Good Morning Vandal Nation: Nov. 30, 2009

As the morning dawns and students flock back to campus, we’re down in the home stretch of the semester. It was an up and down weekend for Idaho sports, but this week promises to hold great opportunities on the hardwood.

On Saturday, Idaho ended its home football season with an disappointing loss to Utah State, after defensive breakdowns once again put the Vandals in a hole they couldn’t dig out of. But Don Verlin’s hoopsters provided a boost that night with a decisive home win over Eastern Washington to go to 4-1, their best start in decades.

Then, Sunday brought the first victory for Idaho’s women, who struggled early on with shooting woes and the loss of team leader Derisa Taleni. Offense was not a problem, as the Vandals whipped up on Louisiana-Lafayette, 90-66.

This weekend promises to be a historic one for Idaho sports, as #25 Portland comes calling in Moscow Sunday. The Pilots, who have beaten Oregon, UCLA and #22 Minnesota, may be the first nationally-ranked non-conference team to ever take on the Vandals at home. That game will tip off at 5 p.m. and is scheduled for the Cowan Spectrum.

Now for the links:

Basketball

• The AP Poll is out, and after upsetting #22 Minnesota, UCLA and Oregon, the Portland Pilots are ranked #25 in the nation.

• Idaho’s women got their first win Sunday, and did it with an offensive explosion. Here’s the official writeup.

• With a 6-for-7 performance from beyond the arc, Steffan Johnson led Idaho to victory over Eastern Washington, and Marvin Jefferson provided an exclamation point jam. Here’s a photo gallery and writeup from GoVandals.net, too. We’ll have photos of our own up this afternoon.

• Last night, Nevada made a strong showing in the defending national champions’ house, taking North Carolina down to the wire despite their lack of depth. Chris Murray of the Reno Gazette-Journal has the story from Chapel Hill, N.C. (props to the RGJ for sending him on the road) and observes that the Wolf Pack can claim a moral victory.

• Chris Murray also has his weekly WAC Power Rankings, and the Vandals are atop the leaderboard.

• Spartan Hoops previews tonight’s huge home game for the Spartans — they take on Saint Mary’s.

• Daniel Lyght of the Fresno Bee reports from the Bulldogs’ loss to Santa Clara, and Fresno State coach Steve Cleveland isn’t happy. (h/t to Parsing the WAC)

• Hawaii is headed out on its only road trip of the non-conference season, and the Honolulu Advertiser’s Dayton Morinaga says it could be the tonic the slumping Rainbow Warriors need.

Football

• ESPN.com is projecting, bizarrely, an Idaho/Northern Illinois rematch for the Humanitarian Bowl. Is there anyone who really wants to see that?

• CBS Sports, more interestingly, predicts an Idaho/Bowling Green battle in Boise.

• The Logan Herald-Journal’s Wade Denniston says the Aggies were hoping to give the Vandals a shootout — and did.

• The Denver Post’s John Henderson looks at the WAC’s singular mission: Get Boise State into the BCS.

• What was seemingly impossible last month is oh so tantalizingly close for the Hawaii Warriors — after three wins in a row, they can secure a berth in the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl if they can take down Wisconsin this weekend, the Honolulu Advertiser’s Stephen Tsai reports.

Good Morning Vandal Nation: Nov. 16, 2009

A weekend that began with such promise for Vandal sports ended with a couple big disappointments. The Vandals upset Utah on Friday night to open the hoops season, but things went upside down from there.

On Saturday, Idaho was blasted by No. 6 Boise State in the rivalry game, 63-25, and the volleyball team was handed its first home conference loss by No. 3 Hawaii. Last night, the Vandals were upset themselves on the hardwood, by an upstart Texas Southern team that forced 18 Idaho turnovers.

We hope the week to come is a happier one for Vandal sports — it’s been a weekend to forget.

It’s a bye week for football, but tonight, Idaho’s women open their hoops season against Gonzaga in Memorial Gym at 7 p.m. Let’s pack the gym and support the Vandal women!

On Thursday, volleyball closes out the WAC regular season with a home match against Boise State at 7 p.m.

Then, on Saturday, the Vandal men travel to Fargo, N.D. to take on the North Dakota State Bison at 2 p.m. We’ll be courtside with live coverage as Mac Hopson, Steffan Johnson and the rest try to get their season back on track.

Now for the links:

Football

• ESPN’s Graham Watson still projects Idaho to end up in the Humanitarian Bowl.

• Larry Johnson of GoVandals.net has a photo gallery of the debacle.

• The Idaho Statesman’s Chadd Cripe looks at the Vandals’ seven game-killing turnovers.

• San Jose State coach Dick Tomey is retiring after going 1-8 this year with the Spartans, reports Jon Wilner of the Mercury News.

