This one hurt. Bad.

"You know, I've been going through this thing with the attitude that pretty much any loss is OK... I'll shake off losses and really build this thing up slowly; that's the ultimate goal... But this one hurts more than any loss we've had going through this thing."

One of the reasons it hurt so bad for the Vandals was that the #1 recruit in the nation was rumored to be onhand.

"Yeah, we had the #1 recruit in the nation visiting and he had us at #2 on his list behind Boise State. This kid is one hell of a player, easily the most talented the state of Idaho has had to offer for a long, long time."

This followed the same pattern as many of the losses the Vandals have experienced throughout this dynasty: they were in control and keeping the game managable early, blew up for awhile and couldn't get a stop, then mounted a comeback that came up just a bit short.

"I don't know about this, we're 0-2 now and we have some games to win, we're certainly not ahead of the season's chains so to speak. We really need to keep our 3-star prestige and try to move up to #3 or 4 in the conference by the end of this year."

I guess Vandal nation (or rather, Vandal Village) will have just have to wait and see what happens against Hawaii next weekend. The Vandals have yet to beat Hawaii during this dynasty, but they do have a slighter more talented team than this year's Warriors and get to host the high-flying hula boys in the Kibbie Dome...