Idaho football notes: Vandals looking for tight ends coach; Akey contract talks ongoing

Idaho football coach Robb Akey is shopping for a tight ends coach after juggling duties on his coaching staff.

Akey, who was in Boise on Saturday for a signing day party, said offensive coordinator Steve Axman will coach quarterbacks next season. Axman had been working with the Vandals' tight ends.

"That's his forte," Akey said, adding that Axman has coached a handful of QBs who have gone on to play in the NFL.

The reason Axman didn't coach quarterbacks previously was that Akey retained Jonathan Smith from the previous coaching staff. Smith left after the season to become offensive coordinator at Montana.

Akey said he expects to conduct interviews this week and hire the new tight ends by the end of next week.

NO CONTRACT NEWS

Akey said he and the school are "still negotiating" on his contract extension. Athletic director Rob Spear said he's hoping now that recruiting is over that the issue will get resolved soon.

Akey and Spear addressed Vandal boosters the past four days in Moscow, Lewiston, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho Falls, Twin Falls and Boise.

Spear said part of the message was three priority areas for fund raising - the Vandal Scholarship Fund, Kibbie Dome improvements and the Coaching Excellence Fund.

"Obviously, we have to have people step up and support us," Spear said.

FUTURE FOES

Spear has been negotiating with several BCS programs for future games. Among them are Florida, LSU, Auburn, Arkansas and Virginia.

Akey is all in.

"We've got to maximize our payday to give us the opportunity to play one BCS game a year," Akey said.

Idaho plays at Nebraska next season, at Texas A&M in 2011 and at Oregon in 2013. Nothing else has been finalized in terms of BCS foes.

"We still want to play one BCS game a year," Spear said. "We want to keep our schedule the same way."

Idaho and Washington State are talking about playing again, possibly in 2013.

"We need to play that game - it's good for both schools," Spear said. "There's some discussion of playing once every few years."

The problem with playing the Cougars is the payday isn't big enough so the Vandals would need to play another BCS foe for financial reasons.

DOME PROJECT

The Vandals won't make any huge improvements on the Kibbie Dome before next season.

Spear said the next major work will come after the 2010-11 basketball season. The plan is to relocate the current press box to the opposite side ofthe field and gut the current box and turn it into the premium seating club room. Also, the east wall will be transformed by the same translucent panels that were added to the west wall before this season.

The price tag for the next phase of the project, which includes life safety issues, is about $16.1 million.

Nick Jezierny: 377-6420