The Vandals' road to a potential bowl

The Idaho Vandals celebrated becoming bowl eligible for the first time since 2009 by ... taking the week off.

Thanks to a quirk in the scheduling, Idaho (6-4, 4-2 Sun Belt) had its second bye in three weeks last week, before returning for its final two games of the regular season, both at home — Saturday vs. South Alabama (5-5, 1-5), and Dec. 3 vs. Georgia State (3-8, 2-5).

“It feels like a long time (between games),” Idaho coach Paul Petrino said.

Still, that hasn’t dulled the thrill in Vandal-ville. The Vandals haven’t even challenged for a bowl in six seasons.

“Everybody’s real excited,” Petrino said. “I think everybody at first was just proud of themselves, something that we accomplished that a lot of people thought we never would.”

Part of Petrino’s pride stems from the Vandals handling the long road trips with aplomb.

“For our guys to go 3-1 on the road in the conference was really big,” he said. “Most people, when they come and play here, they leave a day early. Our guys fly there the day before, or late the night before, and they get up and they play their tails off. We’re the only team that’s won at Monroe this year. There’s been a lot of good road victories, and now we get to finish out at home.”

Where’s the beef?: Petrino found a boost for the Vandals’ running game from an unexpected source — the defensive line.

Kevin Shelton and Tueni Lupeamanu, both seniors, have also taken turns at fullback.

“I just thought we needed a little bit bigger force to help us in the running game,” Petrino said.

Shelton actually played fullback for Idaho a couple of years ago.

“He actually came to me, and said he wanted to get more involved, and wanted to play more,” Petrino said. “The funny thing is, since he’s played fullback he’s made more plays on defense.”

Lupeamanu ran for a pair of short-yardage touchdowns in Idaho’s 47-14 rout at Texas State two weeks ago — the win that made the Vandals bowl-eligible.

“Tueni’s just a great athlete,” Petrino said. “Those two touchdowns, one he went down low and other one he went over the top.”