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Idaho Football Picks
Spring practices are in the books and
fall camps will be here before you know it so that means
getting an early jump on the 2006 NCAA football season.
Knowing the teams now will save you time in August and Matt
Fargo is here to help you get a grasp of what to expect this
upcoming year. We go from worst to first in this 2006
College Football Preview.
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#113 – Idaho Vandals 2-9 SU; 6-5 ATS
Fargo’s Take It was an up and down offseason for the Vandals
or should I say down and up. Head coach Nick Holt, who was
hired two years ago to turn around the Idaho program, bolted
for the NFL before changing his mind and heading back to USC.
But the pain subsided when Dennis Erickson was hired as head
coach and he has already made a difference as shown by the
over 5,000 tickets sold for the annual spring game. Now his
quest is to improve a team that last won more than three
games way back in 2000. His first order of business was to
revamp the defense that was near the bottom of the rankings
in almost every category. It is going to be a small but fast
defense which is the norm for his units. The offense
finished very strong last season and with most of the
players returning, keeping that momentum going is quite
possible. It is going to be a tough hill to climb and the
changes Erickson has and will put into place aren’t going to
solve a lot of problems this season but this is a team that
will have a huge upside in years to come so future
football picks
will rely on this.
Returning Starters on Offense – 9 The Vandals were
one of the worst rushing teams in the nation last season,
averaging only 78.4 ypg but that will definitely improve in
2006. Their feature back, Jayson Bird, played only two games
last season because of a broken collarbone but he will be at
full strength this year. He rushed for 859 yards as a
freshman and he will be running behind a very veteran
offensive line that also had its share of injuries last
season. Quarterback Steve Wichman threw for a ton of yards
last season but he had no running game behind him and that
was part of the reason for his 18 interceptions. If he can
find some receivers to step up, this could be the most
improved offense in the conference. It is a big if however.
Returning Starters on Defense – 5 This is the side of
the ball that will go through the biggest overhaul as
mentioned earlier. The scoring defense finished 113th in the
country last season as the unit allowed 34 or more points
seven times while giving up point totals of 62 and 70.
Obviously that needs to come down if this team is going to
have any sort of success. The defensive line, linebackers
and secondary all have key players returning and well as
others coming back from injury. All but one of the projected
starters are either juniors or seniors so there is plenty of
experience to make a move but the depth is going to hurt the
Vandals from the start.
Schedule Three extremely difficult road games highlight the
non-conference portion of the schedule so a 1-3 start to the
season is a likely guarantee. The one win is a home game
against 1-AA Idaho St. The WAC schedule is not overly
difficult because of the bottom half of the conference that
is very weak. Boise St. and Nevada are the two difficult
home contests while games against New Mexico St. and San
Jose St. are very winnable. Utah St. is the only road
conference game that the Vandals will likely have any shot
of winning and even that could be a stretch due to the
revenge factor coming into that one.
You can bet on… Idaho will play hard every week no matter
the record or situation since Erickson will tolerate nothing
less. The Vandals will be receiving a large number of points
in games at Michigan St., Washington St. and Oregon St. and
none of those three teams are going to be dominant this year
so we might catch some value early on. Despite only two wins
last year, Idaho finished in the black against the number
and it would not be surprising to see a repeat of that based
on the expected improvements even if they will be slight.
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