UI ready to ‘throw the V’ on homecoming

If you haven’t heard, the Vandals have a new tradition (or at least one set up by the Idaho athletic department). They want fans to “throw the V” with their hands — sort of like Texas fans do with the hook ‘em horns signal. They also have a new “V” logo. The V movement was unveiled Friday after a nearly weeklong buildup that started with an ad previewing the announcement in the student newspaper.

We have more on the reaction to the news below. But the Vandals are also playing a football game today (vs. Louisiana Tech in the Kibbie Dome), and it happens to be homecoming in Moscow. Read on.

****

Through five weeks of the season, Idaho and La Tech are remarkably similar teams. Not so much in their style of play, but in the path they’ve taken. Both teams are 1-4 and 0-1 in the WAC, but it goes further than that. Consider:

• Both teams lost to mid-tier FBS teams in the opener (Idaho to Bowling Green, LTU to Southern Miss).
• Both teams got their only wins of the season in Week 2 against FCS teams (North Dakota and Central Arkansas, respectively).
• Both teams have dropped their last three games.
• And going even deeper, each has struggled in the secondary (Idaho is 115th in pass defense; LTU is 114th). And each ranks among the nation’s worst in sacks allowed (Idaho 104th, LTU 108th).

We have more on the WAC matchup in our preview . Kickoff is 2 p.m., and the game will not be televised.

The Vandals defense, at least the unit that showed up in the last three quarters of the Virginia game, has shown signs of a significant turnaround. But one disconcerting trend, as I mentioned above, is the performance of the secondary. UI has allowed 308 passing yards per game this year and opposing quarterbacks have completed  61 percent of their passes against the Vandals.

Here’s a game-by-game breakdown:

comp	att	percentage	yards
Bowling Green	19	31	61%	291
N. Dakota	16	34	47%	168
Texas A&M	30	43	70%	377
Fresno St.	24	37	65%	371
UVa	30	50	60%	335
61%	308.4

If you take out the North Dakota game (a clear outlier so far, plus a lower-division foe), Idaho has given up 343 yards per game and a 64 percent completion mark. (For comparison, Brian Reader is at just below 54 percent right now.)

UI’s front seven has improved against the run — and it logged three sacks last week after getting two in the first four games — but the pass defense is a major trouble spot.

****

I also wanted to go back to yesterday’s news from UI. When the press release came out on the “throw the V” campaign and logo, I posted it on Twitter and asked people for their reaction. The majority aren’t keen on the campaign, but the biggest complaint was that Idaho made a big deal earlier in the week on of the forthcoming announcement (without giving any details at the time). If UI had simply made mention of the new tradition and logo on its website — and not held a special unveiling — I’m guessing the news would have gone over much better.

Your thoughts? Leave a comment below or let me know @SR_JoshWright .