MOSCOW, Idaho - A near-capacity crowd of 15,635 welcomed the University of Idaho football team to the Western Athletic Conference at the Kibbie Dome Saturday night, however the University of Hawai`i provided a rude awakening with 72 offensive plays totaling 405 yards as the Vandals were shut out 24-0.

The crowd, the biggest in the Kibbie Dome since 2000, welcomed the Vandals to the field with booming cheers as Idaho played its inaugural WAC football game. The wind was taken out of the sails of the Vandal faithful, however, as Hawai`i opened the game with a nine-play, 68-yard touchdown drive.

Idaho moved the ball with 10 plays for 34 yards on its next possession before T.J. Conley pinned the Warriors at their own three with a 41 yard punt.

The Vandal defense held strong, forcing a punt after a three-and-out, but Idaho gained negative yardage on its next drive and was forced to give up the ball again.

Conley pinned Hawai`i inside its own 10 yard line with another punt, but the Warriors were able to move the ball 43 yards before being forced to punt.

Idaho gained a first down on its next drive, but the offense sputtered after that to the tune of four plays for 20 yards.

Another punt set up Hawai`i for its second scoring drive as the Warriors moved 61 yards in five plays. A two-point conversion run to make up for a missed extra point earlier made the score 14-0 with 8:32 remaining in the half.

Idaho gained six yards on its next drive before punting to a Hawai`i offense that moved 40 yards in 11 plays and stalled on a fourth-and-11 with two seconds remaining in the half.

The Idaho defense held steady against the run in the first half, holding the Warriors to seven yards, but the passing game was a different story as Hawai`i quarterback Colt Brennan completed 22-of-27 passes for 259 yards and two touchdowns.

The most telling stat of the first half was third-down conversions as Hawai`i converted 7-of-10 opportunities. The Warriors gained 113 yards and scored one touchdown on third down alone in the first half. In comparison, Idaho had 104 total yards at the break.

"They were the same offense they are week in and week out," said Idaho head coach Nick Holt. "We gave them a lot of opportunities in the first half with how many plays we gave them and that offensive is going to score some points. The best defensive against that offense is to have a good offense and we did not have a good offense today."

Down just two scores coming back from halftime was a positive for the Vandals as they were set to receive the kickoff and could try to find a rhythm on offense. A mental mistake on the return, however, put Idaho at their own two yard line after the kick returner fielded the punt and stepped out of bounds. The Vandal offense gained a first down on an encroachment penalty, but the yards were quickly erased by a false start on the next snap. Idaho moved just eight yards on six plays before punting the ball away.

Each team went three-and-out twice before Hawai`i was able to put together another scoring drive. The Warriors drove 61 yards in seven plays before kicking a field goal to make the score 17-0 with 2:59 remaining in the third quarter.

The third quarter ended with the teams trading possessions.

Hawai`i's next scoring drive was set up by an intercepted pass thrown by Idaho quarterback Steven Wichman with 14:08 remaining in the game. The Warriors capitalized on the interception with a nine play, 52-yard scoring drive to make the score 24-0 with less than 10-minutes remaining.

The Idaho offense remained cold for the remainder of the game and the Warriors ran out the clock with their possessions.

"Offensively, it was really tough to get into any kind of rhythm," Wichman said. "We were going three-and-out and were not doing much and we weren't executing the way we would like to. We saw some good things and we saw some bad things and we need to get rid of those bad things. I know it sounds like the same story every week, but we have potential to be good and we just need to realize that."

Wichman completed just eight-of-25 passes for 112 yards and one interception. His performance was plagued with dropped passes, misreads and overthrows, and the loss of his primary receiver, D.J. Smith, who missed nearly 2 quarters of play after suffering a concussion.

"You don't plan for dropped passes, you don't plan to throw a pick, you don't plan to overthrow a receiver, but sometimes it happens and tonight it happened more often than we would have liked it to," Wichman said.

Idaho finished the game with 153 yards of total offense coupled with 10 first downs on 46 total plays.

"We show flares of some good things on offense, but we need to put it together on a consistent basis and balance it all out," Wichman said.