a step slower. We're a step behind. That's the difference. They're going to play Washington State and USC in the next two weeks. We have to go look at what we did. We've already talked about it in the locker room. For us now, it's all about playing Northern Iowa and getting to the playoffs."
 
On what led to Utah's big plays…
"Just not quite doing the assignment to the exact way it should be. When you've got cover three, you can't get beat deep when you are in deep corner, and we just had a linebacker miss the wheel. Like I said, it's one thing if they drive 20 plays at a time. But handing them big plays is not what we wanted to do. That's not to say that the defense didn't play great. We held them to seven points in the second half."
 
On how his offense did against Utah's defense…
"There's some things that we need to address on offense. But we protected a lot better than I thought we could. (Offensive coordinator) Mike Ferriter and I were concerned about that. Those guys manned-up a little bit and did a good job. But that's a stout front on the other side. It is one of the top if not the top front in the country. They have some big dudes. Number 6 (Bradlee Anae) and 99 (Leki Fotu) are great players and they have some good linebackers. Their scheme is not that difficult but they are very good at executing."
 
On how his team responded to things…
"The one thing this team didn't do, there was never a sense of panic in the whole game on the sideline. It's a tribute to these guys. They were in it the whole time. They were tuned in. Our coaches did a great job of coaching these guys up. They felt like that at any time they were going to get on a role and get a couple of touchdowns."
 
TE - Austin Campbell
On the experience of playing Utah…
"It was a lot of fun. Really a great atmosphere. Really good fans, a great team and a great venue. It was a pretty cool experience."
 
On what Utah did to limit their offense…
"They had a good defensive game plan against us. It was kind of one of those days. Offensively, we need to get better. I don't think we're hitting on all cylinders like where we want to be later on this year."
 
LB - Kody Graves
On playing a team like Utah…
"It's always fun to play a Pac-12 team. It's kind of weird because you didn't really notice the crowd all that much. You notice it when you run out on to the field. It wasn't really that filled up when I went out with the captains. But then a couple of series in, it got to be a pretty packed house."
 
On what Utah did on offense…
"They are really physical and have three or four running backs they can put in and they are all good. We knew that coming in. We see a couple of teams like that in our conference like that, like North Dakota and Montana State, where they have really big backs who are really talented. We gave up a couple of big plays in the first half and then we tightened up in the second half. The tackling had to be a little bit better and we took care of that in the second half. Really, there were three or four plays that come to mind in that first half. But I feel like if we eliminate those, it's a closer game."


Notes
- 31 points is the fewest points a Power 5 team has scored on the Bengals. In 2016 Oregon State scored 37.
- Austin Campbell had a career-high four receptions.
- Connor Wills had a season-high eight tackles.