We were right on with our predictions of how two of the four area college football teams would do this fall.

And the other two? Well, they didn't do quite as well as we expected.

Idaho: We predicted 4-8, but the Vandals won just one game for the third straight season, finishing 1-10 after the season opener at Florida was canceled due to weather.

True, Idaho was a better team this year than last year's 1-11 squad. It showed on the scoreboard - more closer games, less humiliating defeats - but not in the win/loss record.

Just as winning is contagious, so is losing - no matter how well the game is unfolding, there's always the feeling things are going to go bad eventually.

Despite the fact most Idaho fans can't name a majority of the teams in the conference, the Sun Belt is a competitive league for the Vandals at this juncture. But they need a few wins to fuel that winning belief.

Washington State: We thought the Cougars would build off last year's first bowl appearance in 10 seasons, go 7-5 and make it back to another bowl.

But any hopes of that vanished in the first two weeks of the season, where losses to Rutgers and Nevada started WSU to a 3-9 free fall of a season.

Losing star quarterback Connor Halliday to a broken ankle against USC in the ninth game was equally painful, but the damage to the Cougs had been done long before then.

It was a big-time step back in Mike Leach's third season as Cougar program savior/coach. He fired not one, not two, but three assistant coaches this season, after problems on defense and special teams.

We can only assume the pink slips will continue until morale improves.

Boise State: We predicted 10-2 and the Broncos were 10-2 heading into Saturday night's Mountain West title game vs. Fresno State.

Losing at Ole Miss in the season opener pretty much eliminated Boise State from the national conversation, but the Broncos finished strong and showed they still have that swagger in the conference, even under new management.

Now, they've got to find a way to get into one of those Power 5 conferences, or push for a larger playoff, or else they're always going to be on the outside looking in, reduced to rooting for teams like Marshall to lose.

Not necessary. Boise State is the class of its league. Like Gonzaga in men's basketball, the Broncos are judged mostly on how they do in their big out-of-conference games - their bowl game being their next shot in the limelight.

In any event, as a sidebar, it was a little disappointing to see Bronco fans trash their former coach on the Internet, as Chris Petersen is 8-5 in his first season as University of Washington coach.

C'mon, BSU faithful, be better than that. He took your program to some pretty good heights while he was there. Sure, the Huskies stumbled a few more times than he would have liked, but going through a Pac-12 schedule is a little more grueling than Boise State's late-season "juggernaut" stretch of, say, San Diego State, Wyoming and Utah State in the Mountain West.

It's OK to be happy for both coaches - new and old.

Eastern Washington: We said 10-2 and, indeed, the Eags were 10-2 heading into Saturday's playoff game vs. Montana. Just like a few years earlier, Eastern gave the Huskies all they wanted in the opener before losing.

The one Big Sky loss came with star quarterback Vernon Adams out with a broken foot.

In addition to the question of how far will the Eagles go in this year's playoffs, where will their coach wind up next year - Colorado State? Oregon State? Somewhere else as an offensive coordinator? Back in Cheney to keep the EWU train rolling?

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.