Sep. 14—MOSCOW, Idaho — University of Idaho football coach Thomas Ford Jr. might well have brought a thesaurus or the Oxford English Dictionary to his weekly news conference Monday. He spent most of his time before assembled media offering different ways to describe what his 0-3 Vandals need to do to get their season on track — play better.

"I was super disappointed in the outcome of this weekend. It was not up to the standard," Ford said of Idaho's 23-17 loss to 15th-ranked Lamar, which followed a season-opening upset to Cal Poly, 38-34, when the Mustangs scored the winning touchdown in the final nine seconds, and a blowout loss at Utah, 66-14.

Idaho takes on a similar hard -luck team Saturday in its second home game at the Kibbie Dome. Abilene Christian (0-3) dropped from 23rd out of the Stats Perform poll after consecutive losses to Lamar, 21-14; Texas Tech, 33-10; and Stephen F. Austin, 26-7.

Ford did not denigrate his team's talent or effort but settled on inconsistent execution as the root of Idaho's woes so far. "Execution" was his go-to term for undisciplined play.

Against Utah, the Vandals simply got rolled, but against Cal Poly and Lamar, "our execution at the end of the game just wasn't good enough," Ford said.

"If I am a deep zone player, I've got to keep my butt in the deep zone. If I am a man-to-man player, I have got to stay with my man. If I am covering the B gap, I have got to stay in the B gap. The only way to win the one-on-one (matchups) is to be in the right spot."

He also suggested his team shouldn't wait for the second half to get fully engaged in a game. Against both Cal Poly and Lamar the Vandals got down early and saw comeback efforts fall short.

"We put ourselves in position to win at the end of the game against the 15th-ranked opponent," Ford said of the disappointing loss to Lamar.

Abilene Christian will offer the Vandals another stirring challenge, Ford predicted. "Their record is not indicative of who they are," he said.

"We have got to play better on offense, especially in the first half."

A big job for the Vandals will be to get a rope around the Wildcats' Alex Broome.

"We have got to slow down a really good running back," he said of the Boston College transfer, who rushed for 75 yards against Lamar and 52 yards against Texas Tech before being held out against Stephen F. Austin due to a practice injury.

The Vandals also need to get defensive pressure on sophomore quarterback John David Black, who has thrown for 528 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions.

"We have got to make it difficult for him. Get him off the spot," Ford said.

On offense, "we have got to be able to run the football," Ford said. Ferrari Miller led the Vandals with 44 rushing yards and a touchdown against Cal Poly.

Since then, however, quarterback Joshua Wood has been the Vandals' leading rusher with a cumulative 91 yards and two touchdowns against Utah and Lamar. That is not a recipe for long -term success, Ford said.

The Vandals' offensive line was supposed to be a strength this season. So far it has not exerted its will on opponents, and against the Wildcats it will be asked to block a defensive front "bigger than Lamar," Ford said. The Vandals will need to establish a rhythm early to get the running backs going against Abilene Christian, he added, and the skill players will need to get off against the Wildcats' defense.

"The receivers, the running backs and the tight ends have got to do a better job up front," to take pressure off Wood and allow him to find targets and get rid of the ball quicker, Ford said. "We have got to protect him schematically and with play -calling"

Source: Yahoo Sports