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From an article in today's TNT:
http://www.thenewstribune.com/sports/story/5181110p-4710005c.html
You have to register, so here is the entire article:
Idaho stops scheduling humiliation
DON RUIZ; The News Tribune
Published: September 16th, 2005 12:01 AM
Idaho’s step up into the Western Athletic Conference means the Vandals will appear less often on the Washington Huskies’ schedule.
The game Saturday at Husky Stadium will be the schools’ 38th meeting since 1900. The Huskies hold a 33-2-2 advantage, and Idaho hasn’t won since 1905.
The Vandals’ steady diet of Pacific-10 Conference poundings was the price paid by a program struggling for identity. Now, Idaho thinks those days are over as they begin their first WAC season.
“We are obviously thrilled,” Idaho athletic director Rob Spear said. “We have been searching for some time for a league that will provide us with what I would call geographic integrity. That geographic integrity does several things for us.”
Spear ticked off three:
• Increased fan and booster support. This already has shown up in Idaho fundraising and season-ticket sales. The latter erases a longtime worry about the Vandals’ Division I-A status. This season, the NCAA adjusted attendance minimums for I-A membership to an average of 15,000 paid attendance per game. That number will allow the Vandals to return to their on-campus Kibbie Dome, with no need to play “home” games at Martin Stadium, eight miles west in Pullman.
• Added stability. For the first time since 1996, Idaho has kept its football staff intact. Without WAC membership, coach Nick Holt says he wouldn’t have considered the Idaho job.
“I would not have been interested,” Holt said. “I think it’s an excellent conference. I think it provides us stability, and I think we can grow with the conference … It helps us with recruiting. It has a great reputation, and I think it fits our school perfectly.”
• Attracting better student-athletes.
Spear expects the Vandals to be instantly competitive in non-revenue sports such as women’s basketball, volleyball, track & field, cross country and golf
Football and men’s basketball will take longer, but he thinks early signs are encouraging.
“You watch what Nick has been able to accomplish in one year, how much we’ve improved, and we’re going to continue to get better,” Spear said. “And I really like the direction that our basketball program is going. Eventually we’re going to be a very competitive program in all our sports in the Western Athletic Conference.”
That would mean competing with schools such as Fresno State, Boise State, Hawaii – teams that regularly play in bowls and occasionally leap into the national rankings.
With those kinds of teams dotting the conference schedule, Idaho plans to ease back on its ambitious non-conference scheduling, which has seen the Vandals play in places such as Washington, Washington State, Oregon, Arizona and Auburn for big paydays at the expense of big whippings.
“We want to play a very competitive game against a top Division I program – like next year we play at Michigan State,” Spear said. “In the foreseeable future we’re always going to play Washington State. But we need to be very careful with the other two non-conference games that we’re scheduling. We need to have a mid-tier Division I program like ourselves and maybe a I-AA that can come in so that we’re not playing all these top Pac-10 schools.”
No more games with Washington are scheduled.
That means the winner of the Vandals-Huskies game Saturday at Husky Stadium will likely hold bragging rights through at least the end of the decade.
Injury update
Chad Macklin (knee) is expected to miss the Idaho game, meaning the Huskies will use their third right tackle in three weeks. In week one, Robin Meadow started. In week two, Meadow moved to the left side to cover for the injured Joe Toledo, and Macklin moved in on the right. Now senior Tui Alailefaleula will replace Macklin, who is expected to miss a week or two.
Cornerback Roy Lewis (knee) also is likely to be out Saturday. Junior Josh Okoebor will fill in, with Durrel Moss in reserve.
Willingham on Robinson
Grambling’s arrival to play Washington State on Saturday at Qwest Field reminded UW coach Tyrone Willingham of his first meeting with Eddie Robinson, the winningest coach in major college history (405-165-15).
“I was very fortunate as a ninth grader – it might have been 10th grader – I had an opportunity to attend a camp that he spoke at,” Willingham said. “It was a very nice opportunity to see a living legend.”
As Willingham’s career progressed, he went on to win the Eddie Robinson Coach of Distinction Award in 2000, and the two met occasionally in adulthood.
“The contacts have been limited, but we’ve had a few opportunities to sit and visit,” he said. “But it didn’t take a conversation with Eddie Robinson to say he was impressive. It was what he did, what he’s done, that is impressive. The victories. The institution that he did it at. His longevity. His impact on young people’s lives. All of those are very impressive things that few people will ever match.”
Some 100-year perspective
Here are a few facts about the world in 1905, when Idaho last won a football game against Washington:
• Theodore Roosevelt concluded his first term as president.
• Albert Einstein published his theory of relativity.
• The jukebox was invented.
• Bloody Sunday sparked the Russian Revolution.
• Rotary International was founded.
• The U.S. Forest Service was created.
• Las Vegas, Nev., was founded.
• The Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan were established.
• Robert Koch won the Nobel Prize in medicine for discovering the cause of tuberculosis.
• Christy Mathewson threw three shutouts as the New York Giants won the World Series over the Philadelphia Athletics.
• Musician Bob Wills, billionaire Howard Hughes, actress Greta Garbo and actor Henry Fonda were born.
• The Wright Brothers were two years beyond their initial flight at Kitty Hawk, N.C.
