Vandals return from bye, face unheralded Bears
Coeur d'Alene Press | UPDATED 2 months, 3 weeks AGO
Today, Northern Colorado at Idaho, 2 p.m. • TV: SWX/ESPN+
By MARK NELKE
Sports editor
Northern Colorado football is not usually something that moves the excitement needle.
But the Bears are playing better in recent years, and bring a similar record to Idaho (2-3, 0-1 Big Sky Conference) to the P1FCU Kibbie Dome for today’s 2 p.m. matchup with the Vandals.
“They’re really a 2-3 team that could be 3-2 or 4-1,” Idaho coach Thomas Ford Jr. Said. “They had a close call vs. Colorado State that they probably should have won; it came down to a review play (that went against the Bears).”
Both teams are coming off byes; two weeks ago, Idaho lost its Big Sky opener 41-30 at Montana.
Ford said the goals of the bye week were to get healthy and to stay sharp — “we did a lot of good-on-good,” he said of practice last week.
Idaho was down two of its top three running backs vs. Montana. But Ford said one of those backs, Elisha Cummings, should be back this week (Art Williams was the other back who missed the Griz game).
Northern Colorado dropped its Big Sky opener to Idaho State, 26-18 two weeks ago in Greeley, Colo. Two weeks prior, the Bears lost on the road to a ranked South Dakota team, 24-17 in overtime.
“They’re a ball control-type offense; very similar to what we do,” Ford said of Northern Colorado. “They try to keep your offense off the field.”
But ...
“They definitely want to take a bunch of vertical shots,” he added.
Toward that end, wideout Carver Cheeks has 26 catches for 382 yards and two touchdowns.
But the Bears are also giving up 194 rushing yards per game, including 283 vs. an Idaho State team that passes first ... and second ... and third.
Vandal-izers: Idaho, ranked No. 11 in the STATS Perform FCS poll, has won its last eight games in the Kibbie Dome. ... Idaho and Northern Colorado last played in 2023, with the Vandals winning 27-13. ... The Bears average just 3.1 yards per carry, and Idaho is holding opponents to 139.4 yards on the ground per game.