Jim Meehan

MOSCOW, Idaho – Last month, Dennis Erickson felt he was coaching a pretty good football team. More important, an improving team. Two weeks later, the Idaho Vandals have been outscored 113-17 in two games and the veteran coach isn't sure what happened to the team that was last seen battling nationally ranked Boise State deep into the fourth quarter.

MOSCOW, Idaho – With four wins, the Idaho Vandals are in the midst of their best football season since they went 5-6 in 2000. Along the way, the Vandals ran off three straight wins for the first time since 1999. But another ignominious streak remains. Idaho hasn't defeated a Division I-A opponent with a winning record – at the time they played Idaho or at season's end – since knocking off Southern Mississippi in the 1998 Humanitarian Bowl. Of Idaho's 27 wins in the last seven-plus seasons, four have come against I-AAs, including a pair in 1999 over Eastern Washington, which finished 7-4, and Montana, which ended 9-3.

After a day of playing phone tag, Idaho football coach Dennis Erickson finally reached his former defensive coordinator, John L. Smith, who was fired Wednesday as head coach at Michigan State. "He's doing OK. It's like all of us that go through that situation," Erickson said. "He just wants to get through the season, sit back and see what's going on. He's a great coach, great person. He wants to finish it up the right way and he cares about those players – that's the biggest thing."

North Idaho College basketball coaches Jared Phay and Chris Carlson are coming off conference championship seasons. Both were honored as Scenic West Athletic Conference coaches of the year. Both were left wanting more. Phay's men shared the SWAC regular-season title with College of Southern Idaho but were upset on their home floor by fourth-place Dixie in the semifinals of the Region 18 Tournament.

The trend is clear, but it will have to change if the Idaho Vandals plan on becoming bowl eligible. The Vandals have essentially played five good to very good football teams. They've lost all five. Three were blowouts, including a 68-10 loss to Hawaii on Saturday. Two were close – a 42-26 loss to Boise State and a 27-17 loss to Michigan State.

The Idaho Vandals played for first place last Saturday. They are playing for second place tonight – and they may be facing a tougher challenge. Idaho (4-4, 3-1 Western Athletic Conference) takes on point-happy Hawaii (5-2, 3-1) at 9 PDT at Aloha Stadium, with the winner claiming sole possession of second place. The Vandals fell from a share of the WAC's top spot by losing 42-26 to nationally ranked Boise State last Saturday in the Kibbie Dome.

The wrestling season officially begins for North Idaho College tonight. Much to the relief of head coach Pat Whitcomb, it doesn't end until late February. The young Cardinals will need time to sort out their best lineup and position themselves for a run at their 14th national championship.

The question continues around the Western Athletic Conference and the nation: How good is Boise State? The unbeaten Broncos (8-0, 4-0 WAC) remained 15th in the BCS standings after defeating Idaho 42-26 on Saturday in the Kibbie Dome. BSU needs to finish in the BCS's top 12 to receive an automatic berth to a BCS bowl.

MOSCOW, Idaho – Idaho's midseason grades were fine, much better than most expected. Now comes the ultimate progress report. The Vandals have emerged as unlikely challengers in the WAC, but they've done so by knocking off three teams that might end up finishing seventh, eighth and ninth in the nine-team conference.

Phrases like "bowl implications" and "conference championship" are being mentioned. Words like "showdown" and "sellout" are being uttered. These aren't foreign concepts for the University of Idaho football team, but it's been a while. Saturday's Idaho-Boise State game will be the biggest the Vandals have played since 2000. That one didn't go so well for Idaho. With a conference championship and Humanitarian Bowl berth at stake, BSU crushed the visiting Vandals 66-24. The rivals met three straight years from 1998-2000 with the Big West title on the line. Idaho won in 1998, BSU dominated the next two years and has won seven straight in the series.

Idaho will be without one of its biggest contributors and possibly three for Saturday's football showdown against Boise State in the Kibbie Dome. Junior middle linebacker Jo Artis Ratti, an emerging force who missed the first two games of the season with a shoulder injury, is out with a torn MCL in his knee. The injury won't require surgery, but coach Dennis Erickson said Ratti probably won't return until the last week or two of the season, if at all.

MOSCOW, Idaho – One of Idaho men's basketball coach George Pfeifer's favorite sayings is that he possesses an enormous amount of patience. "Because I don't use much of it," Pfeifer cracked just before his Vandals took the floor for their first official practice Saturday at Memorial Gym. "There's a lot of it stored up."

When head coach Dennis Erickson says his Idaho Vandals are quite similar to Louisiana Tech, he means it. The statistics back him up. Scoring offense: Idaho's seventh in the WAC, La Tech eighth. Scoring defense: Idaho seventh, La Tech ninth. Pass offense: La Tech fourth, Idaho fifth. Pass defense: La Tech sixth, Idaho eighth. Turnover margin: Idaho fourth, La Tech fifth. Total offense: Idaho seventh, La Tech eighth. Total defense: Idaho eighth, La Tech ninth.

MOSCOW, Idaho – Junior tight end Luke Smith-Anderson, the longest tenured Vandal, has seen quite a bit during his six years in Moscow, but he's never seen an Idaho football team with a .500 record – until Saturday. The Vandals reached that plateau with an entertaining 28-20 Western Athletic Conference win over New Mexico State in front of a homecoming crowd of 15,102 at the Kibbie Dome.

Antwone Savage has become the first Spokane Shock player to officially sign with an Arena Football League team – and he won't be the last. Shock receiver/linebacker Charles Frederick said he's signed with Kansas City. Savage, who had a team-high 1,851 all-purpose yards and shared the team lead with 85 receptions, signed a three-year contract with the Dallas Desperados. Savage scored two touchdowns in Spokane's win in the ArenaCup, the championship game of arenafootball2.

MOSCOW, Idaho – Wins, let alone back-to-back victories, have been scarce for the University of Idaho football team since 2000. Today, the Vandals will try to earn consecutive wins for the first time since the final two games of the 2003 season. As an added bonus, a victory over New Mexico State would give Idaho its first 2-0 conference start since opening the 1999 Big West campaign with three straight conference wins.

Western Athletic Conference commissioner Karl Benson knew he'd be busy Monday. He was fielding calls from media across the country after Boise State continued its push to crash the Bowl Championship Series party by thumping Utah on Saturday. The Broncos (5-0, 1-0 WAC) need to finish in the top 12 of the BCS rankings to claim a spot in one of the five BCS bowl games. The WAC champion can also earn a berth if it finishes in the top 16 of the BCS standings and has a ranking higher than a champion from a BCS conference.

PULLMAN – Just four starts into his USC career, quarterback John David Booty has made a believer of head coach Pete Carroll. "He's done everything you'd expect a big-time quarterback to do," said Carroll, after Booty passed for 269 yards and three touchdowns in the Trojans' 28-22 victory over Washington State at Martin Stadium on Saturday.