August is coming to an end, and once again the Gators are ready to play ball. Coming off its worst season in decades, Florida is seeking to improve greatly from the 4-8 record posted last fall. The first opportunity to post a
W for the
Orange and
Blue will come in the Swamp against the
Idaho Vandals. The
Vandals come from the
University of Idaho in
Moscow. Located in the state's northern panhandle, U of I first opened for classes in 1892. Today, over 11,000 students are enrolled in Moscow, with more than 9,300 of those being undergraduates. The school colors are silver and gold, though the athletics teams traditionally sport black as their primary color.
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Both one of the more unique and lesser known venues
in the FBS, the Kibbie Dome seats just 16,000.
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The Idaho football program began around 1894, soon after the institution was founded. Unfortunately, the Vandals have enjoyed few successes in their long history. Idaho joined the
Pacific Coast Conference in 1922, playing alongside all the storied western programs that would go on to form the Pac-8 (direct predecessor to the modern
Pac-12). In their 38 seasons as members of the PCC, the Vandals only posted five winning season (the last being 1938). After the Pacific Coast Conference folded in 1959, Idaho became an independent, and later, a charter member of the
Big Sky Conference in 1963. Vandals won nine Big Sky conference championships and became a 1-AA (now FCS) powerhouse in the 1980s. Idaho left the Big Sky for the
Big West in 1996, and won their last conference championship as a member of that conference in 1998. Idaho joined the
Sun Belt Conference in 2001 and the
Western Athletic Conference in 2005. After the WAC folded in 2012, the Vandals played one season as an independent before returning to the Sun Belt this season. After posting a 7-4 record in 1999, Idaho has only had one winning season. The 2009 Vandals went 8-5, culminating in an exhilarating 43-42 win over Bowling Green in the
Humanitarian Bowl.
The Vandals play their home games in the
Kibbie Dome, one of the few on-campus dome stadiums in Division I FBS (Syracuse's Carrier Dome is the only other). The Kibbie Dome is also the smallest stadium in the FBS, holding a capacity of only 16,000. The largest crowd, one of 17,600 fans, saw the Vandals defeat their in-state rivals, the Boise State Broncos, by a score of 26-21 in 1989.
The Vandals have never faced the Gators on the gridiron.
