Idaho Vandals could play the role of spoiler with own bowl dreams now gone
MOSCOW, Idaho – All the external motivators have faded away.
There is no longer the prospect of qualifying for a bowl for the University of Idaho Vandals. The final home game has been played.
The Vandals could serve as spoiler to New Mexico State’s bowl dreams Saturday. But this is New Mexico State not Boise State. Denying the Aggies isn’t much of a consolation prize for a season that opened with the heady goal of “raising the bar” on last year’s nine-win mark but has crashed to a 3-7 record with two games remaining.
So on a rainy, dark afternoon before Thanksgiving on a deserted campus as quiet as a cloistered monastery, when the Vandals burst from their locker room on to the Kibbie Dome turf that has already been partly taken up to accommodate the track team here was football sanded down to the bare metal. Yelling, clapping and recorded music as the players hustled through a set of bear crawls and high knees soon gave way to the rhythmic click of a ball machine firing passes to wide receivers and the clatter of offensive linemen hitting a blocking sled. There was a subdued purposefulness. Work for the sake of working. It had to be its own reward. With a losing season already determined the Vandals were still practicing to get better.
Why?
On a team meeting room wall in large script the Idaho Football Vandal Creed urges players to display courage, to care for teammates, to know their assignments, to hit and hustle. But the first precept is to choose character.
“The guys who choose character are going to practice hard all week,” coach Paul Petrino said. “They’re going to play their tails off.
“That’s what’s life’s about.
“Not everything is easy.”
Junior cornerback Dorian Clark echoed Petrino. “We have a lot to play for. Work to get better each and every day.”
In a two-hour practice, with the end of a disappointing season in sight, the Vandals were still tinkering. A couple of players got repetitions at new positions. Senior quarterback Matt Linehan, who was little more than 50 yards from becoming Idaho’s all-time passing leader before he was injured against the University of Troy, watched the Idaho quarterbacks spin spirals to receivers on sideline and post routes. In shorts and a T shirt he jogged from drill to drill, his right arm conspicuous with a wrap on his thumb, hand and wrist.
Another senior, starting receiver and special teams contributor Jacob Sannon, who was injured in the Vandals’ most recent game against Coastal Carolina, kept a close eye on receivers working against defensive backs. At one point he engaged linebacker Kaden Elliss, who has added pass catching to his portfolio, in animated conversation. Sannon used broad gestures to illustrate an aspect of route running technique.
Not only the injured seniors felt an urgency to continue to try to make their team better. Fullback Josh Herman interrupted a jog toward the locker room after the workout to report that “love of the game” is the fuel he brings to the conclusion of his career. “I have two weeks of college football left. I’m going to make the most of it. There is a little bit of extra motivation in that to push yourself.”
While most of his teammates knew they were going to be college football players, Herman was originally recruited as a wrestler. He walked on to an Oklahoma junior college football team to get an opportunity to play. He turned his improbable chance into a two-year career with the Vandals.
“I might want to get into coaching,” he says. “I still love football. It’s hard to let it go.”
In the meantime, as he counts the remainder of his playing career in a handful of practices and a pair of games that will have little significance in the history of Idaho football, Herman says “I am trying to take in as much as I can. I’m never going to get this opportunity back.”