Utah State football: Early Preview of the Idaho State Bengals

As an early look at USU's out-of-conference schedule, I'll be examining each opponent in-depth to give you a better feel for who we're going up against. Our third preview takes a look at our second opponent chronologically, the Idaho State Bengals:

Coach: Mike Kramer. Kramer holds a record of 6-28 over three seasons with the Bengals. Prior to coaching at Idaho State, he was the head coach at Montana State for seven seasons (40-43 record overall), as well as an additional six season coaching the Eastern Washington Eagles (37-32 record). Between the two previous schools, Kramer has notched four conference titles and taken his teams to four lower division playoffs.

Location: Pocatello, Idaho

Stadium: Holt Arena - Capacity: 12,000

Mascot: The Bengal tiger. I was unable to find any specific mascot tradition, other than the fact that the idea for the mascot came from Princeton; the Athletic Director in the 1920's was a Princeton graduate, and promoted the idea to the students at the time, who appreciated it more than the previous moniker, which was the Bantams.

Conference: Big Sky (Division 1 - FCS)

2013 Record: 3-9 (1-7 in conference)

Bowl game: N/A

Early prediction: Anything less than a blowout will be unacceptable to this Aggie team. In previous years, the Aggies had quasi-competitive games with the Bengals... in those years, the Aggies were among the worst teams in the country, frequenting ESPN's Bottom 10 lists, and recording some of the worst performances in football-dome. Those years, however, are quickly becoming an unpleasant, but somewhat removed, memory, and the Aggies should win this by a mile: USU 52 - ISU 6.