September 5, 2004 in Sports

Idaho simply nowhere near Boise State’s league

• Print
• Email
• Share

The Spokesman-Review photo

(Full-size photo)

BOISE – Much as some would like to believe otherwise, Boise State and Idaho are not the Montagues and Capulets of college football.

Or maybe they are — rivals who exist only in literature.

Otherwise, it’s merely enmity based on geography, an increasingly hollow thread. And by now it’s mostly the Vandals trying to keep the fantasy alive anyway.

You’ll have to take it on faith that they tried Saturday night. There were no particular clues in the final score — Boise State 65, Idaho 7 — other than the fact that the Vandals foiled the shutout in the last three minutes, thanks to a 71-yard flight down the sideline by a true freshman named Jayson Byrd. So even 65 points down and, OK, against the who-knows-what-stringers, somebody was still trying to make something happen.

That is neither consolation nor comfort, but it hasn’t always been a given, either.

One cruel shading to Saturday’s ignominy is that it was the kickoff to the Nick Holt era at Idaho, with no discernible forward step to distinguish it. Another was that it was UI’s first football deposition since the sunny news last June that, after a long and humbling quest, the Vandals will be admitted to the Western Athletic Conference next year — and thus will be back in the same league with Boise State, if not in Boise State’s league.

Holt has had but nine months to put his imprint on the program and, certainly, he’ll need a lot more time.

Or as he described Saturday’s swoon — only the sixth worst in school history, if you can believe it — “It was my worst fear.”

Apparently, he doesn’t have those nightmares many of us share of showing up naked at work, but this seemed a lot like that.

The Vandals tackled haphazardly when they tackled at all. They failed at running, passing or catching the football, kicking and covering kicks, executing assignments and staying with a plan.

“We weren’t the same team we’ve been for the last three weeks,” insisted Idaho quarterback Michael Harrington.

Echoed Holt, “We’re a better team than that. I don’t know what would have happened if we’d played our best football, but we’re not that bad of a team. We’ve got to do a better job as coaches.”

Whether it was Boise’s superior speed or Idaho’s timidity, the space on Bronco Stadium’s tasteless blue turf (why not switch it up to orange on the next install?) between the Broncos’ receivers, runners and returners and the Vandals who needed to be shadowing them may as well have been an ocean.

By the end of one quarter, the Broncos had 200 times more yardage than the Vandals, who had exactly one.

At least there was no way for Boise to keep up that pace.

“It shows you we’ve got a lot of work to do here,” said Holt, who the last time he was on a football sideline was watching his charges win a share of a national championship at USC. “There might be some positives, some good things by some kids, but we’re a long way from where we need to be.”

Of course, the Broncos have made that even more problematic.

The downstate relations have set an impossible standard of late. They have both the longest winning streak (12) and home winning streak (19) ongoing in college football, and the best winning percentage among NCAA teams that have made the jump to Division I-A since 1989. The last five years, they’re 53-11 — a record bettered only by Miami and Oklahoma.

And, of course, they have rubbed the Vandals’ noses in it whenever they get together. Idaho’s current six-game drought in the series now averages more than 32 points per game.

“It wasn’t embarrassing for me at all,” said cornerback J.R. Ruffin. “Nobody ever said they were a weak team. They’ve won the (WAC) championship three years in a row. They’re no fluke.”

Well, neither is 32 points a game. Simply, not only is it not a rivalry anymore, it’s not a game.

“We fortunately have had the upper hand lately,” Boise State coach Dan Hawkins said, in a world-class understatement, “but Nick Holt will get those guys going.”

The irony here, of course, is that a decade ago, the Vandals gave Boise its first boost to this level of prominence by partnering up in the first place, abetting the Broncos’ abandonment of the Big Sky. Alas, while the Broncos took to I-A company better than they ever did to the little big time, the Vandals — after helping their rivals over the wall — hung themselves on the bedsheet banner.

Now the Vandals get to move back into the Broncos’ neighborhood — albeit in a pup tent, next door to the master’s manse.

There are any number of ways in which the Vandals must play catch up — facilities, resources, even just a general blueprint that the Broncos seem to have been following for decades now.

But competitively, it’s all pretty basic, according to Idaho defensive end Brandon Kania.

“It’s not the coaches, it’s us,” he said. “It’s the players. Coach Holt will tell you different, but I think it’s the players. We’ve got to turn this thing around. And we need to look ahead and not dwell on the past.”

That won’t ease the pain of 65-7 anytime soon.

“It’ll hurt, especially for me,” Kania said. “My senior year, my last chance. You win some, you lose some — and I guess I lost them all.”

No comments on this story so far. Add yours!