WSU Football | NFL player's nephew finds brotherhood at Idaho

Idaho running back Deonte Jackson says he always has wanted to be like his famous uncle, Steven Jackson of the St. Louis Rams.

His imitation is first-class.

The redshirt freshman gained 99 yards in the Vandals' opening loss to No. 1 USC and then gained a freshman-record 214 last Saturday in a 20-13 win over I-AA Cal Poly.

Containing Jackson will be a major objective for the Washington State defense when the Vandals visit Martin Stadium on Saturday night.

Jackson graduated from high school in Warren, Ark., but did most of his growing up in Las Vegas, where his uncle was recruited by Dennis Erickson to play at Oregon State.

Before long, Deonte was a summer regular in Corvallis.

"Ever since I was a freshman in high school I went to the Oregon State camp," Jackson said.

Erickson left Oregon State for the San Francisco 49ers but didn't forget Deonte when he returned to the college ranks to coach at Idaho for the 2006 season. Erickson recruited and signed Deonte, then redshirted him. The 5-foot-8, 181-pound back said Erickson tried to re-recruit him to follow the coach to Arizona State, but he declined.

"My team here had become a brotherhood," he said. "I didn't want to be the one to let everybody down."

That brotherhood went through a shakedown after Robb Akey was named coach.

Nineteen players left, and Akey indicated Tuesday that 17 of the departures were character-related.

"I was amazed at some of the things that we dealt with in regards to drug involvement, cheating, stealing — things like that," Akey said.

The coach said of the housecleaning: "Did it cost us some guys who might be a little bit faster, a couple who might be a little bit bigger? Yes, it did. But I also look at it this way: If I can't trust a guy on Saturday night in town, or in the classroom — if I can't trust them in the community, I can't trust them on third down, either. If I can't trust them there, I don't see them winning football games. I see them losing football games."

Akey trusts Jackson and had him carry the ball 30 times Saturday. When reporters asked about the 30-carry workload, Akey responded, "I figured if they weren't going to stop him, why should I?"

NOTES

• Terry Mixon, the junior-college All-American who quit WSU last week and was granted his release, has resurfaced at Eastern Washington. He could play this weekend for the Eagles against California-Davis. Mixon is thought to be immediately eligible because classes don't start at Eastern until Sept. 26. Eastern has lost three safeties to injuries this fall.

• Akey said Idaho will be without starting defensive end Aaron Lavarias (ankle) against WSU. He was in on 12 tackles against Cal Poly.

• WSU starting free safety Husain Abdullah (concussion) and backup running back Chris Ivory (shoulder) were held out of practice Tuesday.

Craig Smith: 206-464-8279 or csmith@seattletimes.com