The Idaho State Bengals football team had one of the most successful seasons in the school’s history last year.
Read that again.
Yes, the 2-9 Bengals, who finished the season on an 8-game losing streak, had one of the most successful seasons in school history.
The ISU football program was recognized by the Football Championship Subdivision Athletics Directors Association as one of the FCS schools that improved their Academic Progress Rates the most from the previous year.
Teams scoring below 925 can face penalties.  Since the ISU football program had an APR of 883 after the 2009-10 season they lost practice time, 2.98 scholarships and was banned from postseason play for the 2010-11 season.
Also only averaging 1.2 yards per rush will keep most teams out of the postseason.
The football program was the only athletic program at ISU that was facing penalties because of a low APR. Since Mike Kramer has taken over as the football coach the Bengals have improved their APR enough so they are no longer under any APR penalties. The program is now eligible for the postseason and won’t lose scholarships or practice time.
Kramer made improving the Bengals APR his top priority. After taking over halfway through the 2010 fall semester his impact on the football team’s academic performance in was felt harder than an open-field tackle by ISU’s cornerback Donovan Henley.
The first thing Kramer did was hire Quinton Freeman, a four-year Bengal football letter winner who holds single game and season interception records as the Director of Football Academics.  Freeman officially started in Jan. 2011 and as a result ISU had a record number of 17 football players named to the academic all-conference team. Overall the football program recorded a score of 903 for the 2010-11 school year, up from the 883 in the 2009-10 year.
“We sacrificed a coaching position and hired Quinton Freeman, who has spearheaded a tremendous turn-around for our entire organization academically,” said Kramer.
By hiring Freeman for this position Kramer was going to have one less coach on the field but would have a man he could trust in the classroom.  This speaks volume to how important it was to Kramer that his team step it up in the classroom.  Instead of Kramer using Freeman to help the players get some W’s in the win column he used him to help the players get A’s in the classroom.
Ultimately football coaches are judged by wins and losses so Kramer’s willingness to give up an asset that could of been used on the football field to help win games for an asset to help ISU students graduate demonstrates to every one that a player’s education will always come first.
Freeman responsibilities range from setting up tutors, organizing study groups, making sure athletes register for the right classes and holding the athletes accountable for their grades.
John van Vilet, an offensive lineman for the Bengals, graduated in the 2012 spring semester with his bachelor’s in communications and was awarded the Italo “Babe” Caccia Scholar-Athlete Award winner for the 2012 season said, “He’s [Freeman] been a huge help, he’s really organized and knows what everyone needs to do and helps us get organized.”
“The leadership of Quinton Freeman and Don Bailey has put us in a position academically where we have become one of the most respected teams in the conference,” said Kramer.
While data has yet to be finalized for the 2011-12 school year the ISU’s football program are expected to exceed the requirement set by the NCAA. In the fall of 2011, the team had a GPA of 3.04 and 51 out of the 80 student-athletes had a 3.0 or higher.  In the spring the football team had a team GPA of 3.16 and had 53 of 79 student-athletes earn a 3.0 or higher.