Idaho coach Robb Akey has had some time to digest his team’s 70-45 loss at Nevada last weekend and reached some conclusions about the Vandals’ first Western Athletic Conference defeat.

“’Ouch,’ would by my first comment,” Akey said this week.
His second comment?
“We’re going to come storming back,” Akey said, recalling the Vandals won five straight after their first loss at Washington.
The Vandals (6-2, 3-1 WAC) host Louisiana Tech (3-4, 2-2) on Saturday in their quest for their first bowl game since 1998. Three of their remaining four games are in the Kibbie Dome.
Idaho already has four more wins than last season, the biggest turnaround in the nation so far.
Louisiana Tech is coming off a 23-21 loss at Utah State. Coach Derek Dooley praised his team for coming back from a 23-7 deficit. That included a 100-yard kickoff return by Phillip Livas Jr. that was the first in the WAC this year.
The Bulldogs have been giving up lots of yards on the ground this year, which Dooley said was because they have played some strong running teams that wore defenders down.
“We’ve got to play better up front,” he said.
Louisiana Tech has lost all four of its road games, and will be playing without punter and receiver Adrian Linwood, who has left the program.
But they feature running back Daniel Porter, who has posted consecutive 1,000-yard seasons.
Idaho has an excellent running attack of its own behind De’Maundray Woolridge, Deonte Jackson and Princeton McCarty.
Idaho trailed 21-0 at Nevada and cut that to 28-24 at halftime. But they had no answer for Wolf Pack quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who made two long runs for touchdowns in the second half. He ended up running for four touchdowns and threw for two others in the game, rushed for 238 yards on 15 carries. Nevada finished with 484 rushing yards.
Idaho quarterback Nathan Enderle passed for 342 yards and four touchdowns, including a pair of 73-yard strikes to Maurice Shaw, for Idaho.
“I learned our guys are still going to compete,” Akey said of the loss.