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THE FRONT ROW WITH MARK NELKE: Sunday, October 11, 2015

| October 10, 2015 8:35 PM

There’s a lot to like about October.

The major league baseball playoffs, especially the games played during the day — though if you’re a Dodgers fan, it could be shaping up as another postseason of unfulfilled promise.

(Then again, you could be a fan of the Braves. Or the Mariners).

The area high school and college football games begin to take on a little bit more meaning, as high school teams battle to make the playoffs, and college teams fight for bowl positioning — or their postseason lives.

Off the playing field, there’s the changing of the colors of the leaves on the trees.

That feeling of accomplishment when you’ve raked up those said leaves from the yard — only to see the trees defiantly dump a fresh batch of leaves and pine needles on your yard about a half an hour later!

There’s those comfortable sunny days when the temperatures are still fairly warm — not those brutally hot days we are subjected to in the summer.

Anyway …

SATURDAY WAS one of those rare fall days without Idaho Vandals football, as the Vandals had a bye.

Idaho is 1-4 overall, 0-2 in the Sun Belt Conference, and returns to action next Saturday with a conference game at Troy.

Through five games, the Vandals have proven they can move the ball — they are averaging 26.6 points and 394.6 yards per game. They’ve shown that, if the starting quarterback gets hurt, the backup can come in and move the team nicely as well.

(Of course, they had two pretty good quarterbacks last year as well, but that’s a discussion for another day.)

But disturbingly, they still can’t stop anybody. The Vandals are yielding 47.0 points and 542.6 yards per game.

They have been competitive in both of their Sun Belt Conference games, against two of the top teams in the league. If they can keep moving the ball, and find a way to slow somebody down, they could pick off a few league wins down the stretch.

And they may need to.

Who knew the Vandals may be in danger of being relegated, as if they were a European soccer team? The future membership of Idaho (and New Mexico State) in the Sun Belt will be evaluated at season’s end, and the commissioner says that performance counts.

And Idaho has won just six games in the last five years.

If the Vandals do get booted from the ’Belt, and a “second tier” of FBS schools doesn’t materialize like Idaho athletic director Rob Spear would like it to, the Vandals may have to choose between FBS independence in football — or join its other sports and return to the Big Sky.

JASON GESSER sounds like one of those guys that should be employed by Washington State, his alma mater, forever, in some capacity.

He was beloved as a star quarterback for the Cougars more than a decade ago. He’s been an assistant coach with the Cougs, and is now an analyst on WSU football radio broadcasts.

I got to know him a little bit when he was an assistant at Idaho under Robb Akey, and when he replaced Akey as interim coach late in the 2012 season.

He wanted to be the head coach the next season, and it would have been interesting to see him get his shot, but there was also this feeling that he was “on loan” from WSU — not literally, but when you think of Gesser, who think of someone who has been an ambassador for WSU, ever since the time he played in Pullman.

And while we’re at it, hopefully the Cougs keep Bob Robertson around as part of their broadcasts as long as he wants. He has been, and always will be, Cougar football.

We are not blessed with many legends these days, so we need to enjoy them while we can.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.