Idaho coach Robb Akey stated the evident as he and his staff prepared for the Vandals’ showdown with New Mexico State Saturday in a key Western Athletic Conference game. Kickoff is 5 p.m. Pacific/6 p.m. Mountain at Memorial Stadium.

“We need to perform better. We need to score more points,” he said.

To do that, he and his staff need to find a way to re-infuse the offense with the swagger it had throughout fall camp and into the 2011 season, which right now stands at 1-5 and 0-2 in the WAC.

“It’s a funk we have to get ourselves out of,” said Akey, whose team hasn’t scored an offensive touchdown for eight quarters. “As soon as we start to get a little spark going, you’re going to see that offense start to click and start rolling.

“That’s a matter of confidence. It’s hard to play confident when you’re not making plays. … As an offense, we need to get something started so we can feel good again.”

He is confident the offense can find the same groove as the defense and special teams units, which have shown steady growth and progress with almost every down.

“They’re having some fun within the ballgame,” he said of those two units, “but the bottom line is no one is having fun if we’re not winning the game.”

On Saturday, the Vandals take on a team that is coming off a bye and already has a victory over a Big Ten team.

“They’re a talented football team,” he said of the Aggies. “I’m expecting to have a battle on our hands.

“I’m spending a lot of attention on us know and how we step ourselves up. As a football team, we need to go win a game and feel good again. The bottom line is the team has to do what’s necessary to win ballgames.”

Notes:

§  Saturday’s game is on: Boise (KTVB2, 7.2 or cable 29), Twin Falls (KFTF2, 7.8 or cable 13), Idaho Falls (KIFI, 8.4), SWX (Spokane, 6.2 delayed), Altitude2, ESPN3, ESPN GamePlan and Comcast New Mexico in Albuquerque, Farmington, Gallup, Las Cruces, Las Vegas, Los Alamos, Santa Fe, Silver City, Taos and Tucumcari.

§  Idaho leads the series, which first was played in 1971, 13-4. Idaho won 34-17 last year at the Kibbie Dome. New Mexico State’s last victory was 45-31 at Las Cruces in 2007. Of the 17 games in the series, nine have been decided by a touchdown or less and two have gone extra sessions, which includes a double-overtime Idaho win (38-37) at Las Cruces in 2005.