Tag: University of Idaho

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Torn by the news of Idaho Vandals going independent in football

I am torn by the Idaho Vandals going independent in Division I football and moving all other sports to the Big Sky Conference. They are fighting for survival in Division I after being snubbed by the Mountain West Conference. I am torn because I want them to stay at the FBS level in football, but feel the security of the Big Sky is where they probably should be.
I personally feel that Idaho would fit in perfectly in the Mountain West. They compete on an equal basis with all the schools and do quite well in all of the olympic sports. Though they have struggled in football, they almost beat Colorado State University in Fort Collins a couple of years ago.

I think Idaho has suffered from a perception problem. People think it is hard to get to Moscow, but it is not that hard to get to.

Then there is a media market problem. Moscow is in one media market (Spokane) but its major fan base is located in Boise, another media market. But they also have a large fan base in Portland and Seattle. I think the Mountain West and others are discounting this larger fan base.

Has Idaho made some mistakes? I think so. When they had the opportunity to develop and expand its facilities, they were slow to the party. They have made some steps to expand the Kibbie Dome, but it only sits 18,000. They need about 12,000 more to have a good size for Division I. While they use the Kibbie Dome for basketball, or as it is known as the Cowen Spectrum, they do need a dedicated activity center complex where they can play basketball, volleyball, dare I say hockey, and the jazz festival.

But fans, alumni, students, and residents of the inland northwest need to start coming out and supporting the Vandals. Getting only 12,000 to come out for a game against a team is something that all of us Vandals should not stand for. Since the Kibbie Dome only sits 18,000, that place should be sold out every game.

We are all Vandals and I trust that Rob Spear and Duane Nellis are going to do what is best for Idaho.

Go Vandals!

 

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The Flagship University in Idaho is THE University of Idaho

The Idaho State Board of Education opened up a can of worms yesterday when they required the University of Idaho to remove flagship from its mission.
For those of you who don’t know, the University of Idaho was established before the state of Idaho became a state. It is even written into the state constitution. Not only that, Idaho is the land-grant institution, operating in 42 of the 44 counties. According to Dr. Duane Nellis, the University of Idaho President, the University of Idaho touches 400,000 people through its extension programs. No other college or university in Idaho comes close.

Building upon that, the University of Idaho contributes nearly $1 billion to the state of Idaho economy, that is 1.9 percent of the Idaho economy. That is a tremendous amount of money for a state like Idaho. Continue reading “The Flagship University in Idaho is THE University of Idaho”

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Why Boise State Supporters Don’t Get It and Why I Can’t Stand Them

Boise State University President Bob Kustra just doesn’t get it. It also filters all-the-way through to its supporters. They have a good football team, but when it comes to everything else they just don’t measure up. They are nasty, mean, uninformed and ignorant.
I’m a University of Idaho alum and I bleed silver and gold. It is a great university and I wouldn’t have gone anywhere else. It is also the Land Grant University in the state of Idaho which means that it provides services through its agriculture extension offices throughout the entire state while also focusing its teaching in agriculture, science and engineering.

Because of this, the University of Idaho has an extensive endowment and last year brought in more that $89 million in research funding (that is 74-percent of all research funding of Idaho’s public universities).

The University of Idaho also contributes nearly $1 billion to the Idaho economy on an annual basis. So for $1 of state money given to the University of Idaho, they return $9 to the state economy.

http://www.ktvb.com/v/?i=107005578

Continue reading “Why Boise State Supporters Don’t Get It and Why I Can’t Stand Them”

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Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Votes a Sham!

I just want to say the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year is a sham! ONE BIG SHAM!
They had voting throughout the fall for coach of the year. This was to be a vote of the fans. But it didn’t turn out that way.

University of Idaho football coach Robb Akey was in fourth place when the initial vote ended. When the finalists were announced, he was no where to be found. NO WHERE!

Coach Akey, in his third year at Idaho, took a team that won three games the previous year to a 7 win season and Idaho’s first bowl appearance since 1998. They will be playing Bowling Green in the Humanitarian Bowl on December 30.

What happened? Who knows.

Liberty Mutual totally ignored the vote of the fans who came to their site, promoted this vote on Twitter and Facebook, and turned their backs on them. This is a total failure of the process.

Liberty Mutual, if you want to dive into the social media world, dive in.  If you want a true social media experience, use the fans votes. Don’t come up with your own plan and use the people like that.

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I support the University of Idaho

I am getting tired of all the naysayers out there that say the University of Idaho football and athletics should move back to Division I-AA, also known as FCS.  Idaho is in the right conference and the right division.
Has the football team struggled the last 10 years? Yes!

Has the basketball team struggled? Yes!

But there are signs of improvement in the football program. I think Rob Akey is the right person to lead the turnaround.  He came in and had to deal with a disaster of a team, one that Dennis Erickson tore apart in one year.

Akey had to let go 18-20 players who were dealing drugs, stealing from teammates, and couldn’t handle the academics of college.  They are now playing mostly freshman and sophomores.  While they are getting experience, they are making mistakes and it is costing wins, but the future is quite bright.

There are signs are getting brighter for Idaho’s basketball program.  They have a good coach who can guide them.  I am also hearing that they are getting commits from some good recruits.  Face it, the basketball program can only get better.

