“The President and I believe it is important to make this move now so we can immediately begin the process of hiring a new coach for the 2013 season,” Spear said Sunday. “We appreciate Coach Akey’s enthusiasm and dedication to the University of Idaho but this is the right move at this time.” For the time being, Jason Gesser will be the interim head coach. Gesser who just this year started as offensive coordinator will have a lot on his plate.
Robb Akey came to Idaho in 2007 to bring stability and organization to the disheveled Idaho football team. During his time as head coach the Vandals had only 20 wins out of 70 games. His final game as head coach was a brutalizing 70-28 loss to Louisiana Tech which spurred the rare mid-season firing. While Akey didn’t bring a winning football team to Idaho, he did what he was brought in to do. Prior to Akey, the Vandal’s had gone through 3 head coaches in 5 seasons, making him the 4th.
The team, program and academics regarding players was a mess and Akey was able to bring it all together. While the football program had some success in the late 80s and early 90s, the school has a long standing history of struggling to have a winning season for the better part of the last century. Even with that, Akey brought a winning season in 2009 and a memorable game victory in the final seconds of the Humanitarian Bowl game.
It will be sad to see Akey go, with his enthusiasm and energy that radiated around him, but it will also be nice to see if someone can come in now, stand on the foundation he helped rebuild and push the program in a positive direction. I don’t expect miracles, really… I don’t expect much. We can still follow Akey wherever his career takes him even if it doesn’t lead to another head coaching position. He still would make a darn good assistant coach and as we know, WSU is just a block away.