Idaho football is 3-1 in 2023 after a statement win over Sacramento State on Saturday. Good teams win, great teams cover and the Vandals covered.
However, those on the other end of the matchup suffered an all-time bad college football beat. Hornets bettors are sick.
The mayhem went down in the final second of the game. Literally. There was one second remaining.
Idaho entered the game as 3.5-point favorites. Thus, Sacramento State was 3.5-point underdogs.
The Hornets were in great position to cover as the game came to a close. They faced a three-point deficit with exactly one second left. One.
On the flip side, the Vandals were set to win the game by a field goal. They were up by three points, which was not good enough to cover the spread.
And then chaos struck.
Idaho kicked the likely game-winning field goal from about 25 yards out with five seconds left. It went through the uprights with one second on the clock.
As a result, Sacramento State had one last opportunity to flip the score on the proceeding kickoff, which was to be the final play of the game. What happened next was the exact opposite.
The Vandals squibbed the ball down field and the Hornets scooped it up. There was nowhere to go and the visitors would have covered if the return man was tackled.
Instead, the ball-carrier threw a backwards pass across the field to one of his teammates. It bounced off of the turf and landed right in the hands of an Idaho player.
The game would have been over if he had just gone down. The Vandals would have won, but they would not have covered the 3.5.
He did not go down. Idaho picked up the loose ball and returned it the other way for six points.
As a result, Idaho won by nine and covered through the ultimate back door. Sacramento State and those who bet on the Hornets suffered one of the worst bad beats of all-time.