Vandals Fail To Hit Their Stride

The Idaho Vandals are in a rush to find someone who can … well, simply put, rush the ball.

And the Vandals’ first scrimmage of the year on Saturday wasn’t a great problem-solver.

The leading rusher had 27 yards. That’s 27 yards in a scrimmage that featured close to 140 offensive plays.

“We should be able to run the ball,” said frustrated sophomore quarterback John Welsh. “We can’t live off five wide receivers going down the field and throwing the ball every time.”

That’s a quarterback talking there, and if a quarterback is complaining that there are too many pass plays, you know the running problems are serious.

Throughout the spring and the fall, the Vandals have been searching for a replacement to Joel Thomas. No one has stepped up.

“I don’t know if guys are just going on what we did last year, but we need to pick it up,” said Welsh. “Our goal today was to get a better running game, and, I don’t know what happened, but it was pretty slow out there.”

One thing that happened was that the Vandals were without their three tight ends, Geoff Franks, Travis Stombaugh and Mike Roberg. All have minor injuries and without them the defense was able to slip past the offensive line and stuff the run. “Normally we are going to be in two and three tight end sets in running situations,” said Vandals coach Chris Tormey. “But you don’t make excuses and say `Hey, well, we don’t have our tight ends so we can’t run the ball.’ That (injuries) could happen during the season.”

One back who did show some promise and earned the coach’s praise was Anthony Tenner. The 5-9, 198-pound junior only had a handful of carries, but on one of them he showed his ability. “He really ran tough,” Tormey said. “He had fourth-and-1 and our best linebacker, Chris Nofoaiga, he caught him in the backfield and he still sucked it up and made the first down. That was really good to see.”

What Tormey didn’t see were enough big plays by former Central Valley star Tyree Clowe. Clowe, the all-time leading rusher in the Greater Spokane League, carried the ball only four times for 11 yards. So the coach will hold off before announcing if Clowe will redshirt this season.

As for Welsh, he got plenty of work in the 2-hour plus scrimmage. He was 16 of 27 for 216 yards with three touchdowns and one interception. Ed Dean, the backup, was 7 of 19 for 87 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. Vern Benard led the receiving corps with four catches for 98 yards.

Up close and personal

The intensity of the Vandals’ first and only full scrimmage was evident about midway through when Tormey had to put a pair of his coaches in their respective corners. Offensive line coach Todd Hoiness and defensive line coach Charlie Camp got into a shouting match on the field after a controversial play. Tormey took control of the situation by pointing at each of them and yelling at them to shut up. Later more shouting broke out when linebacker Matt Jasik was kicked out of the game for a personal foul.