• That came after the Utah State Aggies drilled the Spartans, 24-9, on Saturday.

• The Fresno State Collegian’s Logan Hopkins says when Ryan Mathews was knocked out, the Bulldogs’ hopes of beating the Wolf Pack went down with him.

Basketball

• The Spokesman-Review has a quick brief on the Vandals’ loss at Texas Southern.

• The Logan Herald-Journal’s Shawn Harrison examines Utah State’s narrow road victory over Weber State.

• Boise State came away with two wins and one loss from their opening weekend, reports the Idaho Statesman’s Nick Jezierny.

• Jason Groves of the Las Cruces Sun-News looks at the NMSU Aggies’ blowout defeat by St. Mary’s.

Good Afternoon Vandal Nation: Nov. 10, 2009

With hoops season well and truly upon us, along with semesterly crunch time looming, we’ve been a bit buried early on. The morning posts are turning into afternoons — our apologies for that.

So let’s get to the links:

Football

• ESPN’s Graham Watson says Idaho QB Nate Enderle’s status is still up in the air.

• The Fresno Bee’s Dan Lyght looks at Fresno State’s bowl possibilities.

• Dan Hinxman of the Reno Gazette-Journal chimes in with his thoughts on the WAC’s bowls.

• The Argonaut has my gamer on the Vandals’ loss to Fresno State.

Basketball

• The Argonaut has my report on Friday’s men’s exhibition game and Ilya Pinchuk’s report on the women’s exhibition.

• Josh Wright of the Spokesman-Review blogs his Idaho season preview.

• Las Cruces Sun-News writer Jason Groves wonders which WAC team might pull an Idaho-like surprise this season.

• Josh Wright of the Spokesman-Review blogs his Idaho season preview.

• The Reno Gazette-Journal’s ridiculously prolific Chris Murray says Nevada will be going uptempo.

Good Afternoon Vandal Nation: Nov. 9, 2009

We’re late with the links today, as homework came calling, so let’s get right to them.

The Vandals open their hoops season Friday at Utah and the football team heads to Boise for the rivalry showdown — we’ll have complete coverage of both games on Vandal Nation Live.

Later this afternoon, we’ll post a quick video clip from today’s postmortem press conference with Robb Akey.

Football

• ESPN’s Graham Watson projects Idaho to land in the Humanitarian Bowl against an at-large foe.

• The Fresno State Collegian’s Logan Hopkins reviews the Idaho/Fresno State game.

• The Spokesman-Review’s Josh Wright blogs from today’s press conference, where Akey made some bold statements.

• The Lewiston Tribune’s Jesse Baumgartner grades out the Vandals’ performance vs. Fresno State.

• GoVandals.net has a photo gallery from the Vandals game.

Basketball

• GoVandals.net’s Gaylen Wood has a report from Idaho’s doubleheader exhibition victory.

Good Morning Vandal Nation: Nov. 5, 2009

We’re ramping up hoops coverage here at Vandal Nation — but that doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten about football.

Idaho’s Chelsea Small became the first Vandal ever named to the soccer All-WAC First Team. She led the WAC in shots with 101, scoring eight goals and adding four assists to lead the Vandals.

Now for your morning links.

Football

• The WAC has suspended a replay official after blowing a first down call in the San Jose State/Boise State game.

• ESPN’s Graham Watson picks Idaho over Fresno State in her “upset special” of the week. She says the Vandals’ high-powered offense will overcome Ryan Mathews’ ground-pounding.

• The Idaho Press-Tribune’s Jake Alger says the Vandals have nothing left to prove.

• Football on the Fringe projects Idaho to wind up in one of the H-Bowls — the Humanitarian Bowl if Boise State goes to the BCS, the Hawaii Bowl if not.

• The Reno Gazette-Journal ranks Idaho fourth in the WAC.

• Raymond Partsch of The Town Talk says Louisiana Tech coach Derek Dooley has disappointed this season.

• The Lewiston Tribune’s Jesse Baumgartner blogs his WAC predictions.

• Fresno State has a secret formula for blocking kicks, The Fresno Bee’s Bryant-Jon Anteola reports.

Basketball

• We posted a few tidbits from Wednesday hoop practice.

• Nevada Wolf Pack coach David Carter says his team needs to focus on defense and rebounding, reports the Reno Gazette-Journal’s Chris Murray.

• Jason Groves of the Las Cruces Sun-News posts up his thoughts from NMSU’s season-opening exhibition game. He also has a report on two of the Aggies’ new frontcourters. (h/t to Bleed Crimson)

• Defiantly Dutch predicts the Colonial Athletic Association. No, it’s not WAC, but it’s another quality mid-major league.

