“The University of Idaho has reached an agreement in principle with Coach Robb Akey on a contract extension. The details remain under discussion at this time and a final proposed contract will go before the University Board of Regents for review and final approval.”

After an extended period of negotiations, Idaho football coach Robb Akey said Thursday that he has agreed in principle to a contract extension with the university.

The agreement came about this week and must now be approved by the Idaho State Board of Education.

“We needed to come to an agreement on what the contract was going to be, to get it extended so that it would be a good thing so we can keep taking this thing forward,” Akey said. “And we got details worked out, and we came to an agreement this week that needs to go to have their approval.”

Talks of renegotiating Akey’s current contract began during the 2009 season as the Vandals started to see success on the field. UI athletic director Rob Spear said near the end of January that an offer was on the table, but it took more than a month from that point for the situation to finally come to a conclusion.

“I know that myself, I know that Rob and the president, the university — we’ve all been anxious. As have, I think our fans have been anxious to have it taken care of,” Akey said.

“And it’s just a matter of making sure that it got done the right way. And so that took a little more time, but at least it’s getting done the right way. And that’s what matters the most.”

Idaho coach Don Verlin said Tuesday the senior guard won’t make the trip to Reno, Nev., where the Vandals play Nevada at 6 p.m. Thursday in the first round of the Western Athletic Conference tournament.

So unless the Vandals run the table in Reno or somehow wrangle another berth in an obscure postseason tournament, it looks like Watson’s college career is done.  All because — we must assume, amid the official silence on the matter of why — he couldn’t resist critiquing his coach in the Twittersphere.

When Verlin announced the suspension Friday, he seemed to be leaving open the possibility that Watson could talk his way out of this punishment after the Vandals’ regular-season finale Saturday night against Hawaii.

You might notice, if you check out Watson’s Twitter page, that he is now “protecting his tweets” from public view. Apparently, this wasn’t apology enough.

“Wow just gott in trouble for my Twitter comments!! Gotta watch wat u say may hurt peoples feelings.”

Watson, who banked home a 60-foot shot at the halftime buzzer of Idaho’s win over San Jose State on Thursday night, was hit with the suspension Friday “for conduct detrimental to the program,” a UI news release said.

“Kashif’s suspension is a matter that he must work through in order to be reinstated for practice and play,” coach Don Verlin said in the release. “The matter will be revisited prior to the WAC tournament next week.”

It isn’t yet known whether Watson, a senior guard, will participate in Senior Night festivities Saturday when the Vandals play Hawaii in a regular-season finale.

• The unexpected development was that Idaho got Maxx Forde, whose dad played at Washington State and who (according to Cougfan.com) had verbally committed to the Cougars. He’s rated as a 3-star defensive lineman, from Woodinville, Wash., and that’s quite a steal for the Vandals.

• UI made an obvious effort to go after offensive and defensive linemen, signing seven and six, respectively at those positions. They also picked up an intriguing transfer in Ryan Bass, who was a 4-star recruit coming into Arizona State and played two seasons before getting suspended last year for team violations. He’s also a cousin of Idaho WR Marsel Posey.

Now, Robb Akey also answered some questions about his contract negotiations and the departure of quarterbacks coach Jonathan Smith to Montana (as an O-coordinator). Here are some quotes on those subjects.

On his contract renegotiation …… “I do expect for the contract, for those things to get taken care of. And that’s something that we’re in negotiations, we continue to be in negotiations, and I expect that that’ll get itself cleaned up a little bit more here shortly. And while we’re in negotiations, I think that that’s where I need to leave it at.”

On whether he thinks the contract issues would be done if it wasn’t recruiting season….“Oh I would expect. There have been a few things that have gotten in the way since the end of the season. And it hasn’t been ignored. The university hasn’t ignored it, and I haven’t ignored it. It’s just, we’re having conversations and I think that’s a good thing. I also felt like the Humanitarian Bowl was pretty important and the recruiting process was pretty important, and I think we all have the same goal in mind.”

