Robb Akey is fired as coach at Idaho

Idaho fired football Coach Robb Akey with the team 1-7 and coming off a blowout loss.

The school announced the move Sunday and promoted offensive coordinator Jason Gesser to interim coach. Gesser, a former Washington State quarterback, has been on the Idaho staff for two seasons.

Akey was 20-50 at Idaho since taking over in 2007. He had one winning season with the Vandals, going 8-5 in 2009 and beating Bowling Green, 43-42, in the Humanitarian Bowl.

Idaho lost, 70-28, to Louisiana Tech on Saturday and gave up 839 yards.

Akey’s contract runs through the 2014 season.

Idaho is a member of the Western Athletic Conference, which won’t have enough members to compete in football beyond this season. The school already has plans to play as an independent starting next season.

Oregon State stays unbeaten

Oregon State’s defense helped out when quarterback Cody Vaz struggled in the rain, and the Beavers remained undefeated with a 21-7 victory over visiting Utah late Saturday that gave them their best start in more than a century.

Vaz made his debut the previous weekend as Oregon State’s starter and threw for three touchdowns against Brigham Young to earn Pac-12 player of the week honors. This time, he passed for 174 yards against the Utes. But the Beavers’ defense had an interception and a fumble recovery that led to two first-half touchdown runs by Storm Woods.

Woods had 17 carries for 46 yards and all three touchdowns for Oregon State (6-0, 4-0 Pac-12), which hadn’t opened a season 6-0 since 1907, when the school was Oregon Agricultural College. The victory also meant bowl eligibility for the Beavers, who were 3-9 last season and were picked to finish last in the Pac-12 North this year.

Freshman Travis Wilson threw for 172 yards and a touchdown for Utah (2-5, 0-4), which opened conference play with four consecutive losses for the second straight season.

Vaz started a second consecutive game in place of Sean Mannion, who had surgery to repair meniscus in his left knee a little more than a week ago. Mannion was already back at practice and was Vaz’s backup against the Utes.

San Diego State wins

Backup quarterback Adam Dingwell threw three touchdown passes and a two-point conversion in overtime that gave San Diego State a 39-38 victory over Nevada in Reno late Saturday.

Subbing for starter Ryan Katz, who went down because of an ankle injury in the first quarter, Dingwell completed 14 of 23 passes for 177 yards.

After Nevada (6-2, 3-1 Mountain West) went up 38-31 in overtime on a three-yard TD pass from Cody Fajardo to Brandon Wimberly, the Aztecs needed two plays to pull to within 38-37, scoring on a 21-yard pass from Dingwell to Gavin Escobar. The Aztecs elected to go for the win and Dingwell secured it with a pass to Rob Andrews in the corner of the end zone.

San Diego State (5-3, 3-1) trailed, 31-28, and tied it on a 35-yard field goal by Chance Marden as time expired in regulation to force overtime.