Idaho to host ODU on senior day

Paul Petrino was two or three jobs ago when the current group of Idaho Vandal senior football players was recruited to Moscow.

This year's class of 17 seniors will be honored today, before Idaho (1-8) takes on Old Dominion (6-3) at the Kibbie Dome.

"It doesn't really matter if you recruited them or not - once you become the coach, they're your guys," said Petrino, in his first year as Idaho coach. "It doesn't matter who recruited them. We want to send them out of this building as winners ... do every last thing that we can to help them walk out of this building happy."

Old Dominion is in its first year of transitioning its football program from the Football Championship Subdivision to the Football Bowl Subdivision, where Idaho is. ODU is 0-3 vs. FBS teams, 6-0 vs. the smaller FCS schools. The Monarchs will not be eligible for a bowl game in FBS until 2015.

ODU was competitive in two of the three games vs. FBS teams, losing to East Carolina 52-38, Maryland 47-10 and Pittsburgh 35-24.

"They were up 10-0 on Pitt going into the fourth quarter," Petrino said. "The put up a lot of points on East Carolina. Really the only team they haven't put up a lot of points against of the bigger schools was Maryland. We've got to get after their quarterback (junior Taylor Heinicke), we've got to put pressure on him ... Offensively we have to keep the ball and keep him on the sidelines. It's going to be a great challenge."

Notes: Pat Yarber, a legally blind fan, is scheduled to wrap up his quest to visit every FBS stadium when he takes in today's game at the Dome.