All about effort this week for Vandals

After last week’s disappointing effort in a blowout loss at UC Davis, the Idaho Vandals’ depth chart is wide open this week.

Idaho coach Paul Petrino said the players who give the best effort in practice this week will start Saturday, when the Vandals (1-2, 0-1 Big Sky) play host to Portland State (1-3, 0-1) at the Kibbie Dome.

“We’re going to grade everybody this week in practice on effort, and whoever grades best will start — in all positions,” said Petrino, whose squad was whipped by UC Davis 44-21 last Saturday in Davis, Calif. “To be honest with you, I don’t remember too many games since I’ve been here that we’ve had that poor of an effort.

“Walking off the field, I thought it was poor tackling, but watching the tape, it was poor effort.”

“We need to play harder, obviously,” Idaho sophomore linebacker Christian Elliss said. “We had no fire, we weren’t playing that hard. When Ed (Hall, linebacker) made that huge hit (on a UC Davis receiver), nobody was excited. Mentally, I thought I was there ... (but) it was like a feeling of wanting to do something, and your body won’t let you.”

Elliss said he’s still adjusting to his move from outside linebacker to middle linebacker this season.

“I’ve been overthinking,” rather than just flying around and making plays like he did as an outside ’backer, he said.

“I think Christian’s done a lot of good things for us, but he’s basically like a true freshman playing that position,” Petrino said. “It’s his first year playing there (at middle linebacker). When you’re outside, you can run free, use your athletic ability and just do things, where inside you generally have a gap to the left and a gap to the right that you’re responsible for, and you have to read the blocking schemes ... ”

Quarterback update: Petrino said sophomore quarterback Colton Richardson suffered a sprained, not broken, wrist early in Saturday’s game at UC Davis. Petrino said he still plans to use two quarterbacks this week, as he has all season.

“Mason (Petrino, the other QB) will be ready to go and by the end of the week, Colton will be ready to go,” Petrino said.