Way to Go, Idaho!

I know this is about Moscow, Idaho, which is not really that close to where I grew up, but it is about Idaho and kind of fun to read a national sports write say this. This is from Sports Illistrated's Stewart Mandel in his weekly College Football Overtime.

Smaller story, but I'm sure you're following it...

There are big doings in Moscow these days. (Not that Moscow.) Following a last-minute 29-25 win at San Jose State on Saturday, Idaho is 5-1, no small feat considering it hasn't won five games in a season since 2000.

Since moving from the Sun Belt to the WAC in 2005, the Vandals had been a perennial cellar-dweller. In the four seasons prior to this one, they'd won a combined six conference games. Coaching instability certainly didn't help. First, Nick Holt abruptly departed after just two seasons (2004 and '05) to return to Pete Carroll's USC staff (Holt is now at Washington). The school then rescued former coach Dennis Erickson from coaching exile only to watch him return the favor by bolting for Arizona State after just one season.

Enter Robb Akey, who spent the previous eight years just eight miles away on Washington State staff.

After enduring a nightmarish first two seasons (a combined 3-21 record), Akey has Idaho off to its best start since 1994, when the school was still in Division I-AA. The past three wins have all come against bowl-eligible teams from a year ago (Northern Illinois, Colorado State and San Jose State). It's too early to say how Idaho will ultimately stack up in the WAC (San Jose was the Vandals' second conference opponent), but just reaching a bowl for the first time since 1998 would be accomplishment enough.

What's interesting about Idaho is that, prior to this decade, the Idaho-Boise State rivalry had been fairly even, and in fact the Vandals won three straight lopsided games from 1996-98 when the two schools first moved up to I-A. Obviously, the two programs have gone in opposite directions since then. But is it really all that crazy to think a school that once churned out such coaches as Erickson and John L. Smith has found itself another unsung gem in Akey? We may soon find out.