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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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Vandal TE arrested for DUI

Freshman tight end Clayton Homme was arrested for driving under the influence and public urination after Idaho's 31-29 win over Colorado State on Saturday night, the Lewiston Tribune reported Tuesday. 

Keep reading for more -- plus a link to a retrospective story on former UI great Ken Hobart and other links.

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Here's a link to the Tribune's story. Homme, from Kennewick, was spotted by an officer urinating in the drive-through of the Jack in the Box restaurant, according to a Moscow police official. This was in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Idaho coach Robb Akey has been fairly high on Homme as a prospect, but the tight end has been a redshirt target all along. With Daniel Hardy, Peter Bjorvik, and Kevin Small the Vandals are somewhat deep at the position.

Now, onto other things. I wrote a look-back piece on Ken Hobart for this morning's paper. You can check that out here. Hobart lives in Lewiston now and still follows UI athletics very closely. In fact, he had some interesting comments during our interview that I couldn't squeeze into the story.

On the Vandals' success this year: "It’s been a long dry spell. I know when I went Idaho, in January of 80, Idaho hadn’t had winning back to back season in, geez, 30 years or something. It’s kind of a neat time for a kid to go to a program. If you go to a program that’s struggled and you help it get going and turn around, that’s a group of guys that really get remembered, you know.
Coach Akey has got them on the rise. Athletically, they’re a lot better.Their skill level is getting better, they’re stronger."

On staying in touch with former UI teammates: "I talk to Kurt Vestman; he was a tight end of mine, he lives in Boise. I talk to Todd Frye quite often; he’s over in Wenatchee. I see a bunch of guys in Boise every year for the football game, or if the Boise game is up here."

On his relationship with Dennis Erickson and whether he expected Erickson to leave so quickly from Idaho in 2006: "I’ve talked to him once since (he left). I don’t talk to him often — he’s busy and I don’t bother him. I certainly have got his number, I could call and talk to him anytime.

"You know, I half-expected he would leave Idaho. He’s not in the coffin yet; he’s still got a pulse. I kind of thought when he came here it might be something to keep him busy for a while till something better came along. But I was hoping it would be a couple years, three years before (he left)."

On whether he thinks Akey will hang around Idaho: "Yeah, I think he’s content being on the Palouse. I mean, he was over on the Palouse at WSU for a long time. He’s married to Dick Hannah’s daughter (Molly), and she grew up a big portion right here in the L-C Valley when her dad was at L-C. But in all honesty, if Robb gets this thing turned around like I think he’s going to, has a winning season this year or goes .500, gets it going next year, probably you’re going to see in the next couple years, he’ll get offered a bigger and better job. If not the head guy somewhere, he’ll got offered the defensive coordinator (position) somewhere. It’s a chance to move up the ranks. I think the Idaho job is pretty much ... a steppingstone to get somewhere."

Lastly, I wanted to pass on a couple other noteworthy links. I forgot to link to John Blanchette's column after Saturday night's game. It was spot on as usual about the UI athletic department and the football team, and it's worth checking out. And also, Bud Withers of the Seattle Times has this nice piece on Akey, WSU and other Northwest ties for the UI program. Enjoy.



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