So if you’ve been around these parts much in the last few years, you may be aware of this little series we like to call “Spring Fish Wraps”. Basically it’s a self-despising play on words, while taking a longer look at each of the upcoming WSU opponents on next year’s schedule by checking them out, post spring-ball style. By self-despising, I mean that in a lighthearted, slap in our own faces of course. But a “fish wrap” is pretty much used to describe something so terribly written, you should wrap your fish with it once you are done reading it! I tried my best to define what the meaning of “fish wrap” was last year….
Per the website urbandictionary.com:
Fish wrap: a newspaper of poor repute. “The local fish wrap presented a biased story on the governor’s speech”.
Translation: The paper was so awful, after suffering through the experience of reading it, you would proceed to wrap dead fish with it that you might find at Pike Place Market. That is, you know, when people actually read newspapers??
So there you go.
And believe it or not, this is the FOURTH flippin’ year in a row that this thing has come together. They are a little long and drawn out, but in the process maybe we’ll all learn a little something about the opponents on WSU’s 2011 football schedule…?
With that, we’ll jump face first into the upcoming slate of teams, and leading off is none other than the feisty Bengals of Idaho State! What should the Cougs expect when they take the field for the opener on September 3rd? Will it be a complete walk in the park over Labor Day weekend and nothing more than a glorified tuneup/scrimmage prior to the “real” season starting up the next week? Or will Idaho State be a seriously tough test, ala Montana State’s Big Sky appearance in Martin Stadium in 2010? Let’s see…
IDAHO STATE BENGALS
LAST YEAR: 0-8 in the Big Sky, 1-10 overall. After beating Montana-Western to open up the 2010 season, the Bengals would lose out the rest of the year. They did come close a couple of times, losing by 3 to Weber State (16-13) and the hardest loss of all, a 23-20 OT loss to a very good Montana State team. But it was an otherwise miserable 2010.
Let’s face it, Idaho State has fallen on some tough times. This is a program that once had some glory however, including a Division IAA National Championship back in 1981. But they have had just six winning seasons since then, and the last few years have been especially rough. ISU has won just one game per year in each of the last three seasons, now a combined 3-31 since 2008. But after the third straight one-win season in 2010, that was it for the incumbent John Zamberlin. Idaho State replaced him with a familiar face to fans around the northwest, as none other than Mike Kramer took the reins in Pocatello.
It has been regarded as a very good hire for a program that has fallen on such hard times, and Kramer definitely knows the Big Sky ropes. He has won Big Sky coach of the year on three different occasions over his time at EWU and Montana State, so the guy knows what he’s doing. But this won’t be an overnight fixup, but more than likely it will take a while for Kramer to implement his program from top to bottom.
FANS ARE: Ready for change, that’s for sure. I mean when you struggle so badly the last few years, it gets a little old….and as Coug fans, we speak from experience on the matter! Losing just, uh, sucks, and it gets harder and harder to spin if it continues for multiple seasons. So the change to Kramer has been generally well-received by the Bengal Faithful, and fans are ready to embrace what he brings to the position. Kramer has already pledged to run an up-tempo, spread-em-out offense that will be wide open and fast paced. So even if they struggle at the outset, they are at least looking forward to some entertaining football!
2010 OFFENSIVE STATS: Last in the Big Sky in several categories, Idaho State averaged 226 yards per game in total offense. They were last in passing offense (169.6 yards per game), rushing offense (56.2 yards per game), and scoring offense (15.6 ppg).
RETURNING STARTERS (OFFENSE): 8
OFFENSIVE SYSTEM: Up tempo passing attack, already on display during Mike Kramer’s first spring in Pocatello (more on that later). Think Oklahoma State’s system, and that’s what you will see from ISU this fall. In fact, Mike Kramer has been quoted as saying they want to run “a play every 11 seconds”, so get ready for tempo, tempo, tempo!
TOP RETURNING OFFENSIVE PLAYER: It’s not often you go with a special teams player in a slot like this, but electric return man Tavoy Moore gets the nod as the biggest play threat on the Idaho State roster and top returning offensive player for 2010.
The 5-7, 195 pounder from Long Beach doesn’t wow you with his stature, but he sure can fly with the football. He has the game-changing ability that many BCS teams would love to have on their roster. Last year, Moore had FOUR special teams TD’s, two punt returns and two kickoff returns taken to the house! Check out a couple against Montana last year:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QB37PGO6qc&w=425&h=349]
WOW!
Officially a running back, Moore did it all last year, rushing for 252 yards and adding another 421 yards as a receiver. But his return yardage was astounding, highlighted by over 1,000 yards on kickoff returns alone (1086). He averaged an impressive 18.3 yards per punt return as well.
