More than two decades later, it's back to the Big Sky for Vandals

The last time the Idaho Vandals played a Big Sky Conference football game, it was Nov. 18, 1995.

The Vandals whipped Boise State 33-13 at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow, finished tied for second in the conference, and advanced to the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs for the 11th time, where they lost at McNeese State the following week in the first round.

What followed was a 22-year odyssey in Division I-AA (now called FBS), with Idaho playing in five different conferences (if you count the Sun Belt twice), including one season as an FBS independent.

The Vandals (1-1) make their official return to Big Sky football on Saturday at UC Davis (2-1).

“It’s exciting. It’s a huge game,” said Idaho coach Paul Petrino, who was an assistant the last year Idaho won a Big Sky championship, in 1992. “I told the guys Sunday night, you have to treat this like it’s the biggest game of the year. It’s a really good team, on the road. Any time you can go on the road and win a conference game, it’s big. It’s one of the best teams in the conference.”

UC Davis wasn’t pegged that way this summer. The Aggies, coached by former Boise State coach Dan Hawkins, were picked to finish ninth in the 13-team Big Sky by the media and the coaches.

Idaho was picked to finish fourth by the coaches, fifth by the media.

The Vandals, who were idle last week, have been focused on UC Davis and their conference opener since not long after routing Division II Western New Mexico two weeks ago.

“We’ve got to open up with a bang,” Idaho sophomore offensive lineman Conner Vrba said. “It’s nice to have this much time to go over all of the different blitzes and schemes that they do. I feel like it’s a big advantage having a bye week going into a big game like this, because we’re getting our bodies healthy, and they just came off playing Stanford, which is a real physical team. And we’re going to play real physical with them too, so hopefully we can wear them down.”