A 500-yard game is no longer eye-popping for Idaho State.

In fact, it's hardly notable. The only remarkable part of a 500-yard showing for the Bengals nowadays is that they didn't reach 600 yards.

ISU's endlessly entertaining offensive production is approaching record highs this season. The perfect storm of experience, talent and play calling have helped the program chase a rare postseason berth as ISU gains widespread respect week after week.

The Bengals have weapons, and they're finally fully unsheathed.

“When I first got here,” ISU coach Rob Phenicie said, “I knew we had the ability to do it.”

It starts up front

Leading every play is Idaho State's offensive line — the spine of the Bengals' success.

Injuries and inconsistency have plagued ISU's front in recent seasons. The Bengals found themselves constantly shuffling and rotating linemen into the lineup in 2016, when they lost future NFL talent Skyler Phillips early in the year to a season-ending injury.

Stability improved last season. Phillips stayed healthy, and continuity grew within the unit as it developed multi-year starters.

In 2018, under first-year O-line coach Roman Sapolu, the offensive front is the weekly subject of the Bengals' success. Juniors Dallen Collins and Jacob Molenaar have started since Year 1 on campus, and redshirt senior Brian Fineanganofo has logged 30 career appearances.

The front five pave the way for ISU's monstrous offensive outputs, and Sapolu is touted as a rising star in the coaching ranks.

“Coach Sapolu has really been helping us on finishing. I think that's been one of the biggest differences between last year and this year,” said Collins, ISU's starting center. “Last year, we'd cover guys up, but getting to those linebackers, getting to that secondary as an offensive line, that's really what gets us those big plays and that's something that coach Sapolu has really driven home for us.”

Sapolu's father, Jesse Sapolu, was selected to two Pro Bowls and won four Super Bowls as an offensive lineman with the San Francisco 49ers in the 1980s and 90s. Roman was a successful player in his own right, as he played at Oregon State University and logged nine starts in a career that included multiple seasons cut short because of injury.

Roman then coached three seasons as a graduate assistant at Nebraska before coming to Pocatello this past offseason. Phenicie said his new O-line coach is what put ISU over the top offensively.

Because it's not like the Bengals' offense was bad last season. It ranked 20th in the FCS in yards per game and blitzed Portland State for 59 points.

But second is better than 20th, and two 50-point games are better than one — and ISU has at least four games to add to that total.

“He goes in and shows his expertise and treats the kids the right way,” Phenicie said. “And they want to play hard for him. They listen to him and the things he tells them work. That gives him a little bit of clout.”

Two-headed backfield

Running behind and through ISU's offensive line are running backs James Madison and Ty Flanagan — the most potent backfield in the Big Sky.

The duo has amassed 1,362 yards rushing and 16 rushing touchdowns this season — numbers that eclipse many season-long totals throughout ISU history. At their current rate, they're on pace to rush for 2,143 yards and 25 touchdowns combined and would be the first teammates in ISU history to each rush for over 900 yards in the same season.

“We know that if we can just open up the hole, get them past those backers, we know we're off to the races,” Collins said.

With help from additional rushing yardage by quarterback Tanner Gueller and others, ISU's backfield is on pace to surpass the school-record 2,567 yards rushing achieved by the 2014 Bengals squad.

The two pound-for-pound strongest players on ISU's team, Madison and Flanagan are rarely brought down on first contact. Madison's figure is imposing at 5-foot-11, 227 pounds, and Flanagan runs just as tough at 5-foot-10, 203 pounds. Neither is a change of pace for the other, as both are downhill bruisers who build up speed into the second level of opposing defenses.

“I'll run a route, and then I'll turn around and there goes Ty, or there goes James,” wide receiver Michael Dean said. “And you're like, 'Those guys are powerful.' I would not want to be a safety on the other team.”

The man in the booth

Idaho State has swapped offensive coordinators on nearly a yearly basis the past few seasons.

None of them have called plays their first year like Mike Ferriter.

ISU's new offensive coordinator, quarterbacks coach and play-caller has his unit operating at a historic pace. The Bengals are second out of 124 FCS teams in total offensive yardage per game (543.6) and seventh in scoring at 41.3 points per matchup.

The aforementioned rushing attack? Sixteenth at 239.3 yards per game. The passing game ranks 10th at 304.3 yards per game.

The offense clicked at its peak Oct. 6 against Idaho, when it rewrote ISU's single-game records with 62 points, 754 yards and eight touchdown passes from Gueller. Las Vegas oddsmakers predict each Bengals game to feature plenty of points, and that's almost always a safe bet.

“He trusts us,” Gueller said. “He really believes in what we're capable of.”

Ferriter was on ISU's coaching staff in 2014 as an offensive assistant, when the team won eight games and set numerous offensive records. After a stint at Montana, Ferriter returned to ISU to coordinate his first offense.

With the pieces already in place and their veteran status cemented, Ferriter merely had to turn the ignition with the keys he was given.

But he's gone above that and shifted the offense into a whole other gear.

“When we're clicking and it's going good for us, it is like a video game,” Dean said. “Just run a route, throw the ball, go score. It's fun.”

Dean and wide receiver Mitch Gueller are the Madison-Flanagan duo of the pass-catching group. Comically opposite at 5-foot-6 and 6-foot-3, respectively, Dean and Mitch Gueller use their speed in Dean's case and size in Gueller's to win one-on-one battles and haul in highlight-reel grabs on a regular basis.

“(Tanner Gueller) will throw the ball, and you're like, 'There's no way that's going to be completed,'” Montana State coach Jeff Choate said. “And those guys will adjust and make a circus catch.”

The quarterback

Tanner Gueller has seen a lot in his five years with the Bengals.

He's weathered tons of coaching turnover and playbook installations, two-win seasons and some of the worst blowout losses in ISU history. The QB that preceded him was a national award finalist and was heralded as ISU's savior in 2014.

Tanner has quietly captained the Bengals in the years since, and is now proving himself as an elite college football player.

“He always was a leader,” Madison said. “He always was a kid who knew exactly where he wanted to go.”

Gueller ranks near the top of the FCS leaderboards in multiple key stat categories, buoyed by his record eight-touchdown day against Idaho. He recently passed his predecessor for ISU's all-time touchdown career record and is on pace to be the school's career leader in yardage.

He's been behind Collins for the last two-plus seasons and has built a rapport with Mitch Gueller, Dean and the rest of the offense. He makes savvy pre-snap adjustments and is mobile, and not just for a 6-foot-3, 235-pounder.

The most important piece of ISU's surgical offense is performing better than ever.

“Tanner's just trusting us, putting the ball where it has to be,” Dean said. “I think that's what's going best for us right now, just trusting Tanner.”