MOSCOW, Idaho — The Idaho football team comes off its bye week preparing to renew a rivalry with undefeated No. 3/2 Montana on Saturday in Missoula.
Despite playing two FBS schools already this season, Vandals head coach Jason Eck says Montana may be the best team his squad will face.
"Obviously this would be a huge win for us, it would be our biggest win of the season. It's a chance to get that little brown stein and reignite this rivalry. Rivalries are not rivalries when one team always wins," Eck said.
Idaho has not beaten Montana since 1999 and has lost the last seven meetings between the two schools. Coach Eck says the run game will be critical to the outcome Saturday.
"We have to find a way to run the ball and to maintain possession. They like to run the ball as well, so I think that will be a big challenge in this game. They only give up about 2.2 yards per rush which is outstanding. If they win the rushing battle and run for a lot more yards than we do, it will be tough to win this game," Eck said.
Idaho will attempt to fix the mistakes they made in the games against Washington State and Indiana on Saturday.
"Eliminating turnovers and pre snap penalties will be key. I think we need to do a good job of negating the momentum of the game. We cannot allow them to have big plays to energize the crowd and let that rattle you," Eck said.
The matchup between Idaho and Montana is the only matchup of undefeated teams in Big Sky conference play this week.
Idaho will be without wide receivers Terez Traynor and Jordan Dwyer in this game due to injury.
The game Saturday at Grizzly Stadium is set to kick off at noon. We will have highlights for you on KREM 2 News at 5, 6, 10 and 11 p.m. Saturday evening.
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