The Vandals have a long way to go, but with campus shootings, poor facilities, and a financial crisis, there is no place to go but up.
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White facing tough road
Commentary: Brooks Hatch
EUGENE — The challenges that confront new University of Idaho president Tim White must sound eerily familiar to the one-time Oregon State professor, dean, executive vice-president, provost and interim president.
Like Risser, White must somehow find solutions to:
* Limited resources, thanks in part to decreasing state appropriations, and to some financial shenanigans by his predecessor (baggage John Byrne didn't leave Risser).
* Overcoming the perception —- or perhaps the reality —- that Idaho's status as the state's top university has been usurped by a younger, flashier institution that has captured the hearts, minds and pocketbooks of Idahoans everywhere. Boise State's Broncos now rule as ESPN's Friday night heroes and they've clearly eclipsed Idaho as the Gem State's premier athletic program, and as the destination school for college-age residents.
* A once-proud football program that has gone completely into the tank since moving up to Division I-A. In 1998, the Vandals shocked Southern Mississippi in the Humanitarian Bowl; the brutal woodshed job Oregon administered on Saturday typified the beatings they've received in new coach Nick Holt's initial season.
It was their third lopsided September setback. A 14-7 loss at Utah State was sandwiched around a 65-7 disaster at Boise State and a 49-8 "home" loss to Washington State that was actually played at Martin Stadium in Pullman.
Idaho's already been outscored 176-32. Another uphill battle looms at Eastern Michigan on Oct. 2 before the Vandals finally get to play the Louisiana directional schools on Oct. 9 and 16 in their first games in Moscow this fall.
"The schedule has been brutal," Smith said. "The first three games were at night so you travel, you sit around, you get home late ... we go to (EMU) next week and that's going to be a tough test as well."
* Their funky Kibbie Dome makes for a great 16,000-seat indoor practice facility and a fine campus recreation center. But it's substandard for a program that next year upgrades from the far-flung Sun Belt Conference to the tougher Western Athletic Conference. Playing home games at nearby WSU is a stopgap measure that's not beneficial for the program's long-term health, and a new stadium would cost upwards of $100 million that Idaho just doesn't have.
* A basketball program that hasn't come close to matching the success it enjoyed in the early 1980s under Don Monson. He parlayed NCAA appearances and Far West Classic victories over OSU into the top hoops job at Oregon, but Idaho's been a non-entity since its one-and-done showing in the 1990 NCAA tournament.
Some positive steps were made in the months preceding White's hiring.
The move to the WAC will reunite the Vandals with regional rivals like Boise, Utah, New Mexico, and Fresno states, greatly reduce their travel budget and possibly increase their home attendance.
Holt's hiring was widely hailed; Smith epitomizes a staff that's young and hungry. It's thought that new athletic director Rob Spear can inject some vigor into the department, just as Mitch Barnhart did at OSU after Risser hired him away from Tennessee.
Smith said parallels can be drawn to 1997, when OSU began its ongoing turnaround in Mike Riley's first stint as coach.
