SB Nation - Bobby Cowan

Know The Foe Offseason Storylines: Reviving Idaho's Offense

Brett Hein — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 17:58:14 -0000

The Offseason Storylines series welcomes Sean Kramer of the Idaho Argonaut's Vandal Nation blog to preview Idaho.

It's almost impossible to believe it was only three years ago that Idaho lit up the scoreboard en route the program's pinnacle moment in the Humanitarian Bowl. Quarterback Nathan Enderle threw for just under 3,000 yards with his team averaging 32 points per game. The Vandals won a program high eight games.

In 2011, the only way to describe the Idaho offense was "pathetic."

Need a gauge on just how pathetic? Consider that as a team, Idaho threw only 11 touchdown passes the entire season. Or, there is the fact that the teams' punter, Bobby Cowan, out-punted the offense with 4,048 yards on 88 punts (that's 7.3 punts per game).

Needless to say, offensive coordinator Steve Axman got the proverbial axe at the end of the year.

Now, it will be up to 33-year old first-year (ever) offensive coordinator Jason Gesser. He will be asked to revive a Vandal offense that was the primary reason Idaho regressed into a two-win team, from one that had won 14 in the two seasons prior.

Gesser's meteoric rise towards taking the reigns of the Vandal offense started less than 8-months before he would take the position of the "retired" Steve Axman. He had spent the 2011 season as Idaho's running backs coach, a position he accepted after two years as head coach of Eastside Catholic High school in Sammamish, WA - and two weeks at quality controls at Washington State.

The biggest issue with Axman's offense was how predictable and out dated it was. It's safe to say that won't be a problem under Jason Gesser. The strength of the offense is that it's not going to pretend to be something it isn't.

Starting QB Dominique Blackman is a strong, accurate intermediate thrower which will be the boon of the offense. He will line up in the shotgun with four or five receivers running routes that enable Blackman to get the ball out of his hands in three seconds or less. The tight ends will get vertical, instead line up in traditional H-back positions and stay back to block in run heavy formations that netted a whopping 3.5 yards per carry for Idaho last season.

It'll help that Idaho has four wide receivers that are capable of grabbing the ball in space and taking it up the field. The idea is that it will turn a methodical offense that just prays to move the chains in to an explosive offense.

The offensive line will feature two redshirt freshmen on the left side, and all-conference candidate Mike Marboe, a sophomore, at center. The right side protecting the blind side of the left handed Blackman will have two upper classmen, unless sophomore Spencer Beale fills in. It's worrisome to think about four underclassmen protecting the rather immobile Blackman - but that's the idea behind Gesser's quick passing, spread the field attack.

A running game might help. The team's leading returning rusher is senior Ryan Bass, who ran for 175 yards last season before getting slowed by injuries and eventually buried on the depth chart. Bass has shined in the fall and will top the depth chart. Opposing defenses should also meet James Baker, the 6-foot-2 225 pound downhill bull that will give the Vandals the goal line presence they'll need. Sure, every team usually has these guys. But Idaho hasn't. They had a linebacker taking goal line carries last year. It was fun. (Korey Toomer had three scores!)

With that said, improving the Idaho offense is much easier said than done. There is still a noticeable talent disadvantage that Idaho faces with many of its 2012 opponents.

But Jason Gesser is no stranger to being the under dog. That's how he ended up as the winningest quarterback in Washington State history, taking that program to its second Rose Bowl in five years. Gesser wouldn't mind ending up back in Pullman some day, he probably wouldn't mind ending up as a head coach somewhere someday. But that won't happen unless the Idaho offense shows noticeable improvement.

Sean Kramer is a 24-year old journalism student at the University of Idaho. He is currently the manager of the Vandal Nation blog, operated by University of Idaho student media publication, The Argonaut.

|| "Offseason Storylines" examines the biggest pre-season stories from each team on BYU's schedule. Stay tuned for further game previews as the season approaches. Offseason Storylines has covered:

Washington State & Mike Leach
Weber State Gets John L'd
Utah's Young Offensive Coordinator
Boise State's Quarterback
Notre Dame's Quarterback
Hawaii: Chow Time
New Mexico St: Bowl or Bust
Georgia Tech's (In)Experience
Oregon State: Running the Ball

Previewing UNLV's 2010 opponents: Idaho Vandals

rebelfan1 — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 09:45:13 -0000

Idaho's Stats for the 2009 Season:

