Editor’s note: Over the next week, Idaho State Journal sports editor Kyle Franko will look at the history of ISU football and try to project where the Bengals are headed in 2015. On Thursday, a look at the defense and the key role of several junior college transfers. On Sunday, a breakdown of Idaho State’s offense and upcoming quarterback battle. First up, looking back at the last 52 years of Bengals football.

Five.

The number of times Idaho State has strung together back-to-back winning seasons since 1963. The last time was from 2002-03 under coach Larry Lewis. The Bengals went 8-3 in 2002 and shared the Big Sky Conference title with Montana and Montana State.

No one around here has to be reminded that ISU was still left out of the playoffs.

MORE ISU SPRING FOOTBALL COVERAGE HERE

Lewis and the Bengals went 8-4 in 2003, but a 4-3 league record pushed them down into a tie for fourth place. The postseason was out of the question, and a miserable 10-year stretch commenced for Idaho State football.

Lewis was fired following his 2-9 campaign in 2006 and his successor, John Zamberlin, won a grand total of six games from 2007-2010.

Enter Mike Kramer.

While the Zamberlin era was brutal, Kramer’s first three seasons in Pocatello, from a win-loss perspective, were hardly better with records of 2-9 (2011), 1-10 (2012) and 3-9 (2013). Twenty eight losses crammed into that three-year window arguably demoralized the Idaho State fan base. What else would justify a crowd of 4,838 for Idaho State’s home opener against Chadron State last season?

But what Bengal fan shouldn’t have been disheartened? Opponents outscored ISU by a combined 692 points from 2011-13 (20.4 points per game), and outrushed ISU by 7,492 yards.

Enter 2014.

Idaho State found a running game with savvy junior tailback Xavier Finney, senior quarterback Justin Arias played at an All-American level and the defense had its best season since Kramer arrived.

The Bengals matched the 2003 win total of Larry Lewis with an 8-4 record and garnered national recognition as one of the nation’s best and most electric offenses.

But there were no playoffs. As Eastern Washington, Montana and Montana State continued playing into the postseason, the Bengals were stuck watching from the outside.

Thirty one years.

Or put another way: It’s been 11,532 days since Idaho State made an appearance in the FCS playoffs, despite the fact the playoffs have doubled in size from 12 to 24 teams in that span.

Five and 31, two numbers that represent some of the history Kramer and Idaho State are fighting. Since ISU was one of the founding members of the Big Sky 52 years ago, Bengals football has never established a program with a winning tradition. There have been promising moments, like the 1981 national championship with coach Dave Kragthorpe or the ’02 Big Sky title team with Jared Allen.

But after Kragthorpe left for Utah State and Allen jetted off to stardom in the National Football League, ISU faded back into mediocrity.

Kramer knew Idaho State’s history. As a longtime Big Sky player and coach, the former offensive lineman at Idaho understood what kind of project he undertook at ISU.

It wasn’t just about football. The Bengals had to rehabilitate a faltering Academic Progress Rate and grapple with NCAA sanctions left over from the previous coaching regime.

Even Kramer seemed to get in his own way, garnering national media coverage when a video surfaced of Kramer shoving wide receiver Derek Graves to the ground during a 2012 practice.

Idaho State’s administration stuck with their coach, the media storm blew over and the payoff started last season. Kramer won games and was awarded a three-year contract extension in October. At the announcement press conference, Kramer made a pledge.

“I love Pocatello, flat out. I love Idaho. But more importantly, in the fall of 2010, only one man spoke to me about being professionally attached to a university again,” said Kramer, referring to ISU Director of Athletics Jeff Tingey. “So there’s no reason to go anywhere else. Not out of monetary reasons or out of any other reasons than just loyalty. ... I’m an ISU Bengal until I quit coaching — period.”

Whether it’s ultimately true or not, Kramer’s commitment to a university that has never experienced a consistently good football team for half a century spoke volumes. For the first time in a long time, ISU was on the rise.

Idaho State closed its 2014 season with a resounding 46-28 victory over Weber State. A 10-year losing streak was over, the coach driving the success said he was committed to stay and loads of talent was set to return for 2015. Expectations were set.

Flash forward to today and the Bengals just ended every spring practice with the chant, “Big Sky champs!” History says it isn’t likely, not for Idaho State at least. But maybe, just maybe, after 52 years of waiting, ISU has stumbled upon the right coach.

“We have never really at Idaho State, in football, realized a competent, consistent, long-lasting football success,” Kramer said. “And that’s what this is about.”