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POCATELLO -- Kenyon Blue rested on his couch in California and flipped on the TV.

It was opening weekend, 2006. A college football game was on.

Players ran out onto the field. As the game played out, Blue became antsy. Agitated. He wasn't playing football, and he could have been. Idaho State wanted him, but he had chosen the easier route, he said. He had quit after two seasons with the Bengals.

Watching this game was his punishment.

He turned off the TV and stewed on his couch.

"It was very frustrating for me," Blue said Wednesday. "You never know how much you miss something till it's gone."

Blue's football itch went unscratched that entire season, when Idaho State finished 2-9 and then turned over its coaching staff. But the one holdover from Larry Lewis' cadre, running backs coach Nick Whitworth, gave Blue a second chance.

Blue played again in 2007 and tried to settle into the rotation at wide receiver and as a return specialist. He brought back 26 kickoffs and six punts. He showed flashes of the quickness and elusiveness that made Idaho State recruit him in the first place, but it was otherwise a dud season for him.

He only caught one pass for three yards.

This year, his senior year, will be different, though. Blue vows it. He's a running back again. He's settled. He's happy.

"To come into the offense and feel like a part, like I'm playing a role," Blue said, "is one of the greatest feelings I could possibly have."

It took Blue four years to get there, but now it seems he's finally in the right place.

Blue appeared to be in the right place in 2004.

As a true freshman, he caught 17 passes, returned a punt for a touchdown and gave Idaho State's offense the same zip he had lent his Helix Charter High School team in La Mesa, Calif.

Ken Cornist, Blue's teammate in college and high school, compared Blue to the likes of former and current NFL pros Barry Sanders, Dante Hall and Devin Hester. Not on the same plane, but the same trajectory.

"I know what he can do. He definitely is a playmaker," said Cornist, Idaho State's senior running back. "He's talented enough. Punt return, kick return, he's capable of doing it all. Just put the ball in his hands. He'll make it happen."

He exhibited those same skills the next year and caught 30 passes for 357 yards, including a touchdown, out of the slot position.

Then he gave it all up. Before his junior year, he quit.

"I had a bunch of stuff on my plate, and being immature, I decided giving up would be the easiest process," Blue said. "A month later, I realized I had made one of the biggest mistakes of my life.

"I felt like a loser. People asked me what I was doing, and I had no solid answer for them. I just worked at this measly job."

Coach Whitworth would call Blue now and then to ask how he was. They talked about him possibly returning to the team, Blue said, and finally, before the summer of 2007, they made it work.

Kennis Blue paid for his son to move back to Pocatello and re-enroll at Idaho State. Blue promised coaches he would take the necessary classes and would take part in summer workouts.

He was back.

He was still the same player, too.

"You expect a guy if they leave to come back rusty," Cornist said, "but Kenyon, he's one of those types of guys where he don't have to really work that hard to keep his running style."

In practices during the fall of 2007, Blue got plenty of reps at wide receiver, especially because then-junior Eddie Thompson was recovering from a knee injury. Teammates raved about his quickness and his ability to make people miss.

But in games, fans rarely got the chance to see Blue streak across the field.

At punt returner, he fell behind Thompson on the depth chart. At kickoff returner, JD Ponciano was emerging as one of the conference's best.

Thompson rarely left the slot receiver position, meaning Blue could only wait on the sidelines for his name to be called. It rarely was.

"I came back into the program, and unfortunately I didn't get to settle back into a slot receiver position," said Blue, who also spent a week of practice with the cornerbacks. "The offense had changed a bit, and I was sad that I didn't get to play a huge role last year at receiver. I felt I had enough talent to help the team out more than what I contributed last year."

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