Korby bright spot in dreary season

For Adam Korby, this dreary end to the Idaho Vandals football season must seem familiar.

He’s about to wrap up yet another campaign in which he didn’t miss a start. Yet just like every other year, Korby has absorbed many more losses than wins this fall.

Tonight, the UI center is slated to be in the starting lineup for the 47th consecutive game, the longest streak of any active WAC player as the Vandals square off with Hawaii. His final collegiate game will kick off at 8 PST.

Korby takes pride in his durability, but a few more victories along the way certainly would have been nice. The Fort Collins, Colo., product has gone through three coaches (combined record of 9-37) while at the Moscow school. Twenty of those defeats have come in the last two years under Robb Akey. Yet if the Vandals were somehow able to pull off an upset tonight (they’re 231/2-point underdogs), Korby said it would do wonders for next season.

“We’ve just got to find that cohesion to play together,” he said. “It seems like either the offense is doing really good or the defense is doing good. It’s not both of us together. So hopefully, we can put this together the last game and get a jump-start for next season for these guys.”

By next fall, Korby hopes his college credentials will have helped solidify his spot on an NFL roster. He was a second-team All-WAC center last year, and for three consecutive years he’s been named to the watch list for the Rimington Award, given to the nation’s premier center.

This season, Korby has been one of the few steady performers for the Vandals’ offense. Quarterback Nathan Enderle has failed to make progress, production from the rushing attack has come in spurts and the receiving corps has offered few bright spots outside of Eddie Williams, who sustained a torn ACL last week.

That inconsistency, combined with a defense that allows 42.2 points per game, is a big reason why Idaho (2-9, 1-6 WAC) locked up its ninth straight losing season weeks ago.

“We knew there was going to be a learning curve that we were going to be dealing with,” Akey said this week. “And we’re dealing with it. I’m seeing kids playing better football. I’m seeing us do some very good things at times. It needs to be more consistent.”

Hawaii (5-5, 4-3) is still fighting for bowl eligibility.

After tonight, the Warriors still have games left with Washington State and Cincinnati.