Football: Much-improved Idaho coming to town for homecoming

Idaho Vandals football coach Robb Akey insists he isn't a magician.

"It really started last year," said Akey, when asked this week how his Vandals have already won twice as many games this year (six) than they won the last two years combined (three). "The kids have done everything we've asked them to do. They've kept playing their tails off. There is no magic pill to take. They just kept working."

The Vandals, who will be at Mackay Stadium Saturday afternoon (1:05 p.m. kickoff) to take on the Nevada Wolf Pack, have worked themselves into a 6-1 overall record this season, 3-0 in the Western Athletic Conference.

"This is a big-time showdown this week with two undefeated WAC teams," said Akey of the important meeting with the Wolf Pack (3-3, 2-0). "It will be a wild football game and one people might be excited about."

There has been nothing but excitement in Moscow, Id., this season. This is the same program, after all, that brought a combined WAC record over the past two years of 1-15 into this season. Last week's 35-23 victory over Hawaii made the Vandals bowl eligible.

Akey, though, is well aware that the Vandals' toughest WAC tests of the year are still ahead against the Wolf Pack, Louisiana Tech, Fresno State and Boise State.

"When you listen to our players talk, they all say the same thing," said Akey, who is now 9-22 in his third season as Idaho's head coach. "Six (victories) made us (bowl) eligible. But six doesn't mean we get anything."

It hasn't even earned the Vandals much respect yet. Oddsmakers, after all, made Idaho a two-touchdown underdog against the Pack. Wolf Pack coach Chris Ault, though, doesn't care about point spreads.

"That is a very sound, very well-coached, very veteran football team," said Ault, whose team is riding a three-game winning streak after beating Utah State 35-32 last weekend. "We know it's going to be a four-quarter game. They are already bowl eligible. That tells you how good they are."

"Their record says it all," Pack quarterback Colin Kaepernick said. "They are 6-1. There's nothing more that needs to be said."

The Vandals feature one of the more balanced offenses in the WAC. Idaho has sort of a thunder and lightning running attack with the 5-foot-9, 240-pound DeMaundray Woolridge and the 5-8, 174-pound Princeton McCarty, as well as the 5-8, 191-pound Deonte Jackson. Woolridge, who scored four touchdowns against Hawaii, leads Idaho with 530 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns.

McCarty has 420 yards and Jackson has chipped in with 180 yards.

The Vandals, though, can also throw the ball with three-year starter Nathan Enderle. The junior has passed for 1,735 yards and nine touchdowns and has thrown for at least 179 yards in all seven games this year.

"They do a real nice job of keeping their backs fresh during the game, much like we do," Ault said.

The Wolf Pack still leads the nation in rushing at 292.8 yards a game while Idaho is 44th in the country at 161.6 yards a game. The Pack is fourth in the nation in total offense at 479.5 yards a game and Idaho is 28th at 421 yards a game.

"We have to be able to make big plays on offense," said Akey of the matchup against the Wolf Pack. "We have to be able to score some points. Defensively, we have a big-time challenge. They key guy in the whole (Wolf Pack) mix is the quarterback (Kaepernick). He's fast, strong, big, he can throw and he can run."

Something has to give on Saturday. The Wolf Pack leads the WAC and the nation in rushing while Idaho is first in the WAC against the rush, allowing just 95.6 yards on the ground each game. Idaho's defense is led by safeties Shiloh Keo (64 tackles, 3interceptions) and Jeromy Jones (35 tackles), defensive end Aaron Lavarias, linebackers Jo Jo Dickson (2 interceptions), Robert Siavii and Tre' Shawn Robinson (six tackles for a loss).

"They play base defense, for the most part," Kaepernick said. "They just play hard, they play fast. It's going to be a tough challenge."

The Wolf Pack, which would take over sole possession of first place in the WAC at 3-0 if they beat Idaho, is coming off a tough test at Idaho. The Pack fell behind 21-7 early before rallying for the three-point victory.

"We didn't play as well as a team as we have been playing but we found a way to win, we found a way to finish," Ault said. "When you don't play well and still find a way to win, that's a good sign."

"This team has shown the last few weeks that we might be down but don't count us out," Kaepernick said. "We battle back."

The Vandals are battling back from years of losing. Idaho's last winning season was 1999 when they went 7-4 for head coach Chris Tormey. Tormey left the Vandals the following year to coach the Wolf Pack and the Vandals went a combined 23-82 over the next nine years.

"When I came here (before the 2007 season) I was the fourth head coach in the last five-year period," said Akey, a former Weber State All-Big Sky Conference defense end (late 1980s). "I felt like we had to build trust in these kids just because there was so much change. But trust is a two-way street. And these kids have responded."