A summer update from Vandal Nation – Idaho cancels HS football camp, Akey’s hot seat, links and more

Winning the Humanitarian Bowl in 2009 made Robb Akey Moscow’s toast of the town. Is his clock ticking in 2012?

It must be summer in Moscow. Looking out the window it’s pouring rain just a day after what felt like 80 degree weather. Gotta love it. Hopefully it being summer is also a good excuse for the lack of content on this blog recently, but that is going to change very soon. Including having the answer that everybody that reads this blog wants to know – Where will the Idaho football team end up? We’ll be tackling that and many more issues very shortly.

We’re also planning on bringing our readers:

  • An interview with Alicia Kramer, daughter of former Vandal and Green Bay Packer Jerry Kramer, who is leading the latest and final attempt to get him in to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
  • More ‘NFL Vandals’ features and analysis on former Vandals in the NFL
  • Interviews with members of the football team for a feature on Ken McRoyal and his time at Idaho
  • Pre-season and fall practice coverage as the football team gets ready to tackle what could be their final season in the WAC
  • Continued random assortments of coverage of conference re-alignment
  • Other bits and pieces of news that can be added to our ridiculously obsessive coverage of Vandal athletics

But for now, here’s a bunch of links and our analysis of the news around Vandal athletics lately:

– Idaho will be canceling its grades 9-12 Fall football camp ‘as of Fall 2012’. Although the high schoolers have to pay for these camps, they are a great way for Idaho to get prospective recruits on to campus and to get a taste of what it would be like being a Vandal. Brian Murphy of he Idaho Statesman reported that one high school athlete told him that there was a ‘lack of interest’ in the Idaho’s football camp.

Is Robb Akey on the hot seat? CBSSports’ Dennis Dodd lists Robb Akey as a 4.0 out of 5 on his hot seat scale, which equates to ‘Warm seat, better start winning.’ Coaches with similar rankings include such New Mexico State’s DeWayne Walker, former Idaho coach John L. Smith at Arkansas (with a 5/5) and Randy Edsall of Maryland. It makes sense. Akey can’t live off of the Humanitarian Bowl victory forever, as the program has systematically taken steps back since then. It might not be ‘Bowl or bust’ but it’s safe to say that another two win season probably won’t cut it.

– Need some good pre-season reading on Idaho football before we start our coverage? Check out Yahoo! Sports and Pre-Snap Read which are counting down every FBS team in the country. Yahoo! has Idaho coming in at No. 118 while Pre-Snap Read has the Vandals at No. 113. Keep in mind, that is out of 124 teams. Needless to say, they aren’t high on the Vandals. Still, it’s good reading.

– University of Idaho President Duane Nellis is in Washington D.C. representing the WAC with the BCS Presidential oversight committee. Of course, they will be discussing the proposed post-season format that Conference commissioners (and Notre Dame) have tentatively agreed to. It’s also good to know that Robb Akey’s mustache will have a seat at the table (just click the link).

– This is older news, but still very relevant. An arrest has been made in relation to the death of Ken McRoyal. We will be on top of this story and have more as it becomes available.

Don’t forget that Vandal Nation can be reached on twitter @VandalNation and on Facebook right here. Tell us what you what like to see covered.

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