There wasn’t a ton addressed this Monday at the news conference, following a 38-7 loss at Texas State which lacked any real storyline from the Vandal perspective. Idaho appeared to get out of the game without any injuries of note, as well. Since this was a shorter news conference than most the format for this post will change a little bit, and we’ll just jump right in to the comments from Akey.
On the game itself, it was missed opportunities and the inability to string together consistency in all three phases in the game is what Idaho coach Robb Akey lamented about Saturday’s blowout loss at Texas State. Idaho had gone in to the half down 14-7, scoring the last touchdown of the half. Texas State then scored 24 unanswered in the second half.
“It was a game of opportunity we had plenty of,” he said. “It was a one score game for a long, long period of time. That tells me we had opportunities in all three phases of the game to match the score and put ourselves up. That’s what we didn’t get done.”
On the run defense: “Within that, how do we make that better. We got to stop the run better, that was a big issue for us as Saturday,” he said. “We as coaches have to get guys in places to handle the run better.”
Akey said the offense left some big plays out on the field, saying “we have to make plays when given the opportunity, that’s the bottom line.”
On consistency: “What I’m talking about is getting consistency to come up, but consistency of the good things we’ve done at times. Get that to be more consistent, get this other stuff to go away, fall to the wayside, kick it to the curb. Focus what we’re capable of doing and get these other things out of our mind.”
On not capitalizing on last week’s momentum: “Our whole football family is disappointed in what happened (at Texas State) because we did feel like we had gained some ground. We had accomplished something (in beating New Mexico State), we finally did something we felt we were capable of doing (in losses to Bowling Green and Wyoming).
“Okay, we’ve gained some ground here, we have a chance to get it over the edge and then he were go and we didn’t get it accomplished the way we expected to,” he said. “I can’t let it be the sky falling down, we’ve got to understand, ‘hey, this is how it happened, and this is why it happened.’ This is what we talked about (Sunday) as a team and how we can respond to making it be better.”
On the preparation level for Texas State’s spread-option offense:
– “Our guys worked hard to be ready for it during the week. Our guys did, our players did, our coaches did…We needed the wrap the guys up better. We made some mistakes within it, certainly. And there’s some things that we can help to make it be more automatic…(The) first time you have to deal with a significant option game like that, yeah, it created a little bit of an issue, no question about it.
– “It’s hard to replicate when you talk about trying to get it done with a scout team that’s not built for that, but I thought our coaching staff and scout players did a good job of doing what they could to get it created.”
– “There were a couple of mistakes we made in the option plays, some of it was just missed tackles. It’s fixable, I know that.”
On starting quarterback Dominique Blackman seemingly taking the loss personally
– “Your quarterback is going to get more credit than he’s due when you have success, a lot of time they get more blame than their due when success doesn’t happen.”
– “Dominique is working hard to be the starting quarterback that can make things happen in a good way. Dominique is an emotional guy. He is working hard to do it the right way. A comment like that mean he understands that is the way he needs to approach it, each of us need to approach it.”
– “No game is any one persons fault, but being able to be accountable, that’s the first thing each of us need to be able to do. That’s an effort on Dominique’s part to handle it the way a quarterback is supposed to handle it.”
On Louisiana Tech
– “You watch that game Saturday (Texas A&M at La. Tech), that was a hell of a football game. 250 plays in this ball game, it was unreal. Obviously you have a great deal of respect for Louisiana Tech. In regards to the scoreboard they were well out of the picture early in the ball game. They found ways to make plays and fought themselves back in to it. They really battled and made some things happen. They were that close to have the chance to win that ball game. I respect that. This is a damn good football team we’re going to face.”
On the team’s fifth consecutive road game where it has to significantly travel
– “It’s where we’re going to play the game, so that’s where we’re going to be.”
– Akey said with the game being a night game it will give the team an opportunity to get more accommodated to the time change.
On James Baker’s strong performance running the ball
– “I thought J.B. did a nice job. James was one we all recognized yesterday that made a lot of positive things happen throughout the course of the game. He’s very capable,” he said. “He still had a good per carry average, ran the ball hard. He finally made himself the touchdown maker, that was a hell of an effort on that touchdown run.”