Football on the Fringe Season Previews were ranked, then delivered in random order.
Idaho was one of a few teams I “discovered” in the first year of this site, going from barely aware of their presence to openly rooting for them. The timing was nice, since they won more games in 2009 than they had in the previous three seasons, logging their first winning season since 1999. They got there by winning six of their first seven, then hanging on as the best of the WAC stormed through. The faced Bowling Green in the Humanitarian Bowl, practically a home game despite technically being on their rivals’ field. Head coach Robb Akey and his mustache launched into the national consciousness in that game, where he elected to try a two point conversion with four seconds on the clock and grabbed the win, rather than settling for overtime.
Expectations will be high for the Vandals for the first time in a long time this year. QB Nathan Enderle is back for his senior season, along with most of the skill position players. The defense only loses two players, but they’ll need more than experience- the defense has to find a way to stop somebody this year- only two teams allowed more points than Idaho did in 2009 (ok, the bowl game skews that number, but Idaho was still 114th in scoring defense).
Schedule
9/11/2010 at Nebraska
9/18/2010 UNLV
9/25/2010 at Colorado State
10/2/2010 at Western Michigan
10/16/2010 at Louisiana Tech
10/23/2010 New Mexico State
10/30/2010 at Hawaii
11/6/2010 Nevada
11/12/2010 Boise State
11/20/2010 at Utah State
11/27/2010 at Fresno State
12/4/2010 San Jose State
Idaho has build a really nice nonconference schedule this year, taking advantage of the extra game afforded by the Hawaii trip. The Nebraska trip is what it is, but games against UNLV, Colorado State, and Western Michigan are all winnable games against competition that should be right at the Vandals level- a great way to get tuned up for the WAC. A hot start will be important since the schedule is stacked again at the end, with Nevada and Boise State coming to the Kibbie Dome six days apart, then back-to-back WAC road trips at upstart Utah State and Fresno State. The Vandals will need to bank some wins against those out of conference foes to have the best chance at bowl eligibility again.
Coaching
Robb Akey starts year four of his campaign at Idaho, having finally achieved the turnaround they’ve been looking for there for years. Like a lot of the coaches at his level, if the winning continues then he’ll become a hot commodity in a couple years.
Rankings
The WAC media have the Vandals finishing fourth this year, while the coaches have them down in 6th.
Outlook
Everyone will be watching to see if 2009 was a fluke or if Idaho can keep things going. I’m inclined to believe the latter, although there won’t be many new wins on the schedule this year. The big question mark is the defense- last year, the Vandals won 5 different games where they scored 29 or more but still won by four points or less. With a defense so shaky, a bad offensive game means a loss, so they just have to improve. Even so, I think this should be another good year up there, with at least 8 regular season wins.
Idaho Connections
Official Football Site – Enjoy it while it’s easy to read. They’re threatening us with a redesign.
GoVandals.net – Scout message board – some serious Boise State hate happening in there. Can’t say I blame them.
Vandal Nation – this is an offshoot of the school paper. Normally I look for a non-affiliated paper to link to, but there doesn’t appear to be one with the slightest interest in Vandal sports, and Vandal Nation does a really good job despite being yet another ‘Nation.’