Cody Getz and Connor Dietz stepped in to keep the Air Force offense humming – at least for a game.
Getz ran for 218 yards and three touchdowns, Dietz rushed for 74 yards and a score and had 142 yards passing, and Air Force beat Idaho State, 49-21, on Saturday in Air Force Academy, Colo.
Jon Lee and Mike DeWitt also had touchdown runs for the Falcons, who ran for 490 yards – 303 in the first half – and had 628 yards of total offense.
“It’s no surprise,” Air Force coach Troy Calhoun said. “(Dietz) has been in our program for a while. He’s got a nice grasp of what we’re doing offensively, and he had some guys around him that made some plays.”
Namely Getz. He needed just 17 carries to become the first Air Force player to rush for more than 200 yards since Chad Hall had 275 against Army on Nov. 3, 2007.
Getz had just 102 yards and a touchdown in 2011. By halftime Saturday he had topped those totals with 151 yards and three touchdowns.
Air Force tuned up against the Bengals, a Football Championship Subdivision team, before next week’s game against No. 8 Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich.
“Their perimeter blocking was shocking to our guys because we haven’t seen that blocking at our level,” said Idaho State coach Mike Kramer, a former head coach at Stadium High and Eastern Washington.
Kevin Yost was 41 of 52 for 355 yards passing and two touchdowns, and Josh Hill had 55 yards receiving and two scores for the Bengals.
It was Idaho State’s 33rd straight road loss dating back to 2006. The Bengals’ last road win came against Northern Colorado on Oct. 7, 2006.
The Bengals’ next away game is at Nebraska in three weeks, and ending the streak in Lincoln will be a tall task.
“We have a lot of mountains to climb that have nothing to do with who we play in the next week or the next month,” Kramer said.
At Montana 35, South Dakota 24: Trent McKinney passed for two touchdowns, Dan Moore ran for 148 yards and a touchdown, and Peter Nguyen added 102 yards rushing and a score to lead Grizzlies past the Coyotes in the season opener for both teams. Montana set a school record with 34 first downs in spoiling the homecoming of South Dakota coach Joe Glenn, who won the FCS national championship at Montana in 2001.
At New Mexico 66, Southern University 21: Demarcus Rogers rushed for 103 yards and a touchdown, freshman quarterback Cole Gautsche scored two rushing touchdowns, and the Lobos turned four Jaguars turnovers into touchdowns.
At Portland State 38, Carroll (Mont.) 20: D.J. Adams rushed for two touchdowns, and Kieran McDonagh threw a pair of touchdown passes to help the Vikings beat the Fighting Saints.
At Cal Poly 41, San Diego 14: Andre Broadous threw for two touchdowns and ran for two more, and the Mustangs beat the Toreros for their first win as a member of the Big Sky Conference.
At Montana St. 33, Chadron State 6: DeNarius McGhee threw four touchdown passes to give the Bobcats the win over the Division II Eagles.
At Fresno State 37, Weber State 10: Robbie Rouse picked up 123 yards on 22 carries and scored twice, and quarterback Derek Carr was 20-for-25 for 298 yards and two touchdowns as the Bulldogs jumped out to a 24-3 halftime lead in beating the Wildcats. Carr hit Davante Adams for TDs of 27 and 38 yards as Fresno State won in its first game as a member of the Mountain West Conference and Tim DeRuyter’s debut as coach.
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