“The Front Row with MARK NELKE March 13, 2011”

The Front Row with MARK NELKE March 13, 2011

Posted: 13 Mar 2011 12:56 AM PST

Posted: Sunday, March 13, 2011 12:00 am | Updated: 5:04 pm, Sun Mar 13, 2011.

Idaho football coach Robb Akey says he's "damn proud" to have Jeremy Thielbahr as a member of his coaching staff.

He also had words of praise for former Lake City High football players Matt Troxel and Blake Malsam, graduate assistants with the Vandal football program the past couple of years, who have now moved on to bigger things.

In a recent visit to Coeur d'Alene, Akey talked about his coaches with North Idaho ties, the future of the Vandals and the Western Athletic Conference, among other things.

"Thielbahr is awesome," Akey said of the former Sandpoint High star, who now coaches running backs and special teams at Idaho. "There is nobody, and I mean nobody, that he runs across that doesn't know he's from Sandpoint. He's very, very proud of that. I'm so damn proud to have him on our staff. He's doing a great job with our running backs and our special teams. He's good for our kids. He's a good leader, he's a good mentor, he cares ... "

Troxel, who went on to play at Montana, recently accepted a full-time job as tight ends coach on Mike Kramer's staff at Idaho State. Troxel was Idaho's offensive graduate assistant, working with the wide receivers and then the offensive line. He coordinated the scout team defense, broke down film of opponents, and put together the offensive scouting report.

"I couldn't be more proud of him, and excited for him, and I'm going to tell you right now we're going to miss him, because he did a great job for us, carrying that family name very strong and very well," Akey said. "He was a worker, he did a great job for us and he'll do a great job at Idaho State."

Malsam was the defensive graduate assistant the past two years, working with the secondary and linebackers, as well as having scout team, special teams and film breakdown duties. Malsam got his master's, and is pursuing a coaching and teaching job in high school, Akey said.

"I'll tell you what, he'll do a great job," he said. "He's a hard worker, first-class young man from a first-class family."

WITH THE WAC in flux — Boise State is leaving for the Mountain West Conference this fall, and Nevada, Fresno State and Hawaii will follow in 2012 — Idaho is having to deal with other schools using that in recruiting, though not as much as Akey anticipated.

He mentioned a player who had verbally committed to Idaho early on in the recruiting process, but he was also being recruited by Utah State and Oregon State. He went and watched the Oregon State-Oregon football game and was intrigued, but took an official visit to Moscow and remained committed to Idaho.

"But then they kept working on momma, and it came down to the Pac-12, and what's the WAC going to be?" Akey said.

The player eventually signed with Oregon State.

"I'm not going to sit here and tell you we're going to be beating Pac-10 teams in recruiting all the time, I understand what the food chain looks like, but that one was a little bit different," Akey said. "It would have been hard to hold on, but what it came down to, they convinced momma it was the conference, because everything else ... the kid liked our people, he liked what was going on, all those things."

Texas State and Texas-San Antonio join the WAC in 2012, and Akey said that will actually make it tougher, not easier, for the Vandals to recruit in Texas.

"All of a sudden, those guys are an option now" for Texas high schoolers hoping to play Division I football, Akey said. "I think it hurts us, because they can be in our conference and stay close to home."

Idaho's recruiter in Texas is Thielbahr.

AS FOR the ever-changing WAC, Akey echoed comments recently made by Idaho athletic director Rob Spear — Idaho is content to stay in the WAC and make it a better conference, but if the opportunity arises to make a move up ...

"What I would like to see, let's take those of us who are the remainder of the WAC and those of them who are the remainder of the Mountain West, let's come together, you'd have a 14-team conference," Akey said. "You could have a championship game ... there would be a great TV market for that, you'd have great bowls for that. I think it would be awesome, I think it'd be very competitive, and I think it would be a great deal."

AKEY WILL be entering his fifth season as Vandals coach this fall. Only two players on the current roster were not recruited by his staff — running back Princeton McCarty, who grayshirted in Moscow the year before Akey arrived, and defensive tackle Derek Wieting, whose Vandal career has been extended by injuries.

Other than that ...

"You need five years to build a program," said Akey, whose teams have gone 1-11, 2-10, 8-5 and 6-7, with the Vandals' first bowl appearance in 11 years coming in the 2009 season. "When we got started, and started making things happen, obviously there were a number of people who disappeared at the beginning (booted off the team for on- and off-the-field problems). That's fine, some of those guys are out of there, but you still had the influence of the way things had been going. Now, we've brought every guy here, and it is 'our fault.' ... we're in this boat together. We're a whole group together, and we've got to think something's pretty good going on right now. This is officially our team now."

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via e-mail at mnelke@cdapress.com.

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