Gaudy first-game statistics difficult to ignore

What it lacked in discernible meaning it made up for with impressive statistics.

The University of Idaho football team beat up on lower-division opponent North Dakota tonight, which basically amounted to what a Football Bowl Subdivision is expected to do. Still, it's tough to ignore the gaudy numbers the Vandals put up in this 45-0 drubbing:

• 547 total yards
• Nathan Enderle: More than 300 passing yards and two touchdowns, including a deep scoring strike of 44 yards
• Princeton McCarty: More than 7 yards per carry and two touchdowns
• Eight players caught at least two passes
• Returning defensive leaders Shiloh Keo and JoJo Dickson each nabbed an interception and ran it back at least 30 yards.

Don't worry, be happy
Perhaps more importantly, though, UI showed positive signs in some areas that had been up in the air:

• Junior-college transfer Armauni Johnson proved that all the hype was at least partially warranted. He caught three balls for 86 yards, including a 54-yard touchdown snag. Welcome, Mr. Big Play. Fans need more of that.
• Despite the four sacks sustained by Enderle, the offensive line held up well enough to allow Enderle and backup Reader to complete more than 60 percent of their attempts combined.

Keep your eye(s) on it
Not even this big blowout was devoid of reasons for concern:

• Deonte' Jackson appeared to injure his ankle early on and was a nonfactor for the rest of the game. Not exactly the senior-year beginning I envisioned for him.
• The Vandals were whistled for 12 penalties totaling 110 yards. Hopefully that was simply a product of being too jazzed up for their first real competition of the year.
• UI managed just one sack against a much smaller, far less talented squad — and gave up fairly significant ground success.

All in all, the Vandals proved what they needed to. And fans no longer have to pine for the football season to commence.

It's on.