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
2010 Idaho Football Roster
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