Vandals preach repeated teaching

MOSCOW, Idaho – When it comes to patching holes in a defense that’s yielded more yards than any FBS team, Mark Criner figures the Idaho football coaching staff has two alternatives.

“You can yell and scream or you can try and teach it,” the Vandals’ defensive coordinator said. “And (we’re) trying to teach it the best way we can over and over and over.”

Yet for all their work instilling basic principles, Criner and his fellow coaches seem to be making little headway. Idaho (1-7, 0-4 WAC) enters Saturday’s clash with New Mexico State with perhaps the worst defense in the program’s history.

UI has allowed an average of 49.7 points in seven losses and a FBS-worst 502.9 yards per game overall. As a result, the club has already wrapped up a ninth straight losing season.

The Vandals’ extreme youth and a series of crippling injuries have compounded the problem. Defensive anchor Shiloh Keo, a junior strong safety, was lost for the season in Week 4 at Utah State. Promising linebacker Tre’Shawn Robinson is out of the year after a knee injury two weeks ago.

Keo’s absence leaves only four juniors on the traveling squad, all of whom are junior-college transfers. Many other starters and key defenders are freshmen and sophomores.

Idaho’s greenhorn defense has been particularly poor in two areas: stopping the run and pressuring quarterbacks. The team’s last three opponents, Louisiana Tech, Fresno State and Nevada, have combined for 946 yards on the ground, while the Vandals rank No. 118 in the nation in sacks per game (.63).

“I take it as youth,” junior safety Virdell Larkins said of the team’s struggles. “We’re getting (our) stripes. We’re taking bumps and bruises and a lot of injuries. There’s a lot of things coming into play with this. You’ve just got to ride the roller coaster.”

Although the Vandals have a fleet of newcomers, including an all-new starting linebacker corps from a year ago, Criner refused to put all the blame on inexperience.

“I don’t want to give anybody the excuse why we’re losing is because we’re young,” the second-year coordinator said. “That’s only part of it. It all comes down to me and the coaches and players. It really does. And we understand that.”

Spartans’ big chance

It’s a game flush with implications. At 5-2 and 3-0 in the WAC, San Jose State has a golden chance to grab control of the conference race with a win tonight over unbeaten Boise State on national television.

The 13th-ranked Broncos, meanwhile, could stay on track for a BCS berth with a victory. Just don’t bring up those BCS aspirations to Spartans coach Dick Tomey.

“People down here say, ‘You’ve got a chance to spoil Boise’s BCS thing,’ ” he said. “That is the furthest thing from our mind. We’re not even thinking about it. We are trying to compete for the conference championship.”

The Broncos were ranked No. 12 in the first BCS rankings released Sunday. They’ll earn a bid if they end up in the top 12 and no other non-BCS teams are ahead of them.

Around the conference

Idaho’s T.J. Conley moved into the national lead in punting after averaging 52.8 yards per kick last week. He holds a slight lead over Syracuse’s Rob Long. … Even though BSU is putting together another stellar year, it’s perplexing what’s happened to senior tailback Ian Johnson. He hasn’t scored a touchdown in the last three games and he doesn’t have a 100-yard rushing game this season. … Quarterback Diondre Borel posted solid numbers last week, but Utah State still hasn’t won since trouncing Idaho on Sept. 20. Two of the Aggies’ three wins since the start of last year have come against UI.