Idaho fires Akey

In 2009, his third season as coach, Robb Akey guided the Idaho Vandals to their first bowl game in 11 seasons, and things appeared on the upswing in Moscow.

But, as it turned out, Idaho's stirring victory over Bowling Green in the '09 Humanitarian Bowl was the high point in Akey's tenure at Idaho.

The Vandals were unable to build on the momentum of that victory, and have won just 9 games and lost 24 since then, including a 1-7 start to this season.

On Sunday, hours after Idaho endured a 70-28 thrashing at the hands of Louisiana Tech, Akey was fired by athletic director Rob Spear, midway through his sixth season as Vandals coach.

Jason Gesser, promoted to offensive coordinator this season, was named interim head coach. Spear said a search for Akey's replacement would begin immediately.

"The President (Duane Nellis) 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 in a news release Sunday afternoon. "We appreciate coach Akey's enthusiasm and dedication to the University of Idaho but this is the right move at this time."

Akey's career record at Idaho was 20-50. He went 1-11 in 2007, then 2-10, 8-5, 6-7, 2-10 and 1-7 this year.

Akey, 46, was popular with the players and accomodating to the media. But the Vandals ranked No. 117 in scoring offense and No. 117 in scoring defense this season, out of 120 Football Bowl Subdivision teams.

Despite the slow start this season, the Vandals showed signs in a 40-37 overtime loss to Wyoming, and a 26-18 win over New Mexico State. But there was also a listless 20-3 loss to Eastern Washington in the season opener, a 66-0 shellacking by North Carolina, as well as one-sided losses the last two weeks at Texas State (38-7) and Louisiana Tech.

The 70 points allowed to Louisiana Tech marked the third time under Akey that Idaho had yielded 70 points in a game.

A team meeting was held Sunday afternoon in Moscow. Afterward, Idaho players and former players took to Twitter to comment on the news.

"Honestly, me or my cousin ken wouldn't have got a chance if it wasn't for Akey," said Idaho quarterback Dominique Blackman, referring to his cousin Ken McRoyal, a Vandal wide receiver who was killed last spring. "I didn't make enough plays for coach man."

"Wishing nothing but the best for Coach Akey," tweeted former Vandal quarterback Nathan Enderle. "Great coach/mentor who truly cared for his players. Still a lot of coaching left in him I hope."

"Akey was the glue that held us together," tight end Taylor Elmo said. "I can say as a team we played for him. Not even for ourselves. We love Akey we need Akey."

Idaho has a bye this week, then plays host to San Jose State on Nov. 3.

Akey was hired in 2007 and given a five-year contract, after Dennis Erickson left after one season as coach.

Following the Huminarian Bowl win, Akey received a new five-year contract in June 2010, to run through the 2014 season. His base pay was bumped up from $155,000 in base salary to $165.796.80, and media payments starting at $190,000 per year and increasing by $10,000 each year of the contract. Performance bonuses could boost his annual compensation to more than $500,000.

Akey played at Weber State, and later coached at his alma mater (1988-94) and at Northern Arizona (1995-98). He was an assistant coach at Washington State for eight seasons, the first four as defensive line coach, the last four as defensive coordinator, before taking the Idaho job.

The Vandal job marked his first head coaching job.

Gesser, a former standout quarterback at Washington State, was running backs coach at Idaho in 2011. Prior to that, he was head coach at Eastside Catholic High in Seattle.

Gesser is scheduled to speak today, when Idaho's weekly news conference for its head football coach is held.