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POCATELLO, Idaho- The Idaho State football team opened the 2016 season with a 47-3 win over Simon Fraser on Saturday afternoon at Holt Arena. The Bengals tallied 543 yards of total offense while holding Simon Fraser to 233.
Tanner Gueller threw for 338 yards and three touchdowns while completing 24 passes on 36 attempts.
KW Williams caught four passes for 121 yards and two touchdowns.
Jakori Ford rushed for 68 yards on 12 carries and one touchdown.
Defensively,
Joe Martin had nine tackles while
Mario Jenkins and
Jake Pettit each had seven. The Bengals had 13 tackles for loss and four sacks.
Joe Martin and
Ryan Shields had their first career interceptions while Adkin Aquirre recovered a fumble.
The ISU defense forced Simon Fraser into nine punts, three turnovers and one safety. Â The Clan from Simon Fraser also was held to -22 yards rushing.
The Bengals scored on their first possession when Gueller hit an open Williams on a 37-yard strike with 12:32 to play in the first quarter. The Bengals added 19 second quarter points to lead 26-0 at the break. Ford had an 11-yard touchdown run,
Zak Johnson kicked a 34-yard field goal and Gueller found Pat Carter in the end zone for a 29-yard pass. Simon Fraser also had a safety midway through the quarter.
Williams scored on a 63-yard touchdown pass from Gueller in the third. Following a Simon Fraser field goal with 5:16 left in the third,
Tom Jewell scored a touchdown with 9:49 to play when he recovered a fumble in the end zone and four minutes later
Michael Dean tallied a 15-yard touchdown run for the final score of the game.
Idaho State plays at Colorado next Saturday at 3:30 p.m. The game will be televised regionally on the Pac 12 Network in the state of Colorado.
Game Notes
-Game Captains were
Skyler Phillips,
Hayden Stout,
Jakori Ford and
Taison Manu.
- This was
Tanner Gueller's first win as the starting quarterback.
Depth at Running Back
Five different running backs had carries. Senior
Jakori Ford led the attack with 12 for 77 yards and a touchdown. Redshirt freshman
Ty Flanagan had eight carries for 39 yards and redshirt sophomore
James Madison had five for 43 yards. Freshman
Michael Dean had five carries for 29 yards and a touchdown.
Lonell Woodhouse had two carries.
Spreading the Ball Around
Nine different receivers caught passes and nobody had more than six receptions.
Hagen Graves caught six balls for 61 yards.
Josh Cook had five receptions for 57 yards and Williams had four receptions for 121 yards and two touchdowns.
Jakori Ford,
Pat Carter,
Mitch Gueller,
Ty Flanagan,
Michael Dean and
Austin Campbell all caught passes.
Williams Goes Deep
KW Williams 63 yards touchdown reception was his second longest reception of his career. His longest was 72 vs. Simon Fraser in 2014.
Welcome to Bengal Football
In the opening win 26 Bengals saw action for the first time at their respective positions. Seeing the field for the first time at their respective positions were,
Pat Carter,
Dallen Collins,
Chris Miedema,
Nikko Taylor,
Lorenzo Terry III,
Caleb Brown,
Robert Kvinsland,
Michael Dean,
Brandon Monroe,
James Madison,
Adkin Aguirre,
Ty Flanagan,
Luke Holloway,
Christian Holland,
Austin Campbell,
Ryan Shields,
Braiden Beckman,
Mason Jackson,
Nate Tavernier,
Garrett Smith,
Jake Hoggan,
Jacob Molenaar,
Dakota Wilson,
Chance Salutregui,
Clark Jeppesen and
Daniel Heck.
Post Game Quotes
Mike Kramer
"Really a fairly convincing effort, I wouldn't call it dominant. A lot of errors, a lot of inexperience on our offensive line that showed up a lot. Their defensive line got after our quarterback pretty good and we had too many turnovers at quarterback. Our defense played outstanding. We gave them some bad field position and looked like they were going to keep it to zero then we fumbled again. Â Really good job by
Simon Fraser. I think he knows guys are learning how to play and he's got a great base of experience in the CFL. He'll do fine at Simon Fraser."
"It was good for us to play our entire roster. Everybody played that was not going to be redshirted and I think that's good. Some of those guys played in their first action and they did pretty darn well. Particularly the guy I really have to cite would be
Dallen Collins at center. He's a true freshman who played his first game at center and first game he's ever suited up for as a Bengal. He snapped the ball every single time until we started subbing and Nate Tavenier started playing. You know it's pretty rare you come out of a game like this and you start talking about your center but that was a good thing for us. It just shows you in the program where you're at."
"You get guys wounded and people have to  step up and I thought a lot of our young guys on our offensive line stepped up. They didn't play great but they stepped up and played and we were able to be successful. On the real plus side it was great to see Taison back as a force in the back end. Of course we get
Mario Jenkins along with
Hayden Stout and that line backing corps pretty good."
"Joe had some nice plays and it was nice to see some of the younger line backers get their hands on the ball. We lost contain more times than I even want to count and that's an issue we have to get fixed. It's a growth with losing
Rasheed Williams. If Rasheed would've played today he'd have had a bushel. Those young defensive ends, hopefully they'll learn from this experience and be better in the future."
KW Williams on Screen play that led to 2 TD's
"I mean there wasn't anything in particular that made it work. Great blocking from the offensive line, receivers, running backs, Tanner put the ball on the money so just great execution."
Tanner Gueller
"Yeah it was good. I got a lot of protection up front so that makes it a lot easier. You know the receivers were running quick routes and getting open so yeah it felt good to get in a rhythm."
"We put up 47 points. It was a good win you know it's always good to get out in the first game and get a win so I wouldn't say we're down about it at all, just a lot to learn."
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