VANDAL NOTES: Vandals made best out of travel woes
So much for the college (and NFL) way of approaching road games — leave a day or two before the game, get settled in, get acclimated to the surroundings, then go play the game.
The Idaho Vandals showed that, even in college, you could show up just before kickoff — and still win the game — like many of them routinely did just a few years ago.
“It was a little bit like high school football -- get off the bus, put your pads on and let’s go play,” Idaho coach Paul Petrino said, referring to last Saturday’s travel-delayed 19-16 Vandal victory at Troy in Sun Belt Conference play. “Like what I had to do (playing high school football) in Montana all the time, you take those four- and five-hour bus trips, get off the bus and play.”
Last Friday, the Vandals left for Spokane for their charter flight to Alabama later that day.
Petrino said on the way to Spokane, he got a text message saying there might be some delays due to mechanical problems with the plane. When they learned the delay would last several hours, they headed back to Moscow for dinner and their usual Friday meetings “because there was nowhere up there we could watch film,” Petrino said.
They left Moscow a little after 11 p.m. back for Spokane, and finally flew out around 3:30 a.m. — nine hours before the scheduled kickoff at Troy.
When the Vandals decided to return to Moscow on Friday, Petrino said he gathered his players in a parking lot at the terminal in the Spokane airport and told them, “I think this was the best week of practice we’ve had all season. … We’re going to find a way to win the game, no matter what.”
One bonus from the travel delay on Friday -- Petrino was able to watch his son, senior quarterback Mason Petrino, play at home against Lakeland.
“After the weekend before, I thought that was the last high school game I’d get to see him play,” Paul Petrino said. “At least I got to see him play one more game.”
The win at Troy (1-5, 0-2 Sun Belt) was the first for Idaho (2-4, 1-2) since the 2011 season.
“I think it definitely can be a turning point in the whole program, and that’s something we want to build on,” said Petrino, whose Vandals play host to Louisiana-Monroe (1-5, 0-2) on Saturday and visit New Mexico State (0-6, 0-2) the following week.
Vandal-izers: Petrino said he asked the conference to look at the play vs. Troy in the first half where Vandal sophomore defensive back Dorian Clark was called for targeting, and ejected. “I don’t get to talk about that, or I’ll get in trouble,” Petrino said. “He’ll have to miss the first half of the next game.” … With starting quarterback Matt Linehan still playing through an ankle injury, Petrino said he plans to use both Linehan and backup Jake Luton at the position for the time being. “I think we’ll do that this week,” Petrino said. After that, “I think we’ll just play that week by week. But I think it’s great right now. It’s good for Jake to get reps. It’s good to have two quarterbacks. This day and age in college football, you have to have two good ones, and it’s good that we do.” … Due to lack of depth in the defensive backfield, Petrino said star wide receiver Dezmon Epps will continue to see some action at cornerback, as he did vs. Troy. … Wide receiver Callen Hightower made the trip to Troy but did not play because of a coaches’ decision, Petrino said.