Head Coach	Robb Akey
Record	8-5 (4-4)
Bowl Game	43-42 win over Bowling Green

Returning Starters for Idaho:

Side of the Ball	Position	Player Name
Offense	Quarterback	Nathan Enderle
Offense	Running Back	Deonte Jackson
Offense	Wide Receiver	Preston Davis
Offense	Wide Receiver	Eric Greenwood
Offense	Wide Receiver	Daniel Hardy
Offense	Left Tackle	Matt Clevelamd
Defense	Defensive End	Aaron Lavarias
Defense	Defensive End	Hank Bryant
Defense	Defensive Tackle	Michael Cosgrove
Defense	Defensive Tackle	Jonah Sataraka
Defense	Over Linebacker	JoJo Dickson
Defense	Middle Linebacker	Tre'Shawn Robinson
Defense	Over Linebacker	Robert Siaxii
Defense	Cornerback	Isaac Butts
Defense	Strong Safety	Shiloh Keo
Defense	Cornerback	Kenny Patten

This Idaho football club has traditionally been a bottom of the cellar team in the WAC although that changed last season. The Vandals got their first winning season in a long time and most of that was because their offensive line played so good. Unfortunately, only one starter from that line is returning and that is going to make things tough on Idaho. The good news is they return every player on defense except for the free safety. That's not saying much though because this defense wasn't exactly what you would call good. Giving up 70 points to Nevada is just inexcusable. That said, having almost all of your starters return is a huge help and this defense should improve.

Idaho's schedule seems pretty fitting for their caliber of a team, they feature North Dakota, Nebraska, UNLV, Colorado State and Western Michigan. Nebraska is going to be a tough battle, but that is really only the tough test for this team. Conference Play isn't that hard either, with only 3 opponents in conference having a winning record last season.

More analysis of Idaho after the jump...

Strengths of Idaho

Last season, the strength for this team was their offensive line opening up running lanes for Deonte Jackson, but that offensive line is gone and the Vandals are no longer going to be able to rely on that. This team's strength is in its passing game. They return the starting Quarterback and 3 of the starting Wide Receivers from last season. Now don't get me wrong, Idaho doesn't have a blow you away passing game, but they do have a decent one, and most of the passing game is returning.

The defense really didn't have a strength last season, as they consistently allowed over 30 points a game. But this past spring the defensive line really improved. Defensive Ends Aaron Lavarias and Hank Bryant developed a sort of speed rush and improved in getting off of their blocks to wrap up the Tail Back. Defensive Tackle Jonah Satara has become the one on the line that is plugging up the middle, while the other Defensive Tackle, Michael Cosgrove, has begun to bull rush interior offensive linemen. So, the defensive line should be rally point for the Idaho defense.

Weakness of Idaho

On offense, Idaho's weakness is its running game and the offensive line. The new offensive line doesn't pass protect or run block very well. That is going to cause a lot of problems for the offense's running and passing game. The running game isn't very well either because their running back isn't very good. I've already discussed how the offensive line will be bad, and that combined with a running back that only was good in open lanes, is going to absoloutely destroy the running game for Idaho.

The Vandal's defense has its weakness at the Linebackers. The Linebackers gave up a lot of passes over the middle and runs that could have been stopped at 4 or 5 yard gains become 11 or 12 yard gains because the Linebackers could not stop them. This will really hurt them against a lot of teams and could lead to this defense's demise, because even though the secondary is good and can hold their ground in every part of the secondary except the middle, if you can not defend the middle of the field you can not have a good pass defense.

Idaho's style of play

Idaho's style of play last year was a pound the rock kind of style, although the scores don't reflect that. Here is the explanation for the scores. Because the offensive line was so good, the running game gained about 7 yards a carry and that opened up the deep passing game. The defense was just plain bad and that allowed the other team to score a lot. This year's style is going to have to be a shoot out style because the offensive line is so depleted from last season and the defense, although improved, still is not very good.

How do Idaho and UNLV stack up

Last year, this would have been a huge mismatch in favor of Idaho, but the teams have changed a lot since then. Last year, UNLV would have struggled mightily in stopping Idaho's running game, this year they don't have one. Last year, UNLV's pass coverage wouldn't have been able to stop this year's passing game for Idaho. The pass coverage is much improved for UNLV. This is now a mismatch in UNLV's favor just slightly though and I think UNLV should win either by 7 or 10 points.

