Dave Trimmer

Robb Akey told a little white lie this week. Asked what a season-ending win against Utah State today would do for his football team, the first-year Idaho coach said, "It's going to put a smile on my face for the first time in a long time."

You can say resilient, but don't try unfair. Though some of the Vandals' fourth- and fifth-year players have had four coaches and only 13 wins to show for their football careers at Idaho, the seniors are surprisingly positive as they face their last game on Saturday.

Her career high was eight points and she had missed the only 3-pointer she launched, so when Washington State needed her the most, Heather Molzen turned everything upside down. With Eastern Washington racing to a 13-0 lead at Reese Court Sunday afternoon, Molzen ended the drought with a 3-pointer and went on to pour in 21 points and rally the Cougars to a 70-59 win over the Eagles in a nonconference women's basketball game.

Washington State searched high and low and coast to coast in an effort to improve the women's basketball program. The inaugural recruiting class for first-year coach June Daugherty is big and beautiful in the eyes of Daugherty.

Most of the talk about the Idaho Vandals-Boise State Broncos football game on Rivalry Weekend is about whether this really is a rivalry. "It's very important to me," Vandals coach Robb Akey said. "The rival games are one of the great things about college. It adds a lot of life to this time of season. But it hasn't been a rivalry. It's been a Boise tradition. My job as head football coach is making this deal a rivalry again."

Rivalry Week starts today for the Idaho football team. The Vandals return to practice after four days off because they don't play this weekend. Although the focus is mostly fundamentals, a few things will get accomplished with next week's game at Boise State in mind.

At least the Idaho Vandals aren't banging their heads against the wall now. "It's heart-breaking," standout senior linebacker David Vobora said. "Our coach uses the analogy you're chiseling away at a wall, trying to get through it. You don't know how thick it is on the other side. Unfortunately, we found out it was a little thicker than we thought. But you've got to believe it's right there, it's got to be paper thin."

MOSCOW, Idaho – Maybe it's fitting that Idaho football coach Robb Akey came up with a simile about being lost in a forest when talking about facing the offensive line of Louisiana Tech, this afternoon's opponent at the Kibbie Dome. With a 1-8 record, 0-5 in the Western Athletic Conference, it might appear to many that the Vandals' program has been lost.

Success and consistency – or consistent successes – have been hard for the Idaho football team to come by this season and the task doesn't get any easier this afternoon when the Vandals take on Nevada at Reno. But just because the Wolf Pack have steamrolled Idaho in their first two meetings as members of the Western Athletic Conference and the Vandals are burdened with a six-game losing streak, don't expect the Vandals to roll over for the 1 p.m. kickoff.

Being aware of second-quarter meltdowns didn't help the Idaho football team. Going into last weekend's game against New Mexico State, the Vandals had been outscored 106-30 in the second quarter. Then the Aggies outscored them 28-7 in the second quarter to turn a 14-7 deficit into a 35-14 lead en route to a 45-31 win.

MOSCOW, Idaho – Things are going to be different for the Idaho basketball team this season. From the outside looking in it's obvious. There are eight new players to go with six holdovers from George Pfeifer's first team that was a dismal 4-27 overall, 1-15 in the Western Athletic Conference.

MOSCOW, Idaho – Well, the Idaho football team did it again. The Vandals gave it the ol' college try on homecoming, but too many miscues and not enough big plays allowed Fresno State to pound out a 37-24 victory before 14,205 fans in the Kibbie Dome Saturday afternoon.