Good Morning Vandal Nation: Oct. 29, 2009

It’s just about threatening to snow on the Palouse — and right on time, because hoops season is about to begin. In keeping with that, our hoops links section is starting to expand.

Today, we’ll have live-tweet coverage from the Vandals’ volleyball match against New Mexico State at 7 p.m., as the Idaho spikers look to solidify a top-half seeding in the WAC Volleyball Tournament.

A reminder: Students must pick up hard tickets for Saturday’s Homecoming game, which kicks off at 2 p.m. We’ll have complete previews coming up.

Football

• ESPN’s Graham Watson picks the Vandals to roll over Louisiana Tech and says Akey’s Army is out to avenge last week’s loss to Nevada.

• If you missed it yesterday, ESPNU has picked up the Vandals/Broncos intra-state grudge match.

• GoVandals.net’s Matt Dessert has a preview of Idaho’s homecoming game against the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs.

• Brian Murphy of the Idaho Statesman says Humanitarian Bowl officials really want Idaho.

• The Fresno Bee’s Bryant-Jon Anteola looks at this weekend’s Bulldogs/Aggies battle.

• The Lewiston Tribune’s Jesse Baumgartner reports from Wednesday’s Vandals practice.

Basketball.

• Blogging the Bracket agrees with the polls, picking Idaho to finish fourth.

• The Logan Herald-Journal’s Shawn Harrison reports from the Utah State Aggies’ season-opening scrimmage.

• Chris Murray of the Reno Gazette-Journal starts a detailed WAC preview series with No.9 Hawaii.

• Chris Murray also re-selects the WAC’s “best hair” — and gives it to Idaho’s big-do, big-time shooter Luciano de Souza.

• Dayton Morinaga of the Honolulu Advertiser looks at the preseason injuries which have plagued Hawaii. (h/t to Parsing the WAC)

• The excellent basketblog Storming the Floor posts up its Preseason All-Name Team.

Midseason musings at midnight

The Vandals are halfway through their 12-game regular season, and that means this week is time for midseason report cards — which we’ll have as the week progresses.

But while working on the Western Athletic Conference basketball preview (which starts tomorrow), a few tidbits came to mind that just can’t wait.

Has any quarterback’s stock ever plunged so fast as Nate Enderle’s?

• After enduring two awful seasons in which he had few viable receivers and no pass protection, Vandals starting signal-caller Nate Enderle started off this year looking like an entirely different player. He engineered the Vandals’ potent aerial assault and received national attention on ESPN’s College GameDay prior to a career-best performance against Colorado State. With eight touchdowns for just three picks, Nate was looking for all the world like one of the WAC’s best quarterbacks.
  Then on Saturday, Enderle had an admittedly horrible outing, throwing three interceptions and getting benched in favor of backup Brian Reader on the final, game-saving drive. Now, after he’s led Idaho to its best start in 15 years, the fans are once again calling for Nate’s job? Nonsense. He’s had one bad game out of six. Is our memory so short that we’ve forgotten who brought us where we are? With the record he’s built this season, Enderle deserves the benefit of the doubt.

Trey Farquhar: the unsung hero of San Jose

• Lost in the euphoria of Saturday’s comeback win was an amazing — and game-changing — performance by freshman kicker Trey Farquhar. After a JoJo Dickson interception gave Idaho the ball with one second left in the first half, Farquhar banged a 52-yard field goal straight through the uprights as time expired. The kick not only tied for the eighth-longest field goal in Vandal history, it proved a crucial margin in the game’s final seconds.
  When San Jose State got the ball with 1:10 on the clock and one timeout, they trailed by five points. Instead of being able to push just into field goal range, the Spartans were forced to go for a touchdown. A deep Farquhar kickoff made SJSU start the drive 87 yards away from the end zone. That kind of desperation, all-pass situation set up by Farquhar’s two huge boots undoubtedly helped lead to Kenneth Patten’s game-ending interception.

Idaho can haz bowl game?

• There are six games remaining on the Vandals’ schedule. Idaho must win at least one to become bowl-eligible; two victories would seal a late-December berth. The most likely candidate for an Idaho bowl is the game closest to home: the Roady’s Humanitarian Bowl in Boise on Dec. 30. The WAC also has tie-ins with the Hawaii, New Mexico and Poinsettia bowls, so they’re all possibilities too. Given the Treasure Valley’s large alumni base, though, it seems a foregone conclusion that bowl eligibility for the Vandals means New Year’s on the blue turf.
  The only monkey-wrench in the system would be if Boise State were to win the WAC but not be invited to a BCS bowl; they would then theoretically have first dibs on the H-Bowl. But the Broncos spurned an H-Bowl invite last year, shunning their hometown game in favor of the Poinsettia Bowl in sunny San Diego. There’s not much reason to think they’d want to play in it this year, either.