Likely to be a blue day
BOISE – It’s no secret the Idaho football team faces a difficult challenge today.
The Vandals play 18th-ranked Boise State. The Broncos have won eight straight games, 16 straight in the Western Athletic Conference, 42 straight on the blue turf of Bronco Stadium in the regular season and – most important – eight straight against Idaho.
“We got more than a handful coming up,” Idaho coach Robb Akey said. “A lot of things concern me. Look at their offense, their defense, their special teams, it all concerns me. That’s a great team.”
But in addition to the Broncos (9-1, 6-0), the Vandals (1-9, 0-6) have to deal with the demons within that have contributed to an eight-game losing streak.
“Where we’re at right now we’ve had plenty of opportunities the last several weeks, three of four plays that would give us an opportunity to not be winless in the WAC right now,” Akey said. “We’re still looking for some confidence, to be honest.
“We’ve shot ourselves in the foot as much as anything. We seem to play two opponents each week, we play whoever the other team is, then we’ve been playing the University of Idaho a little bit.”
That hasn’t been lost on Boise State coach Chris Petersen.
“I think there’s a lot of parity, a lot of balance, in the WAC,” he said. “When there’s a lot of parity, it comes down to a few plays.
“I like how hard (the Vandals) play. I’m impressed with them. Their record is probably not where they want it, but those guys are playing hard. They have some very good players. For a first-year staff, it takes a while to get those things together and they’ve got them together. If you see the tape, we’re going to be in for a very hard-fought game. Those coaches up there do a nice job and you can see those players are playing hard for them.”
But other than the fact this is a rivalry game there isn’t any reason to think the 33-plus point spread is out of line.
The Vandals’ strength is running the ball with freshman Deonte Jackson and senior Brian Flowers, but they have been contained the last couple of weeks and the 152-yards-per-game average pales in comparison to BSU’s 205. Passing is more uneven, with the Broncos averaging 276 yards behind senior quarterback Taylor Tharp to 189 for the Vandals, led by freshman Nathan Enderle.
There is also a big disparity on defense – the Broncos give up 299 yards a game, which is ninth in the nation; the Vandals yield 419.
“When I watch them on offense they make big play after big play,” Akey said. “They have three great running backs. I don’t know how they decide which one to use. The quarterback is doing a great job moving the ball around … they do a nice job of messing with your eyes and creating some uncovered guys.
“On defense they’re physical, very sound in what they do … and they’re very opportunistic in special teams. This is a dang good football team.”
In other words, look out.
But Petersen is expecting the game to be similar to three of the last four, when UI was in the game well into the second half.
“They’ll be excited,” he said. “This is a big game, big rivalry week. I think it’s one of those games the records don’t really matter. We try to take that approach every week.”
The Broncos are also worried about what wrinkles the Vandals might have added with an extra week to prepare.
“You’re always concerned if you haven’t had a bye and your opponent has,” Petersen said. “You have to play your techniques and trust your assignments.”
Akey hopes the extra week helped fix the mistakes that led to breakdowns that have plagued his team.
“They’re going to create their own opportunities, we don’t need to assist them,” he said. “I’d like to think we’re going to have the ability to go down play Boise and not play against ourselves. We had a good bye week, I like to think we beat B-Y-E and we’re anxious to get down to Boise.”