Idaho’s aspirations hang in balance ahead of rivalry game at EWU

MOSCOW, Idaho – The Idaho football team is back to square one.

The Vandals (2-4, 0-2 Big Sky) are on a three-game losing streak and the vibes around the program have certainly been dampened since being ranked as high as eighth in the country.

Now Idaho has fallen out of the American Football Coaches Association poll, and it is clinging to 24th in the Stats Perform poll.

That has not changed the focus of coach Thomas Ford Jr., who says the team remains locked in on its six conference games and plans to finish 6-0. That task, though lofty, would likely get the Vandals back into the playoffs for a third consecutive year.

The first step toward meeting that goal occurs Saturday. Idaho seeks to keep the quirky Che-Scow Cup, which resides in a trophy case across the hall from Ford’s office, in Moscow.

The trophy revitalized the former Governor’s Cup with a strip of white athletic tape and a logo inked with a black felt tip pen by former coach Jason Eck. It goes to the winner of Idaho’s Big Sky dedicated rivalry game with Eastern Washington. Idaho holds a 20-9 advantage in the series and has won the last three games.

Making it four in a row is crucial to the Vandals getting back on track following an early-season loss to San Jose State and back-to-back defeats to Big Sky rivals Montana and Northern Colorado.

Idaho is likely to go with the quarterback duo of Jack Wagner and Rocco Koch again. Those two took all the reps in the Vandals’ Thursday practice. They played against UNC because Idaho’s starting quarterback Joshua Wood and backup Sawyer Teeney were injured. Wood played the second half against Montana on a sprained knee but was held out against UNC, and Teeney has an undisclosed injury. Wood and Teeny were moving freely doing conditioning and rehab work on the sidelines Thursday, but neither took any reps.

Against the Bears, Wagner threw for 237 yards with two interceptions and a 39-yard touchdown to Elisha Cummings, and Koch was Idaho’s leading rusher with 81 yards, including touchdown runs of 12 and 16 yards.

The Bears exposed a Vandals defense that could neither cover UNC’s downfield passing attack nor get pressure on quarterback Eric Gibson, who threw for 350 yards and two touchdowns. However, Ford does not expect the Eagles to attack Idaho in a similar fashion. Instead, the Eagles resemble the Vandals in trying to establish the tone of a game with running, Ford says. The Vandals lead the Big Sky and are ranked sixth in the country in time of possession, averaging 33:28 per game. Cummings, averaging 4.2 yards a carry, and Nate Thomas, averaging 3.8 ypc, will probably handle the majority of running since Art Williams, averaging 4.9 ypc, remains out after being injured against San Jose State.

Ford sought to strike a balance between acknowledging the urgency of getting the season turned around quickly for the Vandals to realize their goal of returning to the playoffs, and at the same time not allowing that imperative to become overwhelming. In addressing the team Thursday, he urged players not to give in to momentary turns of fortune against EWU.

“The minute you have negative thoughts you have to get to a positive state. If you see someone else with negative thoughts, you have got to get them to a positive state,” he said at the start of practice. After practice he urged the players “live in the moment. Enjoy the moment.

“Never take this program for granted. This is something very special.”