The Idaho Vandals will enter their road matchup this weekend against the Eastern Washington Eagles on Saturday, Oct. 18, at 4 p.m.
The Vandals are ranked in the top 25 in the FCS Stats Perform Poll for the 42nd consecutive week, which ties a program record. However, they enter this year’s Che-Scow Cup riding three straight losses, desperately needing a win to get back on track in the Big Sky Conference.
“I think it’s definitely important for us to get off to a fast start,” said head coach Thomas Ford Jr. at a weekly press conference. “We’ve got to execute at a high level, especially defensively early, get our confidence back. I think anytime you struggle a little bit defensively, it’s easy to lose your confidence, but I do think we’ve got very good leadership in this defensive room.”
Last week, Idaho lost 49-33 against Northern Colorado, and the primary reason for this was the secondary’s inability to prevent deep passes. It was yet another 200-yard rushing game offensively, and despite struggling to take care of the ball, Jack Wagner was efficient in his first start of the year.
“Every one of their touchdown scoring drives included a pass of more than 20 yards,” said Ford. “We’ve got to do a great job of staying on top of routes, and I think that’s going to be one of our main focuses this week.”
Luckily for Idaho, Eastern Washington, a fellow 2-4 team, does not throw the ball downfield nearly as much as Northern Colorado. Instead, the team will have to go back to its roots and look to stop the run playing against one of the better dual threat quarterbacks in the conference, Nate Bell. Bell has accumulated over 1100 total yards and 10 total touchdowns this season.
“That’s the guy that’s had a lot of success this season for them, especially on the ground,” Ford said. “He’s a very dangerous guy running the football very slippery in the passing game when he does drop back to pass.”
Ford anticipates this to be a game that is won in the trenches. Typically, every drive is of higher importance in games like that when the possessions last a lot longer.
This is the 30th all-time meeting between these two schools, and Idaho has won 20 of the first 29, including the last three. The Eagles had a bye week last week, but will come into the game 1-1 in Big Sky play, coming off a 35-27 homecoming victory against Portland State.
The Northern Colorado game was the first time this season that the Vandals were without their starting quarterback, Joshua Wood. Wood was injured in the first half of the Montana game with what has been described as a lower-body injury.
Sawyer Teeny, the team’s backup, suffered an ankle injury in practice, so it was left to Wagner and Rocco Koch. Wagner had a solid game in the air, but turned the ball over three times.
“That’s an area that Jack’s got to really improve this week is just taking care of the football,” Ford said.
Koch dazzled with his legs, rushing for 81 yards and two touchdowns. If Wood is unable to go against the Eagles, it will be a similar look for the Vandal offense. Despite the loss, Idaho’s offensive line was very consistent in this game, as they have been all season long. With the various struggles that the Eastern Washington defensive line has undergone this season, Ford looks for his offensive line to continue to be a strong suit.
“I think we’ve got to do a great job playing fundamental football,” Ford said. “We’ve got to do a great job maintaining our gap integrity and tackling them when we have opportunities to tackle them.”
Liam Bradford can be reached at [email protected].