Now I am a person that thinks that Idaho needs to build an outdoor football stadium, but I wouldn’t get rid of the Dome.  It is too heavily used by the student body for intramurals and workouts.  It would also make a great practice area for various sports.

Having an outdoor stadium would add so much.  Also when Idaho played their home games at Martin Stadium in Pullman, Idaho averaged higher attendance than the Kibbie Dome holds.

Basketball needs a new arena for basketball and volleyball.  The Kibbie Dome does not cut it for those sports.  The new arena could even be used for the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival where good jazz gets lost in the vastness of the Dome.

I am a supporter of Vandal athletics and the University of Idaho as a whole. They are going through a transition in their athletic program, but the academic program is growing. The enrollment is up, they are getting more grants and research dollars (over $100 million since 2003), and is consistently rated as one of the best values in education.

The search for a new President is on and it will be nice to get that settled and the new person into the position.

Everyone just needs to be patient with the football and basketball programs.  They will come around.  The future is bright for the University of Idaho.

Go Vandals!

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University of Arizona football a model for bad sportsmanship

I just want to say that the University of Arizona football team will get theirs sometime this season.  They are the perfect model for bad sportsmanship.
This Saturday, they are playing the University of Idaho in Tucson.  I will be the first to say that Idaho was over-matched in this game.  No doubt about that.

As the favorite you want to beat your opponent, but you don’t want to embarrass them.  But at the end of the second half, Arizona got the ball on their 45 yard-line with about 39 seconds to go.  At this time, they had a 35-0 lead.

They then proceeded to air the ball out and call time outs and scored a touchdown with four seconds left.

You just don’t do that.  You take a knew or run a couple of running plays.  As I said, you don’t embarrass the opponent.

Now you are probably saying that Idaho should stop them and if they can’t, then so be it.  But that is not sportsmanship.

Stoops and the University of Arizona showed their true character tonight, they don’t have any.  I hope when they get to the Pac 10 league schedule, they get their throats stomped on and embarrassed.

I don’t usually root for USC, but they play Arizona in Tucson and will definitely be rooting for the men of Troy.

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University of Idaho researcher faces deportation back to Poland

Local News | UI researcher faces deportation back to Poland | Seattle Times Newspaper
I just want to say that this is the most stupid things that I have heard of. A Univesity of Idaho researcher who is studying bioterrorism defenses for the FBI was denied citizenship because she illegally worked for 8 months because the immigration and Naturalization Service didn’t like the photo she submitted.

This is horrible, wrong, and many other things including expletives.

Not only is it affecting her, it is affecting her husband and their son.  Her husband is researching ways to fight diseases such as AIDS, can longer receive grants to do that work.

Their son is stuck because he can no longer receive tuition reimbursement from his work so he can’t go to college.

The kicker is that they weren’t doing anything wrong. They were playing by the rules and doing everything you were supposed to do.  Where they got into trouble is that the INS didn’t like the photos that she submitted, so it delayed her annual work permit.

When they finally got a photo they liked, her annual permit had expired.  She ended up working eight months without a permit.  She tried to do the right thing and checked, but got some bad advice.

This is just plain stupid and wrong.  Our country is and Immigration and Naturalization Service is wrong.

The INS is a horrible organization.  There are many people who have come here illegally and they do nothing.  But a family who is doing everything by the book and doing tremendous research to help this country and the world is denied citizenship and shipped home because the INS didn’t like her photo is wrong and needs to be corrected.

No wonder immigration is screwed up in this country.  Something needs to be fixed and fixed now!

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University of Idaho President Leaves for UC Riverside, why?

University of Idaho President Tim White has announced that he is leaving to take over as Chancellor of the University of California Riverside.  My question is why?
There is no way that UC Riverside is better than the University of Idaho.  UC Riverside has more students (17,000 to about 12,000), but that is about it.  They will be getting a medical school soon, but that is about it. The one negative at Idaho is that you are under much more of a microscope than other schools.

The quality of life and a residential community is so much better at the University of Idaho.  There is a lot more to do, the weather is better, the traffic is non-existent in Moscow compared to Riverside.

At least I can breathe in Moscow, Idaho.  At Riverside you breathe nothing but 100% pure California smog.

President White did a great job at Idaho and I guess he thought it was time to move on. I hope that the Idaho State Board of Education moves quickly, but deliberately in getting someone who will take the University of Idaho to the next level.

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The transformation of the University of Idaho basketball programs

The transformation of the University of Idaho men’s and women’s basketball programs is well underway.
Last Monday, Athletic Director Rob Spear introduced the new men’s basketball head coach Don Verlin. Verlin comes from Utah State where he was serving as the assistant coach. He ran the offense for the Aggies and for the last 9 seasons, the Aggies have had a winning record and post-season appearances.

Verlin has yet to coach a team that had a losing record. Continue reading “The transformation of the University of Idaho basketball programs”

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Idaho to hire Verlin as Men’s Basketball Coach

FoxSports is reporting that the University of Idaho will hire Utah State associate head coach Don Verlin as the new Head Coach.
Verlin has been coaching with Stew Morrill for the past 15 seasons, the last 10 at Utah State.

This seems awfully quick to me. There are a bunch of good coaches out there, many of them are still coaching in the NCAA Tournament. To make a decision this quick, Spear was set on one person and he was going to get that person.

That may or may not be a good thing.

According to FoxSports, a press conference will be held on Monday at 8:00 P.M.