In a season preview article published by the Spokesman-Review in early August, Vandals head coach Robb Akey said he wanted his team to openly discuss a bowl berth, despite winning just one Western Athletic Conference game in each of their previous two seasons.
“We had meals (in the offseason) where they were eating out of bowls,” Akey was quoted as saying in the article. “I want them thinking bowls, I want them talking bowls. Why not?”
If I'm the Vandals right now, I'm eating everything out of bowls, whether it's Wheaties, tacos or a t-bone steak.
After quality wins over San Diego State and Northern Illinois, the Vandals are 3-1 heading into Saturday's showdown at the Kibbie Dome against Colorado State, in front of nationally televised audience. Akey's Army is already halfway to qualifying for bowl (the WAC's bowl affiliations are listed here).
And I have no doubt it has just as much to do with Akey's boundless enthusiasm and change of the culture at Idaho as it does with the development and maturity of his players.
Akey is now in the third year of his rebuilding project, after taking over the reigns of the program following Dennis Erickson's sudden departure in December of 2006. He preached patience then and it's paying off now.
Akey rid himself of some "bad seeds" during his first year in Moscow and decided to take his lumps by playing freshman like Nate Enderle, Deonte Jackson and JoJo Dickson. Now he has a team stacked with upperclassmen, who are hoping to restore the program's rich football tradition.
A win over the Rams Saturday would leave the Vandals just two wins away from bowl qualification with seven games left in the season. Not bad for a program that won a total of three games during Akey's first two years.
I don't know what Akey's serving his players in those bowls, but they better keep eating it.
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