Rough travel day for Idaho leads to first road win in nearly four years

A late arrival to Troy on Saturday morning might have been the key to Idaho’s first road win since 2011.

The Vandals’ chartered plane out of Spokane on Friday was delayed 14 hours because of mechanical issues. By the time the team took off, it was 3:30 a.m. Pacific Time on Saturday and the game was scheduled to kickoff at 1:30 p.m. Central Time.

The flight took about four hours and players arrived in enough time to get breakfast and attend position meetings before loading the bus for an hour-long ride to Troy.

By the end of the day, the Vandals had defeated the Trojans 19-16 thanks to four made field goals, including the game winner with about 3 minutes remaining, from Austin Rehkow.

It was Idaho’s first road win since defeating San Jose State on Nov. 5, 2011, and gave the Vandals their first two-win season since that same year.

Even more astonishing was that Idaho held Troy scoreless and kept the Trojans out of the end zone until the fourth quarter with a depleted defense. At least five starting defensive players were out because of injury, which prompted Petrino to play star receiver Dezmon Epps as a defensive back in the Vandals’ nickel package on the final series. Epps finished with 10 catches for 131 yards and two tackles.

“I’m so proud of our players,” coach Paul Petrino said. “I’ve won Sugar Bowls, Cotton Bowls, huge games my whole life. I don’t know if any one was better than that. With everything our players went through the last 24 hours, for them to go out there and lay it on the line like that … give it everything they’ve got. It’s just a special day.”

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Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at dr.saturday@ymail.com or follow her on Twitter! Follow @YahooDrSaturday

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