Keys for Vandals vs. Texas A&M

With the Vandals traveling to meet Texas A&M of the Big 12, Idaho athletic director Rob Spear on Friday posted a message on Twitter that must have resonated with UI fans: “Off to College Station. Time for the Vandals to beat a BCS team.” Idaho last upended a member of a BCS conference on Sept. 23, 2000. The opponent was Washington State, and Tom Cable was in his first year as coach.

Downing the ninth-ranked Aggies, 351/2-point favorites, in front of nearly 90,000 fans would a stunning achievement. Or as Idaho assistant coach Jason Gesser put it on his blog , it would be “the biggest upset of the 2011 college football season.” At least so far.

Read on for more about the Vandals (1-1) and the key things to watch against A&M.

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A full version of my preview for the Spokesman is here . Kickoff is 4 p.m. PDT and the game is available only on Fox Sports Southwest through pay-per-view.

Robb Akey called the Aggies the best nonconference team UI has faced in his five years in Moscow — even better than No. 1 USC in 2007, a team that ended up losing two games but winning the Rose Bowl.

Most expect this to get ugly pretty quickly. Idaho has looked unprepared at the start of both of its games so far, and Bowling Green and North Dakota are well behind A&M in terms of talent, size, speed and a dozen other things. The Aggies also pounced on SMU in their only game far, rolling to a 14-0 lead with two quick interceptions.

What Akey knows the Vandals have to avoid is a breakdown like last year at Nebraska. The Vandals trailed just 3-0 after the first quarter, then Nate Enderle tossed three picks on consecutive possessions and suddenly the Huskers were ahead 31-3 before halftime.

So, what does Idaho have to do to stay competitive with Texas A&M? To me, it comes down to line play — on both sides.

Enderle was sacked seven times in the game I just mentioned at Nebraska, the same number of times first-year starter Brian Reader has been taken down in the first two weeks of this season. Idaho ranked 117th in the nation last year in sacks allowed, giving up 3.46 per game. And it’s on about the same pace this year.

The O-line’s performance has to get better quickly. A&M had eight sacks in its opener and will try to confuse Idaho by mixing things up in its 3-4 base package. Here’s how Reader put it earlier this week: “They’re just bigger guys and they run a different style on the D-line, where sometimes they won’t really rush. They’ll read, see what’s going on and move and make a tackle. A lot of teams we play here just kind of go. And that’s how our defense goes too.”

The Vandals finally started clicking last week on the final possession of the second quarter with a quick passing game. A&M, I’m sure, expects Idaho to do more of the same to start today — if anything to take pressure off its offensive line that will probably be missing left guard Sam Tupua (hand) and could have right guard Jordan Johnson back.

I asked Reader what A&M might do to counter Idaho’s short passing attack. “They could have their safeties and corners sit at a depth where we can’t do that stuff. They could play certain coverages where we can’t do that stuff, or their D-line could not really bull rush. They could make contact with the O-linemen and read and try to bat balls down, because a lot of those balls are coming quicker and over the middle.”

Reader also mentioned twice during our short conversation that he’s confident Idaho can excel with the down-the-field passing game that didn’t work against BG or for most of the first half versus North Dakota.

Meanwhile the Vandals’ defensive line , as I mentioned in my preview, has to start generating pressure. UI has two sacks this season — one from linebacker Tre’Shawn Robinson and one from defensive tackle Michael Cosgrove. That’s it.

Said Akey, “We’ve got to get more productivity out of both ends. We’ve got to get more pass rush out of the whole front four. We’ve only got two sacks, which is not good enough. And we don’t have many hits on the quarterback either. That does need to improve.”

Akey also knows the Vandals need to get Benson Mayowa going. The speed rusher has just one quarterback hurry so far, after Akey said he could lead the WAC or even the nation in sacks.

“I blew Benson Mayowa up before the season,” Akey said. “And I’m still going to blow him up. But he’s not playing the way he needs to. When he goes, he creates havoc. As we got the opening game started (with Bowling Green), he’s coming off the ball and he’s involved in all three plays there at the beginning of the game. And he kind of disappeared a little bit. And he’s not coming off the ball. He’s raising up and kind of looking around. If speed and burst are an advantage of yours, you need to use those things.

“We’re two games into it and I’m kind of expecting him to be a little more productive. I told him that coming into practice (Tuesday). I still believe in him but we got to start producing too. … He was a little frustrated last week. He made a comment to me on the sideline: ‘Well, I’m getting doubled.’ (I said), ‘Well if you’re a good player, but you better get used to that.’ ”