Four games into the 2024 season, the University of Idaho football team has already played three ranked teams — two in FCS and one in FBS.
And the Vandals are about to face another.
No. 4 Idaho begins Big Sky Conference play against No. 11 UC Davis on Saturday at UC Davis Health Stadium in Davis, California. Kickoff is 8 p.m. Mountain time, and the game will be streamed live on ESPN+.
“We’re certainly battle-tested,” Idaho coach Jason Eck said during his weekly press conference. “... To be 3-1 now going into conference play, I think we’re ready to go, and we face a really good challenge against UC Davis.”
According to the Massey computer ratings , Idaho has the third-toughest schedule among Football Championship Subdivision teams behind No. 1 South Dakota State and No. 2 North Dakota State.
The Vandals (3-1) opened the season with a 24-14 loss to then-No. 3 Oregon — a game in which the Ducks were favored by 45 points — followed by a 17-13 win over Mountain West member Wyoming. They also defeated No. 23 Albany (1-2) and No. 22 Abilene Christian (2-2) as their FCS schedule began.
Idaho received five first-place votes in the latest Stats Perform FCS Top 25 Poll, which is part of the FCS playoff committee’s selection criteria, and one first-place nod in the coaches’ poll. One of those votes came from NCAA FCS football reporter Stan Becton , who had this so say about the Vandals:
“Idaho moves up to No. 1 after defeating a ranked opponent in dominant fashion for the second straight week. The Vandals have the best resume in the country: two ranked FCS wins, an FBS win and one loss to a top-10 FBS team,” Becton said.
In Year 3 under Eck, the Vandals look to make more history. They’ve advanced to the FCS playoffs in back-to-back years for the first time since 1994-95, including a quarterfinal appearance last year, which included their first home postseason game in 30 years.
But Eck was quick to point out Monday that he’s never beaten the Aggies since taking over in Moscow.
“We see these coaches a couple times a year. We have Big Sky meetings, so you hate sitting in there knowing you’ve never beat somebody,” Eck said. “Even before that, I mentioned in the locker room after the last game that we had not beat UC Davis since we’ve been here. And then ... since we’ve been back in the Big Sky, we haven’t beat UC Davis.”
The Aggies are coached by former Boise State offensive coordinator Tim Plough , who was fired four games into the Broncos’ 2022 season. Plough took over at his alma mater this season. He played quarterback for the Aggies from 2004 to 2007.
UC Davis is coming off a 32-14 victory over Utah Tech in front of a record home crowd of 14,832. The Aggies are led by Preseason All-American running back Lan Larison, a Vallivue High graduate.
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