Conference Big Sky Conference Head coach Don Robbins (1st year) | 1970 record 4–7 (2–2 Big Sky) | |
Home stadium Rogers Field
(Pullman, Washington) | ||
The 1970 Idaho Vandals football team represented the University of Idaho in the 1970 college football season. The Vandals were led by first-year head coach Don Robbins and were members of the Big Sky Conference, then in the college division of the NCAA. Without a usable stadium on their Moscow campus for a second year, they played their home games at Rogers Field at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington.
Contents
Season
Shortly after spring drills in May 1970, head coach Y C McNease was fired and assistant coach Robbins was promoted.
With quarterbacks Steve Olson and Tom Ponciano running the offense, the Vandals were 4–7 overall and 2–2 in the Big Sky. Winless after six games, they won four straight before dropping the finale. Entering the homecoming game on October 24, Idaho had a ten-game losing streak.
In the Battle of the Palouse, the Vandals suffered a fourth straight loss to neighbor Washington State of the Pac-8, falling 44–16 at Joe Albi Stadium in Spokane on September 19. After a scoreless first quarter, Idaho led by ten at halftime, but was then outscored 38–0. It broke a ten-game losing streak for the Cougars, and was their only win of the season. The game with WSU was not played in 1969 or 1971.
The Big Sky added two teams this season, but the Vandals played neither. The new rivalry with Boise State began in 1971 and Idaho did not schedule Northern Arizona until 1975.
The Vandals' former venue on campus, Neale Stadium, had been declared structurally unsafe due to soil erosion in the summer of 1969, and its south grandstand burned that November in a suspected arson. Idaho played home games at Rogers Field in Pullman in 1969 and 1970. In April 1970, Rogers Field also burned in a suspected arson, which destroyed most of the primary grandstand on the south sideline, including the press box. WSU played its home games in 1970 and 1971 in Spokane at Joe Albi Stadium. Requiring less seating capacity, Idaho continued at Rogers in 1970, with reserved seating switched to the north side and students in the unburned lower section of the south grandstand. The new Idaho Stadium opened in October 1971.
University division
Through 1977, the Big Sky was a college division (renamed Division II in 1973) conference for football, except for university division (Division I) member Idaho, which moved down to the new Division I-AA in 1978. Idaho maintained its upper division status in the NCAA by playing university division non-conference opponents (and was ineligible for the college division postseason).