Entering homecoming weekend and exiting the bye week, the No. 11 Idaho Vandals (2-3, 0-1 Big Sky) will face conference foe Northern Colorado (2-3, 0-1), also coming off a bye week, for just the fourth matchup between the schools in program history.

The contest will be the first game that the Vandals have played in the P1FCU Kibbie Dome since Sept. 13, when they defeated the Utah Tech Trailblazers 20-6.

The game’s kickoff is scheduled at 2 p.m. today (SWX/ESPN+) in front of a home crowd in Moscow.

Idaho coach Thomas Ford Jr. said that the Vandals are ready to play in the Dome again. Both the Idaho offense and defense feed off the crowd and use that as extra motivation.

“Anytime we can play in front of the Kibbie Dome crowd, it’s a blessing,” Ford said. “We’re very excited to be back at home again. Two back-to-back road games and then a bye week; it’s almost been a month since we’ve been able to play in front of our home crowd.”

A rested and (mostly) healthy Vandals team

As any team should during a bye week, the Vandals used the week to rest and to get healthier for the upcoming game and the rest of the season.

Ford said the No. 1 priority throughout the bye was to get as healthy as possible. He said he wanted the injured players to recover and the players dealing with less severe injuries to get back to full health.

Idaho did three hard days of practice and then multiple off days from practice and meetings to let the players relax.

“I think it was a fine balance between getting the work we needed to get done, but I think the schedule allowed us to really go hard while still giving those guys a little bit of rest and recovery time as well,” Ford said.

The Vandals have been relatively healthy throughout the season, not missing many starters often. However, they did miss their top two running backs, sophomore Art Williams and fifth-year senior Elisha Cummings, against Montana two weeks ago. Ford said that he expects Cummings to be back today and that he has looked “really good” in practice throughout the week.

One key target that will be out for a considerable amount of time is sophomore wide receiver Tony Harste. Ford said that Harste will not be out for the season but will miss the game against Northern Colorado.

Scouting the Bears

Northern Colorado has played four one-possession games this season. After its 17-3 win over Chadron State, the Bears nearly upset Colorado State in a 21-17 loss, fell to No. 23 South Dakota in overtime 24-17, defeated Houston Christian in overtime 26-23 and then lost to Idaho State 26-18.

The Bears’ offense has struggled to score much this season, averaging 19 points per game. However, the defense has allowed just 19.4 points per game.

On defense, Ford said that Idaho needs to limit the Bears’ run game and keep the explosive plays to a minimum.

“I think they’re kind of a ball control type of offense, very similar to what we do,” Ford said. “They want to kind of try to keep your offense off the field. And so we’ve got to do a great job stopping the run. That’s going to be first and foremost. And then we’ve got to limit explosive plays. They definitely want to take a bunch of vertical shots. I think they have a pretty good receiver in (Carver Cheeks). And so just limiting the explosive plays and really bottling up that run game defensively is going to be key.”