Vandals pick up offensive slack at scrimmage

MOSCOW, Idaho – The defense was still ahead of the offense Saturday as the University of Idaho went through its paces in the second scrimmage of the spring, but the good news is the offense is progressing.

“I really felt that there was great improvement offensively,” Vandals coach Dennis Erickson said. “I thought that we were a little bit more consistent offensively than we were last week, which is what we need to do to continue to improve.

“Am I happy where we’re at? I’m never happy, but I like the direction that we’re going in and the improvement that we’ve made. We just keep doing that and start evaluating where we’re at and what our strengths and weaknesses are as we get ready for this last spring game and next fall.”

Senior quarterback Steve Wichman, who has drawn praise from Erickson, had a better outing than he did a week ago, completing 9 of 15. He threw for 127 yards but was intercepted once – one of three turnovers during the 2-hour session.

The three players battling Wichman also showed improvement. Sophomore Chris Joseph connected on 4 of 8 passes for 55 yards; sophomore T.J. Conley hit 2 of 3 for 6 yards; and recent high school graduate Nathan Enderle hit 1 of 3 for 7 yards.

If Erickson had a frustration, it was turnovers – the one interception and fumbles by sophomores Jayson Bird and Tracy Ford.

“We just have to continue to improve in every aspect,” Erickson said. “Again, you can’t turn the football over like we’ve turned it over. We turned it over less than last week, but once is too many times. We can’t have that – it gets you beat.”

It was a solid outing by the defense. Senior Jaron Williams, filling Cole Snyder’s shoes at middle linebacker, had 11 tackles – three for losses – and a sack. Senior outside linebacker Robert Davis turned in an eight-tackle effort, and defensive ends Charles Campbell, a senior, and Ben Alexander, a junior, had two sacks each.

“I thought defensively we flew around pretty darn well – like we did last week,” Erickson said. “We’re running around better on defense than I anticipated. I like our speed. I like what we’re doing defensively. There are weaknesses in certain areas, too, but I like our team speed.”

Senior Wendell Octave and junior Tracy McCormick caught three passes each. Sophomore tight end Rick Harrison added 32 yards on two catches.

Erickson is waiting for a leader to emerge at running back, where a battle between Bird, Ford, junior Rolly Lumbala and transfer sophomore Gavin Smith is under way.

“We’re running it not too bad,” Erickson said. “We’ve got to continue to get better at it. We haven’t had a running back jump out at us yet.”

Lumbala was the leader with 36 yards on nine carries, while Smith had 27 yards on nine carries.