I don’t know about you, but after watching the WSU punt teams struggle in the spring game, and then seeing what this kid can do with the ball in his hands? I say either 1) Kick the damn thing out of bounds, or 2) GO FOR IT ON EVERY 4TH DOWN! 🙂
2010 DEFENSIVE STATS: Similar to the offense, the Bengals struggled in the stats department on the defensive side of the ball. They were 8th in scoring defense (33.3 ppg), 6th in rushing defense (163.5 ypg), 8th in passing defense (254 ypg) and finally, 7th in total defense (417.8 ypg).
DEFENSIVE SCHEME: 3-4
RETURNING STARTERS (DEFENSE): 6
TOP RETURNING DEFENSIVE PLAYER: This one’s easy – the top returning tackler in the entire Big Sky conference, senior outside linebacker AJ Storms is the best defensive player on the roster.
Storms totaled an impressive 146 total tackles last year, including 7.5 for loss. Storms actually led the country in tackles per game last year, at 13.3. Built more like a safety than a linebacker at 6-0, 215, Storms moves well and is very aggressive with a nose for the football. In fact, some project him to be a strong safety at the professional level, based on his production and less-than-prototype linebacker size per NFL standards. Storms should have a huge senior year, and will likely headline virtually every Big Sky/All-American FCS preseason team around.
TOP SPRING QUESTIONS:
1) HOW’S THE NEW OFFENSIVE SCHEME COMING ALONG? While they did struggle a bit on defense last season, clearly the number one task for new coach Mike Kramer is to fix the offense, and fix it FAST. And per Mike Kramer, so far, so good. And if you read anything into the spring game, you can see some big strides are being made on the offense. JC transfer QB Kevin Yost won the most improved player award this spring, and absolutely tore it up in the spring game (30-for-47 for 408 yards and 4 TD’s) as the offense put up 38 points.
Yost came to Idaho State for the chance to start, actually turning down a walk-on opportunity from other BCS programs, including the University of Washington. The chance to start was just too great a pull for Yost, who has two years of eligibility left. And the change is definitely a welcome one for an offense that routinely struggled to put up more than two TD’s. And it sure sounds like Yost is going to be the guy coming out of spring as the perfect fit in the fast paced attack.
2) HOW’S THE SCHEDULE? Not too bad, really. They of course open up in Pullman over Labor Day weekend, and then get something called “Western State” the following week before opening up Big Sky play vs. Northern Colorado on 9/17. Early on things look OK, as they get four of the first six games at home. However they do close out the season with four of their last five on the road, including a road game at BYU on 10/22. Oh yeah, their one home game over those final five? Vs. National Champion EWU on the last day of the season, 11/19! It looks like ISU’s best hope to bag some wins will be early on. But if they struggle out of the gate, it could be a very long first year for Mike Kramer’s Bobcats.
Post Spring Ramblings, dot-dot-dot style……It’s been a rough go the last three years, but you can even go back to the last five years to see the struggles. ISU is just 8-48 since 2006, and 5-35 in Big Sky play. And they have struggled away from home, as they haven’t won a road game since 2006, a 41-13 win at Northern Colorado. ISU last had a winning season in 2003, when they went 9-4. But historically it’s been tough, as Idaho State has just 13 winning seasons in the last 47 years…..It’s also been rough lately against FBS/BCS teams. They were blown out at Georgia last year, 55-7, and in 2009 they lost big at ASU (50-3) and at Oklahoma (64-0). You would probably have to go back to 2005 when they last had a respectable appearance against a BCS team, when they lost 41-29 at Kentucky…..There are some Cougs on the Idaho State coaching staff, including former All-Pac-10 guard Derrick Roche, who coaches the O-line, and Ryan Smaha, who was a grad assistant for three years in Pullman coaching linebackers. And of course there is Kramer, who was lurking in the shadows at WSU as an assistant administrator to the football team. Kramer admitted to earning just $26,000 per year and was a completely behind-the-scenes guy at WSU, and couldn’t wait to get back as a head coach. Overall Kramer’s record as a head coach is 77-75 in 13 seasons….There are a couple of other players with NW roots who are new to Idaho State, including Austin Graves, a former D-lineman recruit from WSU, and Anthony Boyles Jr, the transfer from UW. In all, Idaho State is welcoming in nine new JC or division-I transfers to go with their 15 high schoolers in this year’s recruiting class…..Some stops along the Idaho State websites include the bigskyfans.com Idaho State message board, the Idaho State Journal, MagicValley.com sports, and the Rexburg Standard Journal.
All for now. Enjoy the rest of your day, and as always, GO COUGS!
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