Welcome to the FCS......Finally

Well, Idaho State is now 0-2 in the Western Athletic Conference. The beauty of that statement was that we don't compete in the WAC. Of course, counting soccer we are 1-4 in the WAC this season. But that will change.

Anyways, the Bengals get an extra few days to heal up a bit and ready themselves for North Dakota, who is 2-0, and will be 3-0 after playing a Division III team this week. Their first two games were against Division IIs at home as well, so while North Dakota is without a doubt a very, very good program, their record is slightly deceiving. I would imagine for the folks that were here a few years ago when we hosted Northern Colorado right after they made the jump (ISU won 42-33), I think that's the type of team you will see in Holt Arena on Friday night.

A quick congrats to ISU volleyball coach Chad Teichert on his first collegiate win against Lamar. All the talk has been on ISU's football schedule so far, but the volleyball team has played perhaps the most brutal schedule int he country in their two tournaments so far, considering we went 6-23 last year. Three NCAA teams already, another ranked, and I think all of them were above .500 last year (I haven't checked so don't quote me on that one).

Anyways, getting a win in the final game had to make the plane flight a little smoother, and congrats also to Paige Palmer who was named All-Tournament. For those of you that don't know Paige's story (it's been in the paper a bit, but she took last season off as he fiance' battled and ultimately lost a fight to cancer). Paige has come back to the team, wearing a new number as well, and has been an inspiration for the team for sure, and has been one of the leaders.

To the links, most of which are recapping the weekend's events:

Football
Dan Thompson was a game recap (which isn't online for some reason) and a notebook on the game in Moscow. Dan's Blog goes into more casual detail, and note the comments regarding the Altitude broadcast. Certainly Dan can improve that, since he is doing some sideline reporting for this weekend's big high school deal in Holt Arena. And you can always tell the week Boise State is off because the Statesman sends out their guys to cover the other Idaho State, like Nick Jezirny and Brian Murphy. Kellis Robinett is back (after the longest wedding ever) and talks about the many Big Sky near misses on Saturday.

Soccer
The Governor's Cup is not coming back to Pocatello after losing to Boise State 2-1 and Idaho 2-0.

Who's Up Next in Football?
Here is a Bismarck Tribune report about the Fighting Sioux getting the best of Division II St. Cloud State 31-17.

Not Who You Think
After breaking the ISU receptions in a game record, Eddie Thompson had a big day, and as expected, ISU got a Player of the Week in the deal. But not Thompson. JD Ponciano was selected for the Special Teams Player of the Week after returning from a sports hernia to return four kicks for 144 yards, a 36-yard average, including returns of 60 and 44, and a return that was just 18 yards due to a face mask penalty that would have gone on for a while.

Thompson lost out to senior running back Andrew Schmidt at Montana, who in his first start rushed for 145 yards (120-something in the second half) and the eventual winning touchdown. For those that remember, Aaron Boyce of Eastern Washington had 17 catches for 230-something yards last year and also was by-passed, and before folks go crazy on the Big Sky folks, I was informed of this before hand, and I'm OK with the decision. Montana beat #11 Cal Poly, and Schmidt was a major key in that, especially with his second half. I think if Eddie had more yards per catch, he would have fared better.