It lost 12 straight games. Now Timberline football is on the verge of playoff history.
Timberline High football coach Ian Smart started the fall with small goals.
Coming off an 0-9 season, getting a first win stood at the top of the list. Making the playoffs followed. And scoring the first playoff victory in program history finished it off, even though he admits he didn’t expect to check that box this year.
But Timberline (5-4) has outperformed everyone’s expectations this year, finishing sixth in the 5A Southern Idaho Conference and upsetting a perennial power along the way. Now it has a shot to check that final box with a first-round playoff game at Post Falls (6-3) at 8 p.m. MT Friday.
“I could lie to you and say I expected us to be great and turn it around,” Smart said. “But I didn’t know.
“After going through 0-9 and not knowing who’s going to show up and what you’re going to get, you start doubting yourself as a coach: ‘Maybe I’m not as good as I thought I was. I’ve had success in the past, but maybe that was a fluke.’ ”
Most coaches start hunting the halls for athletes after a winless season, begging anyone and everyone with a heartbeat to join the team to avoid another 0-9 campaign. But not Smart, a former Boise State defensive lineman.
He and his coaching staff, which includes four more ex-Boise State football players, instead invested in the players who wanted to be there, weeding out those who didn’t. The Wolves hit the weight room the Monday after Thanksgiving with new standards and a new attitude.
“A big problem last year was there were guys that wanted to play football not because they love football or because they wanted to be part of the team,” Timberline senior safety Sam Rodenbaugh said. “It was just because they wanted to wear a jersey around every week. … And one bad seed can ruin the whole team.”
The Wolves found some success and started to build confidence on the summer circuit. But an 0-2 start — including a 40-point loss to Mountain View in Week 1 — stretched Timberline’s losing streak to 12 games and had Smart worried another season was on the verge of slipping away.
Then came Friday the 13th. Timberline scored 20 points in the final 2 minutes of that September game to rally past Meridian for a 26-25 victory.
Senior quarterback Andy Peters, a starter for all of those consecutive losses, threw touchdowns of 14, 81 and 21 yards to complete the miracle comeback, shaking off four would-be tacklers to find Jackson Schultz for the winning score as time expired.
“It gave us hope,” Timberline senior linebacker Kyle Adams said. “It showed that our work has paid off. Going 0-2 in the beginning, you’re not really sure about your team. But we just stayed faithful.”
The comeback set the stage for a season full of drama. The Wolves rallied from a 13-0 deficit to beat Centennial the next week, fell to Borah by two points on a field goal with 2 seconds left and blocked a game-winning field goal with zeroes on the clock to beat Eagle for the second time in program history.
Timberline enters the playoffs having won five of its last seven games, a far cry from the program just looking for a win at the start of the year. And as the Wolves’ confidence grows each week, so do its goals.
The first playoff win in program history would cement this team’s legacy. But Smart said it’s no longer limiting itself to that target.
“I think we’re capable of more than what people give us credit for,” Peters said. “I mean, we’re a bunch of blue-collar dogs. … I think we’re capable of making history.”
Capital at Eagle, 7 p.m.
I gave Eagle coach John Hartz a hard time early in the season when he said Ben Ford had to win a quarterback battle in fall camp. It seemed impossible that an explosive threat like Ford, who took the state by storm a year ago, ever had any true competition.
I chalked it up to a first-year coach trying to say all the right things. But sophomore Mason McHugh has shown why Hartz had to agonize over that decision. He took over for Ford after a season-ending ACL injury against Timberline, then promptly took No. 1 Rocky Mountain to overtime with a rocket arm and quick decision-making.
The Mustangs’ season could have easily circled down the drain without Ford. Instead, Eagle rallied and remains a threat to make a playoff run.
Eagle 28, Capital 14
Timberline at Post Falls, 8 p.m. MT
That bus trip to North Idaho is as tough as any opponent. Under 5A’s current 12-team playoff structure, which started in 2014, Rocky Mountain is the only team to venture north and come back with a win.
Timberline has the talent to threaten anyone in the state. But against Post Falls’ explosive offense (37.1 points per game), the first playoff win in program history will have to wait another year.
Post Falls 35, Timberline 28
Lake City at Mountain View, 7 p.m. Friday
The long bus trip cuts both ways as North Idaho teams are 1-6 in the Treasure Valley under the current 5A playoff structure.
Make it 1-7.
Mountain View 42, Lake City 14
Nampa vs. Century at Holt Arena, 8:15 p.m.
The top matchup of the weekend comes between two unranked teams and two of the state’s top quarterbacks. Nampa’s Donavon Estrada (2,937 total yards, 33 TDs) can change a game in an instant, while Century’s Nate Manning leads 4A in passing yards (2,902, 33 TDs) despite missing time early with a broken hand.
Settle in for a shootout. The 4A SIC swept the first round of last year’s playoffs. But that’s a tough task to repeat.
Century 45, Nampa 42
Vallivue vs. Skyline at Holt Arena, 5:30 p.m.
The Falcons (7-2) own 4A’s top offense (44.8 ppg) and top defense (17.3 ppg). That should lead to a big night on the fast track at Holt Arena.
Vallivue 35, Skyline 20
Middleton at Moscow, 7 p.m. MT
Middleton (6-3) fell into the SIC’s fourth seed after last week’s loss to Vallivue. But the Vikings can console themselves with the league’s easiest playoff bracket. Expect Middleton to stroll into the semifinals.
Middleton 42, Moscow 19
This story was originally published October 31, 2019 at 3:51 PM.
