The 2009 season has been a renaissance of sorts for the Idaho Vandals and the Temple Owls. Both programs are enjoying their best seasons in years and are beginning to get some well-deserved recognition for their efforts.
Idaho, which is off to a 6-1 start after going 2-10 last year, has been featured by SI.com and the Associated Press.
The 6-1 start is the most wins for the program since going 7-4 in 1999 as a member of the Big West. It’s the best start since 1994 when the team went 9-3 under John L. Smith while the team was competing at the I-AA level.
During this decade, Idaho has played in three conferences (Big West, Sun Belt and Western Athletic Conference) had four coaches (Tom Cable, Nick Holt, Dennis Erickson and Robb Akey) and had nine consecutive losing seasons (23-82 during that span). Akey, who is in his third season at the helm, took over after Holt (2004-2005) and Erickson (2006) each left the program after brief stays.
With a five-game win streak in tow–the longest since 1994–the Vandals will look to stop the nation’s top rushing attack when the team meets Nevada (3-3, 2-0) on Saturday. The Wolfpack is averaging 292.83 yards per game on the ground while the Idaho defense is allowing 95.57 yards per game.
Temple’s program is featured in today’s edition of the New York Times. The article chronicles the hiring of Al Golden and how he has changed the losing culture that engulfed the program for nearly two decades.
Temple (4-2, 3-0 in the Mid-American Conference) has won four in a row and is 3-0 in conference play for the first time since 1967. The Owls haven’t had a winning season since going 7-4 in 1990. In fact, the program had seven seasons with 10 or more losses between 1991 and 2006. Things got so bad for the program that the Big East kicked the school out of the conference.
On Saturday, the Owls travel to Toledo (4-3, 2-1) to play the Rockets. Toledo’s offense, which is ranked 10th in the country (458.29 yards per game), will provide a stern test for Temple’s defense–a defense that has allowed an average of 14.3 points per game during its four-game win streak.
If Opelt is healthy and the Rockets can avoid pentalities, I like Toledo over these improved Owls. Congrats to the Owls on putting a team on the field that represents MAC football appropriately, though.