Vandals sign three JC football transfers
MOSCOW — The University of Idaho announced the signing of three junior college transfers on Wednesday — defensive lineman D.J. Henderson, cornerback Brandon Brooks and offensive lineman Sean Tulette.
Henderson (6-0, 280), comes from East Mississippi College, where he was a teammate of current Vandal D-lineman Aikeem Coleman. Henderson had 25 solo tackles and 11 assists on East Mississippi’s Mississippi Bowl Championship team. East Mississippi finished 11-1 and was ranked second nationally.
Brooks (6-3, 185) comes from Riverside City College (he was at Dixie State as a freshman) and has three years of eligibility remaining.
He had 13 tackles and three pass breakups along with one interception for Riverside City, which was 10-2 overall and won the Southern California Bowl.
In high school, Henderson also played receiver.
Tulette (6-3, 280) comes from Long Beach City College. He previously played at Los Alamitos (Calif.) High, and was a teammate of current Vandals Denzal Brantley and Joe Wysocki. He also has three years of eligibility left.
Long Beach City was 9-2 overall and averaged 513.8 yards per game.
“I think all three can have an immediate impact,” said fourth-year Idaho coach Paul Petrino, adding the Vandals may sign a couple more JC players by the end of the week.
His first couple years of Idaho, roughly half the recruiting class was junior college players.
“What we signed this year, hopefully we sign each year — between 3 and 7,” Petrino said. “Hopefully you don’t have to sign more than that — we had to early on.”
On other topics:
• Earlier this month, Petrino’s name was linked to the head football coaching job at Western Kentucky, a job that eventually went to Notre Dame (and former Boise State) offensive coordinator Mike Sanford.
Asked Wednesday about his possible interest in WKU, Petrino replied, “That’s something I really don’t want to talk about. I’m going to be the coach here. They found a coach. I think you always end up talking to people a little bit, but I wish them all the luck in the world, and I’m really excited to be here, and be a part of this staff, and continue to make things better here, and move forward.”
• Petrino said Bobby Daly, the Vandals’ director of football operations, would fill Kenny Holmes’ spot as defensive line coach for the Potato Bowl. Holmes took a similar position with Florida International.
“When I put coach Daly in the football ops position, it was with the idea that he would be a coach someday,” Petrino said. “That’s how I want to continue to use that position ... kind of a stepping stone to a position coach.”
Petrino said it hasn’t been finalized, but Daly will “probably” continue in that coaching role next season.