Idaho coach: Vandals need ‘ton of turnovers’ from Oregon Ducks

EUGENE — A lack of belief from outsiders is typically overstated in sports, but in the case of Idaho at No. 3 Oregon it’s appropriate.

The Vandals are 44.5-point underdogs against the Ducks on Saturday (4:30 p.m., Big Ten Network) at Autzen Stadium. ESPN analytics gives Oregon a 99% chance to win.

The monumental challenge ahead is not lost on third-year Idaho coach Jason Eck.

“We have to execute in all three phases, offense, defense and special teams, and we need for them to be sloppy,” Eck said, according to The Spokesman-Review. “I don’t see a lot of that on film. The key is we need a ton of turnovers. … They don’t do that much.”

The No. 7 team in the FCS, Idaho has vastly improved under Eck and made it to the FCS quarterfinals last season. In three games against Power conference teams under Eck the Valdals have not trailed at halftime, but still lost each, including against Cal last season.

“Got a tremendous amount of respect for coach Eck and the job that he’s done there at Idaho,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning said. “He’s really made them a really solid team, and obviously a playoff team this past year, and done a good job of winning. And they have some good stuff schematically that creates challenges for you.”

Both teams are focused on playing assignment-sound and minimizing errors.

As Eck noted, Oregon committed just seven turnovers last season and was ninth nationally in turnover margin (plus-11). Idaho’s turnover margin last season was minus-five, 84th in FCS, and three of its four losses included committing multiple turnovers with no takeaways.

“We are going to coach loose, we are going to be aggressive,” Eck said. “I think when you are an underdog, you need to take chances to have a chance to win, so we will certainly do that. This game is not going to define our season either way.

“I can live with it if we miss some one-on-one plays but we are in the right positions, but you just do not want to gift a team that is this talented, freebies by not being in the right position on defense, not being in the gap, turning a blitzer loose. It is a different thing if a blitzer makes a move and shakes you and beats you one-on-one, but I want to make sure that we’re going to the right people and executing that part assignment-wise and playing with really great effort.”