Snohomish High School had huge impact on Idaho coach

By John Sleeper

Herald Writer

SEATTLE – Once a Panther, always a Panther.

Tom Cable might be in his second season as head coach of the Idaho Vandals, but the 1982 Snohomish High School grad still carries the torch for his prep alma mater.

“I’m obviously biased, but I think it’s the greatest place in the world and probably the greatest place to play high school football,” he said.

Cable was a three-sport athlete at Snohomish, but had his greatest success in football under then-coach Dick Armstrong. In fact, Cable counts the late Armstrong as a mentor, along with Keith Gilbertson Sr., UW offensive coordinator Keith Gilbertson Jr., Mark Albertine and others, including “every Panther who ever played before me.”

Said Cable: “Curt Marsh was one of my idols. I thought the guy was pretty cool. I wanted to wear his number and all that.”

After graduating from Snohomish, Cable was a four-year letterman at Idaho and a three-year starter at offensive guard, where he played for Everett native Dennis Erickson. He was all-Big Sky Conference in 1985 and was briefly a member of the Indianapolis Colts.

He returned to Idaho as a grad assistant, then moved on to San Diego State, Cal State Fullerton, UNLV, California and Colorado, where he was Rick Neuheisel’s offensive line coach in 1998.

Through it all, Cable never forgot his roots or the lessons he learned at Snohomish.

The most important, he said, was about toughness and commitment.

“Football’s a game for tough people,” Cable said. “It’s not for people who don’t like to work. It’s not for people who don’t care or are not committed. That’s what you get when you come out of Snohomish High School. You have to be tough, or you’re not going to play. You have to be willing to commit, or they won’t let you play. And it always has to be about your team, not about you. I think those are the greatest attributes there are in this game.”

Switch: True freshman Robin Meadows has passed backup offensive tackle Andre Reeves on the depth chart. Reeves, a highly touted recruit two years ago out of Tacoma’s Wilson High School, has fallen into disfavor among the coaching staff and is working on the scout team.

“It’s a promotion for Robin, but we’re hoping Andre will compete and fight to win the job back,” Neuheisel said. “We’re hoping we can light a fire under Andre.”

Robbins likely out: Neuheisel said wide receiver Justin Robbins is doubtful for Saturday’s game because of a recurring hamstring pull. Robbins, who caught 22 passes for four TDs last season, originally pulled the hamstring in preseason camp, then later aggravated it.

More help: Much has been made about the fact that Cable is a former Neuheisel assistant at Colorado and served under UW offensive coordinator Keith Gilbertson when Gilbertson was head coach at Cal.

But Idaho also has Tarn Sublett as receivers coach, the same Sublett who was a grad assistant with the Huskies last season in that same capacity.

“He is well versed on how we do things on both sides of the ball,” Neuheisel said. “He has very detailed information on our personnel. We’ll also have to change our communication system a little bit so they won’t know exactly what we are doing.”

Coping: While UW players admitted to shock with last week’s events – the East Coast terrorist attacks Sept. 11, the plane crash in Mexico that killed 16 UW boosters the day after – they also are no strangers to those feelings.

Curtis Williams, the Husky safety who remains in a wheelchair after injuring his spinal cord against Stanford, helped his teammates know what really is important, and in a very real way, still helps them on the field.

“You have to separate the game and life and cherish every moment,” inside linebacker Jamaun Willis said. “As far as football is concerned, what happened to Curtis put everything in perspective. I know I’m focused every moment of every day because it could be over just like that.”

Added Neuheisel: “If you think about the last 12 months for our program – the crash in Mexico, the Curtis Williams injury – there has been reminder after reminder to the young people in our program that you can’t take anything for granted. You may seem 10 feet tall and bulletproof, but you also have to stop and smell the roses now and then. I don’t think you’re ever too young to have that mentality.”