Here are the rest of the statistics of Idaho:

2010 Idaho Football Schedule

Vandals Football Schedule

North Dakota Fighting Sioux	Thu 09/02	7:00 PM PDT
@ Nebraska	Sat 09/11	TBA
UNLV	Sat 09/18	TBA
@ Colorado St.	Sat 09/25	1:00 PM PDT
@ Western Michigan	Sat 10/02	TBA
@ Louisiana Tech	Sat 10/16	1:00 PM PDT
New Mexico St.	Sat 10/23	2:00 PM PDT
@ Hawaii	Sat 10/30	8:30 PM PDT
Nevada	Sat 11/06	TBA
Boise St.	Fri 11/12	6:00 PM PST
@ Utah State	Sat 11/20	12:00 PM PST
@ Fresno St.	Sat 11/27	7:00 PM PST
San Jose St.	Sat 12/04	TBA

2010 Idaho Football Roster

Idaho Vandals Football Roster

offense	#	Pos.
Quin Ashley	12	WR
Kama Bailey	8	RB
Kellen Beam	86	TE
Peter Bjorvik	89	TE
Logan Bushnell	4	QB
Matt Cleveland	70	OL
Preston Davis	7	WR
Taylor Davis	12	QB
Taylor Elmo	81	TE
Nathan Enderle	10	QB
Eric Greenwood	1	WR
Tevita Halaholo	61	OL
Daniel Hardy	88	WR
Clell Hasenbank	71	OL
Robert Hatchett III	6	WR
Justin Hernandez	19	WR
Clayton Homme	85	TE
Deonte' Jackson	3	RB
Kai Jensen	60	OL
Jordan Johnson	74	OL
Adam Juratovac	62	G
Kyle Kerfoot	30	WR
Max Komar	22	WR
Michael LaGrone	80	TE
Bilal Liggins	72	OL
Mike Iupati	77	G
Ronald Mallory	63	OT
Princeton McCarty	20	RB
Patrick Mealey	82	TE
Daniel Micheletti	87	TE
Kurt Newboles	66	OT
Tyrone Novikoff	67	OL
Marsel Posey	15	WR
Brian Reader	14	QB
Guy Reynolds Jr	68	OL
Maurice Shaw	2	WR
Bryce Sinclair	79	OT
Kevin Small	84	TE
Irvin Stevens III	69	C
Kyle Steverman	44	TE
Devon Sturdivant	28	RB
Derek Todd	16	QB
Justin Veltung	24	WR
Troy Vital	11	RB
Landon Weaver	83	WR
Corey White	5	RB
Bryan Wilson	78	OL
DeMaundray Woolridge	23	RB

defense	#	Pos.
Brandon Artz	26	S
Henry Asuega	40	DT
Jeffrey Bediako	31	LB
Josh Bigler	28	DB
Tyler Brooks	50	LB
Isaac Butts	27	CB
Tracy Carter	14	CB
Cameron Charles	19	CB
Michael Cosgrove	93	DT
Bobby Cowan	13	QB
JoJo Dickson	34	LB
Jesse Donez	35	CB
Larry Dugan	94	DT
Pat Enders	59	DE
Faleaoga Faumui	44	DT
Andre Ferguson	55	LB
Ben Garnett	47	LB
Marcus Graves	11	CB
Justin Green	57	DE
Aaron Grymes	16	DB
Matthew Harvey	29	CB
Jared Heston	5	LB
Eric Hunter	4	CB
Zach Ingraham	46	S
Jeromy Jones	6	SS
Vince Keener	91	DE
Shiloh Keo	10	S
Aaron Lavarias	95	DE
Brad Marboe	54	LB
Benson Mayowa	58	DE
John McKinley	49	LB
Kenneth Patten	2	DB
Marshal Pirtz	45	LB
Michael Plummer	48	S
Tre'Shawn Robinson	51	LB
Brennett Rodseth	38	CB
Jonah Sataraka	99	DE
Conrad Scheidt	33	LB
Fonomanu Sekona	43	DT
Paul Senescall	42	LB
Robert Siavii	1	LB
Charles Smith Jr	96	DE
Michael Terry	7	LB
Korey Toomer	18	LB
Shawn Tucker	37	CB
Gary Walker	3	CB
Christian Whitehead	39	CB
Derek Wieting	52	DE
Trey Williams	23	DB
Ryan Young	25	S

specialists	#	Pos.
Trey Farquhar	21	K
John Novak	92	K
Christopher Ramos	65	LS

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Five Questions With Vandal Nation

Jeremy Mauss — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 03:54:23 -0000

Vandal Nation and I got together to ask each other some questions about the Idaho vs. San Diego State matchup. Yes, this game is against two teams that are not great. Even with that said here are some questions to get a better idea of this matchup.

