Leadership will make a difference for Vandals

BOISE – The Idaho Vandals are missing three key players, but they aren’t lacking in several other important areas.

Senior quarterback Steve Wichman made that observation in fairly blunt terms Wednesday at the WAC football media preview meetings. The Vandals are without safety Dan Dykes, who elected to transfer, and kicker Mike Barrow, who suffered a season-ending knee injury while playing basketball. Throw in receiver D.J. Smith, who bypassed his senior season to try his luck in the NFL, and the Vandals are minus three of their top players.

“However, the way this team has reacted this summer with Coach E (Dennis Erickson) and the weight and conditioning program we have, we’ve never been as close as we are right now,” Wichman said. “That’s why I’m as excited as I am. When you get a good group of guys that care about each other, good things are going to happen.”

Wichman didn’t mince words when assessing what went wrong during Idaho’s 2-9 season a year ago. Team leadership was lacking, he said.

“I think every team relies on their seniors or any starter to be the guy you look up to,” Wichman said. “I remember at my junior college and having a guy that I looked up to and I wanted to be as good as or better than that guy. We didn’t have any of those guys last year and I was new and these guys were young.”

Part of the problem has been the steady turnover on Idaho’s coaching staff over the years, Wichman said. That’s been rectified with the arrival of Erickson and veteran assistants Gregg Smith and Dan Cozzetto, Wichman said.

“What it is is these players are going through so many coaching changes and not really having any direction themselves,” he said. “It was never their fault; they didn’t have a true establishment of who their coach was.”

Wichman said the inexperience of last year’s staff showed at times.

“In game-type situations it was noticeable, not only to players but to our fans,” Wichman said. “The play-calling, you could tell there was a lack of experience. Don’t get me wrong, all of them are going to be great coaches when they get older, but putting that many young minds together I just don’t think they were ready for it.”

Junior linebacker David Vobora said Erickson’s presence has helped alleviate anxiety over the losses of Dykes and Barrow.

“When Dykes made his decision to leave I sat down with Coach E and Coach E said, ‘We’re going to win with who we have,’ ” Vobora said. “He’s going to find a way to get it done.”

WAC roundup

WAC commissioner Karl Benson touched on numerous topics in a one-hour session with the media, including instant replay, expansion and bowl tie-ins.

The WAC is instituting instant replay this season, with coaches afforded one challenge per game. Otherwise, an official in the booth will determine whether a play will be reviewed. A review will be conducted if the play has a direct, competitive effect on the game. In other words, if the score is 45-0 and there’s a 2-yard discrepancy on the spotting of the ball, the replay official won’t hold up the game to review the play.

Benson said expansion is unlikely, even while acknowledging that the current nine-team configuration makes it hard to schedule basketball and volleyball.

The WAC has three bowl affiliations, one more than last season. In addition to the Sheraton Hawaii and MPC Computers bowls, the WAC has a tie-in with the inaugural New Mexico Bowl.

Notes

Linebacker Jason Brown, who was expected to backup Vobora, is academically ineligible and probably will attend a junior college. … Vobora talked with Dykes last week. “Utah has offered him and he’s sent tapes to Arizona and Arizona State,” Vobora said. “He’s just waiting to find out. It’s kind of a hard time because coaches are getting ready for fall camp and rosters are full.”