Vandals in good spirits during bye
MARK NELKE | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 14 years, 3 months AGO
Mark Nelke covers high school and North Idaho College sports, University of Idaho football and other local/regional sports as a writer, photographer, paginator and editor at the Coeur d’Alene Press. He has been at The Press since 1998 and sports editor since 2002. Before that, Mark was the one-man sports staff for 16 years at the Bonner County Daily Bee in Sandpoint. Earlier, he was sports editor for student newspapers at Spokane Falls Community College and Eastern Washington University. Mark enjoys the NCAA men's basketball tournament and wiener dogs — and not necessarily in that order. | October 7, 2010 9:00 PM
The Idaho Vandals haven’t had to deal with a whole lot of adversity this season and last.
Losing in their fourth game of the season, two weeks ago at previously winless Colorado State, was a step back for a program which had won two of its first three games.
But last week’s 33-13 bounce-back victory at Western Michigan has sent the Vandals (3-2) into this week’s bye week in good spirits.
“Coming into the bye with a smile on our face was critical important,” Idaho coach Robb Akey said. “We needed to get a new streak started, we needed to get feeling good about things again, because you’re going to sit on these feelings for a week.”
Idaho will open Western Athletic Conference play Oct. 16 at Louisiana Tech (1-4, 0-1 WAC). Louisiana Tech plays host to Utah State (2-3, 0-1) on Saturday.
Akey said he was happy to see his defense bounce back last week after a subpar performance at Colorado State.
After being one of the worst defenses in the country last year, Idaho is ranked 36th in total defense this year. The Vandals are tied for fourth nationally in turnovers caused (15), and tied for sixth in sacks per game (3.40).
“What I hope they understand is, if we come to play we’ve got a chance to be a pretty good defense,” Akey said. “We’re a defense that has improved and has a chance to be a good defense. If we play with confidence and a swagger, we have a chance.”
This week, the Vandals are schedule to return to practice for the first time today, after being off Monday through Wednesday. Akey said the starters would stay away from contact this week, with the younger players getting a look today and Friday.
Coaches have been recruiting earlier this week — some headed straight for the recruiting trail after Saturday’s game in Kalamazoo, Mich.
On Sunday, the Vandals will begin preparation for Louisiana Tech. Akey talked of breaking things up into “seasons” — there was the summer season, the fall camp, the preseason with five games, followed by a bye week.
“And if we handle this WAC season well, then we’ll have an opportunity to have another break and have our bowl season, too,” said Akey, who guided the Vandals to the Humanitarian Bowl last year, Idaho’s first bowl appearance since 1998.
Notes: Idaho junior linebacker Robert Siavii was named WAC defensive player of the week. He had nine tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, a half-sack, two pass breakups and a quarterback hurry in the Vandals’ 33-13 win at Western Michigan ... Idaho will be the last team to open WAC play. The other two teams who have yet to play a conference game — San Jose State and Nevada — will meet Saturday in Reno.
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“I’ve been very impressed by Zach’s natural ability to rush the passer,” Eck said. “And he’s worked hard on his body, he’s up to about 222 pounds now, and I really think he can be a difference maker for us. He’s still doing some things with the linebackers, but I think his speed can give some offensive linemen problems (as an edge rusher).”
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“The whole process has been completely amazing,” said Nathan Williams, now in his fourth season as the Badgers boys basketball coach. “And the parents … it’s an hour and a half to Spokane, Coeur d’Alene, when we’d play an AAU game, and an hour and a half back, and there were so many times there was 6, 8 inches of snow. And we’ve got a game at 8 a.m. They’d always schedule us at 8 a.m., coming from Bonners. So we’re waking up at 5 … it was crazy. But the commitment from the parents and the kids has been amazing.”