Idaho State head coach Mike Kramer says his team is beginning to find its way all while struggling through the rigors of Big Sky Conference play.

    He stated that last week’s effort against UC Davis showed what the Bengals are capable of accomplishing on both sides of the ball.

    “We crossed a threshold last week in that rather than cashing in for the rest of the year coming off of something that was really unprecedented in a lot of guys’ careers, including mine, I think we’ve become a good team,” he said during Tuesday’s weekly press conference. “I think we’ve become a team that cares about each other and a team that has some motivation and toughness to do things right.”

    “Quite obviously our offense is in quite a rhythm now, and the reason is because we’re a veteran wide receiving group that’s literally in their 14th or 15th game together, playing together,” Kramer said. “Sixteen times we held (UC Davis) to two yards or less defensively. That’s not a defense that’s getting gashed. That’s a defense that’s giving up some plays later on in the same series. What we have to do is put three of those together, call it a drive and make them punt. We are capable.”

    Now the task to show improvement becomes exponentially as Idaho State hits the road today to face Northern Colorado in Greeley. The Bengals have not won in 36 tries away from Holt Arena.

    Greeley is the site of ISU’s last road win, when the Bengals defeated the Bears 41-13 on Oct. 7, 2006.

    “The road record is trivial. It’s totally trivial,” Kramer said. “You can’t win on the road until you’re good enough to win on the road. Until we’re good enough, hey, we might not be able to win at home.”

    The Bears score an average of 19.7 points per game while giving 34.8. Their biggest weakness, much like that of Idaho State, is in their running game as they pick up just 74.2 yards per game on the ground.

    “Northern Colorado, in their last three games has thrown the ball 71 percent of the time,” Kramer said. “I expect them to try and throw the ball. They would love to run the ball a little bit more, and maybe they look at us and go ‘alright. We can get healthy in our run game.’”

    “We know that our run game is our Achilles heel,” Kramer said. “I think that the test will be not our offense versus our defense, not their passing game against our pass defense. It will be their run game against our run defense. To me that is worth the price of the ticket on Saturday.”

    UNC quarterback Seth Lobato throws for 235 yards a game while Idaho State gives up 190.

    Despite the streak of road losses and this season’s woes all working against them, Kramer is confident that the Bengals can compete against Northern Colorado and leave Greeley with a win.

    “Our guys can be good right now. We just have to coach them better,” he said. “I don’t look at this as a player of personnel issue. I look at it as a coaching issue.”

    Wide receiver Cam Richmond says the Bengals are looking forward to the challenge in front of them.

    “It would mean a lot,” he said of possibly winning on the road. “We go into every game thinking we’re going to win. For us to get a win this weekend, that would be something where we say ‘okay, we’re prepared to do this.’ For the fans it would show that we can finish. We can get a ‘W’, we can score a lot of points and we can stop somebody.”

    Idaho State (1-4, 0-2 Big Sky Conference) and Northern Colorado (1-5, 0-4) kick off at 1:35 p.m.

    “It’s going to take everybody on our team to contribute in the way that they need to contribute, whether it’s a starter or the last man on the team being plugged into the bench. It’s going to take a total team effort.”