• The Titanic had not yet sunk – or been built.
http://www.thenewstribune.com/sports/story/5181110p-4710005c.html
You have to register, so here is the entire article:
Idaho stops scheduling humiliation
DON RUIZ; The News Tribune
Published: September 16th, 2005 12:01 AM
Idaho’s step up into the Western Athletic Conference means the Vandals will appear less often on the Washington Huskies’ schedule.
The game Saturday at Husky Stadium will be the schools’ 38th meeting since 1900. The Huskies hold a 33-2-2 advantage, and Idaho hasn’t won since 1905.
The Vandals’ steady diet of Pacific-10 Conference poundings was the price paid by a program struggling for identity. Now, Idaho thinks those days are over as they begin their first WAC season.
“We are obviously thrilled,” Idaho athletic director Rob Spear said. “We have been searching for some time for a league that will provide us with what I would call geographic integrity. That geographic integrity does several things for us.”
Spear ticked off three:
• Increased fan and booster support. This already has shown up in Idaho fundraising and season-ticket sales. The latter erases a longtime worry about the Vandals’ Division I-A status. This season, the NCAA adjusted attendance minimums for I-A membership to an average of 15,000 paid attendance per game. That number will allow the Vandals to return to their on-campus Kibbie Dome, with no need to play “home” games at Martin Stadium, eight miles west in Pullman.
• Added stability. For the first time since 1996, Idaho has kept its football staff intact. Without WAC membership, coach Nick Holt says he wouldn’t have considered the Idaho job.
“I would not have been interested,” Holt said. “I think it’s an excellent conference. I think it provides us stability, and I think we can grow with the conference … It helps us with recruiting. It has a great reputation, and I think it fits our school perfectly.”
• Attracting better student-athletes.
Spear expects the Vandals to be instantly competitive in non-revenue sports such as women’s basketball, volleyball, track & field, cross country and golf
Football and men’s basketball will take longer, but he thinks early signs are encouraging.
“You watch what Nick has been able to accomplish in one year, how much we’ve improved, and we’re going to continue to get better,” Spear said. “And I really like the direction that our basketball program is going. Eventually we’re going to be a very competitive program in all our sports in the Western Athletic Conference.”
That would mean competing with schools such as Fresno State, Boise State, Hawaii – teams that regularly play in bowls and occasionally leap into the national rankings.
With those kinds of teams dotting the conference schedule, Idaho plans to ease back on its ambitious non-conference scheduling, which has seen the Vandals play in places such as Washington, Washington State, Oregon, Arizona and Auburn for big paydays at the expense of big whippings.
“We want to play a very competitive game against a top Division I program – like next year we play at Michigan State,” Spear said. “In the foreseeable future we’re always going to play Washington State. But we need to be very careful with the other two non-conference games that we’re scheduling. We need to have a mid-tier Division I program like ourselves and maybe a I-AA that can come in so that we’re not playing all these top Pac-10 schools.”
No more games with Washington are scheduled.
That means the winner of the Vandals-Huskies game Saturday at Husky Stadium will likely hold bragging rights through at least the end of the decade.
Injury update
Chad Macklin (knee) is expected to miss the Idaho game, meaning the Huskies will use their third right tackle in three weeks. In week one, Robin Meadow started. In week two, Meadow moved to the left side to cover for the injured Joe Toledo, and Macklin moved in on the right. Now senior Tui Alailefaleula will replace Macklin, who is expected to miss a week or two.
Cornerback Roy Lewis (knee) also is likely to be out Saturday. Junior Josh Okoebor will fill in, with Durrel Moss in reserve.
Willingham on Robinson
Grambling’s arrival to play Washington State on Saturday at Qwest Field reminded UW coach Tyrone Willingham of his first meeting with Eddie Robinson, the winningest coach in major college history (405-165-15).
“I was very fortunate as a ninth grader – it might have been 10th grader – I had an opportunity to attend a camp that he spoke at,” Willingham said. “It was a very nice opportunity to see a living legend.”
As Willingham’s career progressed, he went on to win the Eddie Robinson Coach of Distinction Award in 2000, and the two met occasionally in adulthood.
“The contacts have been limited, but we’ve had a few opportunities to sit and visit,” he said. “But it didn’t take a conversation with Eddie Robinson to say he was impressive. It was what he did, what he’s done, that is impressive. The victories. The institution that he did it at. His longevity. His impact on young people’s lives. All of those are very impressive things that few people will ever match.”
Some 100-year perspective
Here are a few facts about the world in 1905, when Idaho last won a football game against Washington:
• Theodore Roosevelt concluded his first term as president.
• Albert Einstein published his theory of relativity.
• The jukebox was invented.
• Bloody Sunday sparked the Russian Revolution.
• Rotary International was founded.
• The U.S. Forest Service was created.
• Las Vegas, Nev., was founded.
• The Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan were established.
• Robert Koch won the Nobel Prize in medicine for discovering the cause of tuberculosis.
• Christy Mathewson threw three shutouts as the New York Giants won the World Series over the Philadelphia Athletics.
• Musician Bob Wills, billionaire Howard Hughes, actress Greta Garbo and actor Henry Fonda were born.
• The Wright Brothers were two years beyond their initial flight at Kitty Hawk, N.C.
• The Titanic had not yet sunk – or been built.
