The opponent on the field and the scoreboard today will be San Jose State, but in the wake of the recent developments at Idaho, the focus has been on the Vandals themselves heading into the Western Athletic Conference football game at the Kibbie Dome.

"Trying to gather the guys and get the guys back together and stay together for the remainder of the season has been the challenge this week," said Idaho interim coach Jason Gesser, who replaced the fired Robb Akey last week. "Everybody respected and loved coach Akey. We're all here because of him.

So it’s been a challenge, but the players have stepped up and the staff has stepped up and we’ve really worked on this together and hopefully we can go out there and put a good product on the field this week.”

Idaho (1-7, 1-2) will need to against a San Jose State (6-2, 2-1) team that is having a rare successful season and is already bowl eligible.

The Spartans favor the pass over the run by a 3-to-1 margin in yards. Quarterback David Fales has thrown for 2,522 yards and 17 touchdowns, with five interceptions.

San Jose coach Mike McIntyre reminded his players of last season, when Arizona fired its coach and then went out and beat UCLA.

“We have to take care of ourselves and not worry about them, but we do have to understand that they are going to come riled up and ready to go,” McIntyre said.

Also, Idaho quarterback Dominique Blackman was kicked off the team and senior Logan Bushnell, who has started one college game, gets the nod at QB today.

“At the end of the day, nothing is guaranteed for anybody here. For me, for any of our staff, for our players, anything. We’ve got these four weeks together, so let’s make the most of it. That’s the biggest message I’ve tried to push to the team. Last night (Sunday) was probably our best practice that we’ve had in a long time. Now we’ve got to consistently do that every single practice.”