It wasn’t quite ideal, it wasn’t perfect, and it surely wasn’t pretty, but dangit, it was a win.
Victory!!!
That’s about the attitude Idaho coach Robb Akey had Monday when addressing the media about Idaho’s 26-18 victory over New Mexico State Saturday at the Kibbie Dome.
“There’s so much more that we can do well. We’re going to finish things better…You’re going to continue to have the ability to grow and build,” Akey said.
New Mexico State is a pretty bad team, and they played like it. Now six games through the season the Aggies are the only team in the WAC without a victory over an FBS school, providing both Texas-San Antonio and Idaho with WAC-opener victories.
Idaho also took advantage of playing the struggling Aggies to push the ball down the field in the passing game with varying success. Idaho quarterback Dominique Blackman said after the game the plan was to open the playbook up because the team felt the North Carolina game exposed Idaho’s over-use of the short passing game.
“There’s an old saying, take what they give you until they give you the game,” Akey said. “I think you always look at how you can attack different opponents and how can you grow with the things that you do. You saw us take some more shots that way, and I think we can connect on a few of those also.”
Here are the rest of Akey’s comments from Monday:
Quick hit(s):
– Akey said the Vandals got out of Saturday fairly unscathed injury wise. Safety Trey Williams should have much more availability against Texas State, Akey said.
On the performance of WR Jahrie Level: “He’s got a good ability to go get the football. He’s got a nice burst to him to, it’s important to him and he works at it. If he can keep that ball in there a little more high and tight, he’s really doing a good job and he’s doing it in a physical way too…If he makes a mistake he knows it, he wants to get it fixed.”
On the performance of the offensive line: “You’re seeing development. Working together. There’s a core in there that’s operating as a unit of five. They’re understanding where it is they need to be…There’s a toughness and great pride in that group in how they get some things done.”
On the personal foul penalties/Unnecessary conduct: “It falls in to the theme of sudden change in some respects…we don’t need to create our own adversity. That’s not acceptable, we need to get that taken care of and understand there’s a right way to play the game, and they do. It’s being addressed and we’ll get it fixed. That could cost us very dearly, and damn near did.”
On kicker Trey Farquhar, who has not missed at the Kibbie Dome this year: “He’s in a good flow about how he’s doing thing. He’s worked hard at it in the off-season…I think he’s pushing himself, he’s driving himself, he wants to be a factor.”
In response to Farquhar’s post-game comments about never wanting to know the distance in which he’s kicking from, Akey said he might have accidentally told him the distance on the 55-yard attempt (and make) before the half.
“He keeps his distance from me, and when it’s time to go he goes,” Akey said. “I might have mentioned it to him. We had called a timeout to be able to kick the one at the end of the half. Fairly long for some guys, pretty good for him, that one would have gone for another seven yards.”
I asked him ‘is it too long?’ Because we could put the offense back out there, and he just gave me a look.”