BaseballAtDobbins, Idaho should scare us. Even if recruiting has been hurt since the announcement of the drop came out, there are still plenty of BCS players on the team. We'd better not count our chickens.
I know the coaching staff wasn’t overlooking this one, acting like it’s the third FBS team in September. That score in Fresno gives me confidence that they’ve slid back
This is a bell weather game for them.
They have some challenges, new freshmen offensive linemen, unsettled QB position, lost most of their receivers to graduation, gave up the most sacks in FBS last year.
Still this will reveal a lot about our team.
San Jose didn’t seem prepared to play us, they got better as the game wore on. Would we beat them again if we played a new game? Maybe Idaho has San Jose level talent but better coaching
San Diego maybe not as good as last two years. They should have done better against Harvard.
Can we replicate the defensive effort against Stanford in a more routine game?
Hopefully we can put the first half offense against San Jose together with the defensive effort against Stanford.
they also had a deal for East side tickets a few weeks ago of 3/$30, the other two games being ISU and NAU. They really want to sell this one and homecoming out seems like
Exactly, every team studies their opponent before a game. There's not much they can do though if we just go out and prove that we are better than them.
VandalBasher 2321 posts
26 minutes ago
Sept. 21, 2018
Dear Friends,
This afternoon, I’ll board a plane and head to California to support our Vandal football team as they take on the Aggies of the University of California, Davis. I’ve made a similar trek many times over the past several years – sometimes closer, sometimes farther. It’s been an honor and a pleasure to cheer on the efforts of our student-athletes as they represent our university.
But today’s journey is different. It’s a chance to see our Vandals as we make our return to the Big Sky Conference. The Aggies have played a strong couple of games to start their season. I know our Vandals will bring their skills, passion and teamwork to bear on this first conference test, and they’re not looking past the Aggies as we anticipate our conference home opener the following week.
Like U of I, UC Davis is a public, land-grant research university. We’re excited about the opportunity to play against similar foes as well as additional regional matchups in the conference. When we take on teams like Idaho State and the University of Montana later this season, it will help ignite rivalries dormant since Idaho last was so successful as a member of the Big Sky for more than 30 years. We’ll see fans of our Big Sky opponents in the dome this year, and I know many alumni and fans will be able to travel to away destinations like Cheney, Pocatello and Bozeman.
As you cheer on the Vandals this fall, know that you’re not just rooting for football players. These are young men committed to the student side of the student-athlete equation. Our football team was part of an Athletics Department that raised the bar for GPA at U of I last year; we even saw our first first-team Academic All-American since the early 1970s. Our students are continuing that success in the classroom this fall while continuing to learn and grow as members of the U of I community and also training on safety and violence prevention. I hope we can all be united around the success of our student-athletes.
The fact is, we have a lot to be excited about in Athletics. We’re focused on completing our Idaho Central Credit Union Arena project this year – we just received a $250,000 gift toward the project from our great community partners at the Best Western Plus University Inn – and getting shovels in the ground in the spring. Our volleyball team began Big Sky play this week; our soccer team opens that portion of its schedule today in the Kibbie Dome. We have an exciting season for basketball – tickets for the 2018 Vandal Holiday Hoops Showcase in Boise are already on sale. A budget challenge remains for the department, but we should continue to stay passionate about what our student-athletes are able to achieve as we take that on this year.
Chuck Staben
Go Vandals!
Chuck Staben
President
We should have beaten SJSU by more, should have lost to Stanford by more, should have beat USD by more. I have no idea how good the Ags really are. That said, I think we are underrated :D We also have the Dan Hawkins factor - he is getting these kids to perform to their potential.
I would like to see Maier be more accurate with the ball.
This game makes me a little nervous for some reason. It feels like it could be a bit of a trap game for us coming off two good wins and a nice performance against Stanford. I hope we're fired up and ready to play. I think Idaho just might present more of a challenge than a lot of people think.
I won't be able to watch this one since I'm in Ann Arbor with my wife to see Nebraska @ Michigan in the Big House. Football at Michigan is a whole different world. We were in the M Den today which is like a 2 story department store for Michigan apparel and it was packed with fans and students. Everywhere you go on the campus the students are wearing Michigan gear and there are lot of Nebraska fans in town also decked out in red. 110-115,000 are expected for the game.
We cannot take the Vandals lightly. The fact that they still don't have their QB situation figured out in the 4th week of the season gives me a little bit of confidence going into this one though. Plus coming off the bye week can be hit or miss for teams. You get some time to rest up, but some teams look rusty after the bye. It should be a good game and hopefully an Aggie win!
I’m not sure how to feel about this one. They haven’t played anyone where the outcome wasn’t almost preordained.
If their team from 2017 had played San Jose States 2017 team they would have been 10 point favorites. So either we are in for some trouble or their football talent has fallen off rapidly. I think it will be a competitive game unless we are clicking on both offense and defense. I think our upside is huge but we haven’t put it all together yet.
I'm in the same boat as you. I don't think Idaho is as bad as their fans are making it out to be at this point. Maybe they are still dejected from the move down from FBS. I will say that they got thumped by Fresno by more than I expected and they really didn't put Western New Mexico (a not great D2 team) away until the 4th quarter. My gut says Aggies win, but the boys are going to have to come out fired up.