TROY, Ala. - In a word: Turnovers. Seven turnovers.        

            While only two directly resulted in points, the others crumbled drives and quashed momentum as the Idaho Vandals lost 47-7 at Troy University on a muggy Saturday afternoon.

            "When you have seven turnovers, you're not going to beat anybody," head coach Nick Holt said.

            Quarterback Michael Harrington, who yielded his position to Brian Nooy early in the third quarter, echoed his coach's sentiments.

            "It doesn't make any difference who you play, if you're playing a high school team, you're not going to win with that many turnovers," said Harrington, who was intercepted twice to Nooy's three. The final turnover tally was the result of two lost fumbles.

            Idaho started the game with a snappy drive that had the look of a length-of-the-field effort until Rolly Lumbala fumbled on second down at the Troy 19. Johnny Faulk recovered the ball for the Trojans and returned it 79 yards to score with 12:39 left in the first.

            The same was not true of the Vandals' second drive, which wound up a three-and-out and, after a Mike Barrow punt, allowed the Trojans to start their first offensive series at their own 24. Troy kept the ball on the ground eight of the next nine plays with the ninth play DeWhitt Betterson's eight-yard scoring run. After an illegal shift on the PAT moved the ball to the UI 8, Greg Whibbs PAT attempt missed and left Troy with a 13-0 lead with 7:58 in the first.

            That scenario repeated itself for the Vandals on their next possession but this time the Trojans struck quickly with Leodis McKelvin's 60-yard return of another Barrow punt. The subsequent Whibbs' kick put Troy up 20-0 just past the midpoint of the first quarter.

            After trading possessions on third-and-outs, Idaho came back to the form with which started the game. Harrington engineered an eight-play, 80-yard drive that culminated in Luke Smith-Anderson's 28-yard touchdown reception with :05 to go in the opening period. Barrow's kick closed the gap to 20-7.

            The fireworks of the first quarter were gone in the second as the defenses took over. Idaho's most productive drive ended when, after the Vandals had marched to the Troy 5, Harrington was intercepted in the end zone by Sherrod Martin. The only scoring came as time ran out and Whibbs was good on a 37-yard field goal to send the Trojans to the locker room with a 23-7 lead.

            The Vandals' season-long third-quarter woes continued.

Troy scored first on a 19-yard field goal then added a TD when Leverne Johnson returned an intercepted pass 24 yards to put the Trojans up 33-7 with slightly more than four minutes gone in the period. A third-and-out followed for the Vandals. After an incomplete pass on first down, Betterson broke free through the middle then down the left sideline for a 56-yard TD run and, with a Whibbs' kick, a 40-7 Troy lead with 8:27 left in the third. The Trojans added one more third-quarter score - a Kenny Cattouse 26-yard scamper - for what wound up the final 47-7 margin.

Brian Nooy spelled Harrington when the Vandals took over at the 10:56 mark. However, he wasn't able to move the Vandals consistently or effectively against the Sun Belt's number one defense either.

The Trojans had just one scoring play that was less than 10 yards. The others were the 79-yard fumble recovery return, the 60-yard punt return, a 24-yard interception return, and runs of 56 and 26 yards.

"The problem was missed tackles," cornerback J.R. Ruffin said. "We had a lot of missed tackles. If we had eliminated those, we would have eliminated the big plays."

            "I'm really disappointed," Holt said. "It was really, really bad."