Vandals brace for South Alabama's speed

South Alabama (1-2), which Idaho (1-2) visits today in the Sun Belt Conference football opener for both at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Ala., is apparently banged up in the secondary.

That’s nice, but ...

“They’ve got all kinds of speed, though,” counters Idaho coach Paul Petrino. “You can just drive around their campus and find all kinds of speed, in each direction, in every state. When I was an assistant at Southern Miss for three years, that’s the same area (we recruited). They have a lot of talent, they have a lot of good football players. They have had some injuries in their secondary, hopefully that’s something we can attack. But we’ve got to block their front first; that’s their strength.”

Kane Wommack is South Alabama’s defensive coordinator. Petrino worked with his father, Dave, at Southern Miss.

Idaho beat South Alabama 38-31 at home last year. Two years ago in Mobile, the Jaguars prevailed 52-45.

Petrino said Idaho improved from the UNLV loss to the Western Michigan loss, noting the Vandals played well enough for three quarters last week to win, but couldn’t finish. He’s hoping to see similar improvement this week.

Petrino said South Alabama likes to throw short, and try to break their receivers for long gains after the catch.

Jamarius Way is averaging 21.4 yards on his nine receptions.

“A big part of this game is us tackling in space,” Petrino said.