1. How is it that Boise State is able to be as good as they are and Idaho has been unable to really be all that competitive?

It's complicated, but a lot of it boils down to 1. a smaller market and 2. bad decisionmaking by Idaho administrators.

Boise State is located in the state's largest metropolitan area. The University of Idaho is in Moscow, a college town of about 20,000 people in the state's far northern reaches, closer to Spokane than anything big in Idaho. Not only that, but Washington State University and its Pac-10 draw is just 9 miles to the west. That means it's a lot harder for us to bring in the kind of crowds that fund an athletic program.

On the other hand, past UI administrators have really not cared very much about athletics, and our facilities showed it. We're stuck in what is far and away the smallest stadium in FBS football, the 16,000-seat Kibbie Dome. It was new and spiffy and an engineering marvel back in the early 1970s when it opened, but it's seen zero expansion and few upgrades since then. In fact, we don't even have a dedicated basketball arena — after football season is over, they set up a court in the Dome! Until just a couple years ago, our locker rooms and training facilities were woefully inadequate. What football talent is going to want to play in a tiny stadium in a backwater market with terrible facilities? The answer was, none.

The good news is that progress is being made on the facilities front — we now have all-new locker rooms and conditioning facilities that are second to none in the WAC. Current AD Rob Spear seems committed to building quality athletic programs, and his hoops hire (Don Verlin) turned that team around overnight, from doormat to conference contender. But It's going to take a lot longer to rebuild football. Fans currently have confidence in Robb Akey, but the SDSU game is really going to tell a lot about how far the Vandals have really come.

2. Who are some playmakers that San Diego State should know about?

For the passing game, we have a good spread-out package of receivers this year. Daniel Hardy and Max Komar (who began as a walk-on!) are the go-to guys right now, but Preston Davis and Eric Greenwood are also capable wideouts. Komar has serious speed and big yards-after-catch capability, with 179 yards in just 7 receptions.

On the ground, again the Vandals have depth. Princeton McCarty is the leading option, but look for WSU transfer DeMaundray Woolridge to see some serious action — he's got 59 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 12 carries.

Our kicking unit is stellar — Trey Farquhar is 3-for-3 on field goals so far and Bobby Cowan averages 45 yards a punt.

On defense, Shiloh Keo is the playmaker in the secondary, but Jeromy Jones is showing some capable skills at the other safety spot. Our linebacking corps is somewhat suspect — not so much at the front line, but there's very little depth. Paul Senescall is the best there.

3. Have the Vandals turned the corner they beat New Mexico State and were able to score some points against an improved Washington school?

Tomorrow's game will tell the tale.

We beat up on a questionable NMSU team, and we survived a rebuilt and talented Washington Huskies team. Now we're at home against a team that also went 2-10 last year. Yes, the Aztecs beat up on us in their house, but they also lost, badly, to the FCS Cal Poly Mustangs. We feel like we should be able to return the favor on our turf, and a win in the home opener would fire Vandal fans back up pretty nicely.

If we win tomorrow, it says we've made strides from where we were last year, and maybe turned that corner. That's all Vandal fans want — nobody's expecting a miracle season, but things have to just keep getting better. If we lose, it says that a lot of the progress we thought we'd made, was more or less a mirage.

4. Does Idaho have the ability to slow down the Aztec passing game?

Huge question mark. THE question mark of the game. If we can do this (and we did it pretty well against New Mexico State), we'll probably win.

I don't think we expect to shut down Ryan Lindley, but we'd like to force him into making mistakes and throwing picks.

Based on the UCLA game, it looks like the Aztecs are vulnerable when you force them to become a one-dimensional throwing team. That plays right into our hands — the Vandals D-line has been fairly effective stopping the run so far, allowing just 112.5 rushing yards per game.

5. Who wins this game and why?

I think the Kibbie Dome is going to be packed, and Akey's Army isn't going to disappoint their loyal fans. Nate Enderle will throw for 300+ yards and three TDs, while Shiloh Keo grabs a pick-six off Lindley to bring the house down. It won't be as lopsided a game as last year (Lindley's too good at scoring for that), but the Vandals will prevail in a high-scoring shootout, 41-31.