Vandals hope to honor 20-man senior class with home victory

MOSCOW - In a season littered with close calls and blowouts, quarterback changes and small glimpses of what could've been, the hardest part of Idaho's 2011 campaign arrives today when 20 seniors will sweat, bleed and, in all likelihood, cry on the Kibbie Dome turf for the final time.

"I want to see the football team that gained some ground two weeks ago," Idaho coach Robb Akey said. "I want to see it come into the Dome and I want to see it played with a great magnitude because this is the last game we get to play in the Dome this year and it's the last opportunity the seniors get to play at home in front of our fans and I want to send those guys out so they have a great memory in their final game as a Vandal in the Dome."

Fresh off a demoralizing 42-7 loss to BYU, the roughed-up Vandals are looking to right the ship quickly against another run-first team in Utah State.

Before the Vandals, who are 10-point underdogs, can deliberate over the best way to stymie the top scoring team in the conference, there is still one big issue yet to be resolved in the Idaho camp ahead of today's 2 p.m. kickoff.

For the second time this season, Akey opened the quarterback position in practice and let both sophomore Taylor Davis and senior Brian Reader duel it out for the starting job.

Last week in Provo, Utah, neither signal-caller lit it up, but at least one finished the game with positive yardage.

Davis started the game but finished with minus-6 yards on 5-of-12 passing in three-plus quarters. Reader came on in the fourth and carried the Vandals to the BYU 11-yard line before tossing a pick at the goal line that Cougars' linebacker Spencer Hadley ran back to midfield.

Considering that this could very well be Reader's final football game, the sentimental decision would lie with the senior despite his propensity for mistakes in the red zone this season.

Regardless of who is under center, he will be backed up by two senior running backs who have each displayed the ability to snatch the spotlight when Idaho (2-8 overall, 1-4 WAC) seems down-and-out.

Princeton McCarty's one-man show against New Mexico State last month nearly brought the Vandals back from an 11-point second half deficit while Kama Bailey hashed out a memorable 116-yard, fourth-quarter showcase in Idaho's dramatic 32-29 win over San Jose State two weeks ago.

For an offense that has had its fair share of struggles, Bailey and McCarty will be relied upon once again to keep Utah State's dominant rushing attack off the field.

Averaging just shy of 270 yards a game, the Aggies' ground game is perched at the top of the conference and sits at sixth in the country.

The biggest cog in Utah State's offensive machine is 5-foot-10, 220-pound tailback Robert Turbin. On top of scoring 18 times, the redshirt junior has rolled up 1,049 of the Aggies' 2,429 rushing yards.

Turbin is complemented in the backfield by Michael Smith's 506 yards and Kerwynn Williams' 332.

"I think (we have) a solid offensive line, some tight ends that have been consistent and done a nice job blocking and I believe that we have three very talented running backs," said Aggies third-year coach Gary Andersen. "When people make a mistake in the run game, a play that possibly a year ago for us would have been 7, 8, 10 yards and been a very successful play for us now has the opportunity to go whatever's left - whether that's 60 yards, 50 yards or 20 yards it has a chance to go all the way."

Despite being thrown directly into the fire, true freshman quarterback Chuckie Keeton has guided the Aggies with good decision making and efficient passing.

In eight games, Keeton is completing 60.9 percent of his passes for 1,200 yards, 11 touchdowns and only two interceptions.

The freshman, however, is listed as questionable after leaving the Utah State's contest against Hawaii on Nov. 5 with a stinger. In his stead, junior Adam Kennedy engineered back-to-back game-winning drives to lift the Aggies (4-5, 2-2) over the Warriors 35-31 and San Jose State 34-33 and keep them within shouting distance of a bowl game.

On the other side of the ball, the Utah State features the conference's top tackler in linebacker Bobby Wagner.

The senior is a two-time all-conference first-teamer and leads the WAC with 108 tackles in nine games.

With the top scoring offense as well as the top scoring defense bearing down on the Vandals in their most emotional game of the season, sending his senior-laden group off with a bang is Akey's top priority.

"If you're talking about the end with the seniors, it means a lot," Akey said. "It's quite a group. It's the biggest group of seniors that we've had, that really doesn't have anything to do with it - it's who those seniors are. They're a pretty special group of guys that have done an awful lot for us here.

"I'm going to miss the dog out of them and I'm going to enjoy coaching them for the next three weeks to get two more games out of them and I want them to smile two more times."

NOTES - As far as injuries go, Asotin's Jesse Davis has been ruled out of Saturday's game after sustaining a leg injury against BYU. ... Idaho's 20 seniors is the largest senior group since 2003. ... Prior to the game, the Bob Curtis Press Box will be officially dedicated. ... Tickets for the game have been reduced to $5 for youths and $10 for adults in general admission seating and student seating areas.

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Warzocha may be contacted at twarzocha@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2260.