Akey has also expressed concern over compensating his assistants better, which factors into the negotiations.

“We’re negotiating everything about the … and it’s about the staff,” he said. ” So what I said before is what I’m concerned about. And we’re negotiating it, so I think that that means it’s a good thing.”

On whether he was surprised by Smith’s departure……“No it didn’t, because I think he’s damn good. And when I know somebody’s that good and now we’re having success, other people know that, too. And it’s not like he’s a guy that didn’t have contacts and nobody knew him.”

More on Smith….“When (new Montana coach) Robin Pflugard called me, he did it the right way. He wanted to ask permission to talk to him, and he obviously wanted my opinion of him. Well, I told him, I said I’d love to tell you that he’s (bad), and he’s terrible and you don’t want him on your staff. But I’d be lying, and that wouldn’t be fair to Jonathan. So I told him what I thought of Jonathan. I thought he’d at least interview him…. he called him and offered him the job.”

More on Smith ….“That says something for our program if people look at guys that way, especially to bring them into decision-making positions. It’s a compliment to us. It doesn’t make our life any easier, but it is, in the grand scheme of things, it is a compliment. It’s also part of the business.”

FINALLY, I was also leaving the football center when I ran into Mike Iupati, fresh off his appearance in the Senior Bowl on Jan. 30. He’s training for the NFL Combine (Feb. 24 in Indianapolis) right now, working on his speed, bench press and cone drills. He’s also signed with an agent  — Ryan Tollner of the Rep 1 Sports Group. He said he’s gotten lots of first-round projections, but the Combine is obviously an important part of the draft process. Iupati also said a lot of people were surprised with how well he did at the bowl.

Here are a couple of quotes.

On the senior bowl …. “The speed, the tempo and everything is a lot different,” he said. “You think that you’re going to try to dominate — no. Everyone’s a superstar there. … You’ve just got to adjust to the game.”

More on the bowl …. “To me I went there and I had a mindset of it’s a job interview, and just do my best. … I went in with high expectations. A lot of people, some of them they rated me as the number one guard, so I went there, my mentality was to play like the number one guard.”

In general…. “I’m obviously excited about this class. I don’t think you’re going to hear one football coach come on the screen today and say ‘hey, you know, we really didn’t do very well’ … every coach in the country is excited about who they’re signing today, and we are, we are with good reason.”

On the impact of a winning season……“Well, I think that the success of the season, as we were going through things that certainly had a lot of folks excited. I think it strengthened the interest level of the people we were going after … that got some of those guys to commit to us early. A number of these kids have been committed to us for a long period of time. And I think the completion of the season and the exclamation point of the Humanitarian Bowl … I think that that really helped us solidify the kids that had been committed to us. I think it got some of those guys that decided after the …. we pulled off a couple of deals here at the end of the recruiting that – one of them is a guy that was going to go play for somebody else in our league that elected to come here. And that wouldn’t have happened before.”

On local recruits…...”But I think you’ll also see on here, that we’re getting stronger up here in the Northwest. And to me that’s a great, great sign. And I’m very proud of the fact that we’ve got four guys that you can throw a rock from campus and hit their home. I’ve got a good arm – I can hit Asotin and Lewiston from here.”

On Moscow’s Jayson Washington…..“That kid’s been making plays in this town for a long time. He’s going to continue to make plays in this town for a long time, and he brings great speed to the table.”

On Lewiston’s Justin Podrabsky…….“He’s a big guy, got a rocket of an arm. And he’s got the whole future in front of him.”

On recruiting locally…..“We’re going to continue to recruit other areas, but the more we can get from the homeland,  I think that that helps the program – it helps everything about what we’re doing.”

On success…..“The fact that we’re having success now, it made a difference in the battles that we’ve been fighting on a lot of these kids.”

Take a glance here.