BIG SKY FOOTBALL KICKOFF: COVID-19, social injustice hot topics with coaches

They grouped the league’s coaches in pods of three or four for Thursday’s first day of the Big Sky Fooball Kickoff, done virtually this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

They saved the locals for last — Idaho coach Paul Petrino, former Eastern Washington coach Beau Baldwin, beginning his first season at Cal Poly, and Aaron Best, a former EWU assistant and Baldwin’s successor at Eastern.

An interviewer from the Big Sky Conference asked questions submitted ahead of time, by the media and fans.

Coaches talked about the Xs and Os of the football teams a bit, but also talked about two other big topics — the COVID, which has interrupted practice and may interrupt the season, and social injustice.

“The first thing you understand is why we coach, and that’s being around (the players). You miss the interaction, day in and day out,” said Petrino, beginning his eighth season as Idaho coach. “Chris Walsh (Idaho’s football trainer), he’s the king of the school right now, because he decides how we’re going to do things, and what procedures we’re going to take. We’ll proceed by how he says we can do things.”

Idaho, like many Sky schools, had its spring practice canceled due to the coronavirus, which also meant many of the athletes stayed in their hometowns and took part in online learning.

More than 70 Vandal players have returned to campus in Moscow this summer for voluntary workouts — though coaches were unable to supervise them.

“Starting next week we can acutally be around them, when they’re out there running, and working out,” Petrino said. “You found how much you missed being around them, and see how much they missed being around each other. I don’t think they’ll take that for granted anymore.”

Head coaches said they participated in meetings with position groups conducted virtually via Zoom, and were part of group texts with position groups — neither of which they had done routinely in the past. They said there were benefits to that, and that was something they would likely continue when things returned to “normal.”

“But I also learned I’d rather be back face to face,” said Baldwin, who coached at EWU from 2008-16. “To be honest with you, I’m Zoomed out.”

With many folks working from home since March, Best said he was often asked how he dealt with being home with his wife and kids all the time.

“We’re kinda homebodies to a certain degree, so it wasn’t as much of an adjustment for our family,” said Best, beginning his fourth season as EWU coach. “Because we get sick of each other anyway, so we just got more sick of each other.”

All three coaches held team meetings with players to discuss the recent social injustice issues. Petrino and Best said their players participated in Black Lives Matter marches in Moscow and Spokane, respectively.

Usually in meetings, the coaches do most of the talking. Just the opposite in these meetings.

“One of the biggest things that I need to do, and have tried to do, is be a good listener, and listen to understand,” Petrino said. “A lot of our players grew up different than I grew up, and they’ve gone though a lot of different things that I ever had to go through, or worry about my kids going through.”

“Any conversation I had were more about me listening to them,” added Baldwin, who coached EWU to the FCS title in 2010. “That was enlightening.”

On other topics:

IDAHO’S QUARTERBACK SITUATION

The Vandals have just one returning quarterback, redshirt sophomore Nikhil Nayar, who has thrown all of 10 passes for Idaho. Mike Beaudry is a grad transfer from UConn who previously played at Division II Western Florida. C.J. Jordan comes in as a true freshman.

Colton Richardson, the former Lewiston High star who has started some games at Idaho in recent years, will not be with the program in 2020 because of a credit-hours issue stemming from a medical withdrawal from school last fall.

“I think it’ll be a really good challenge,” Petrino said of the QB battle. “We have a freshman coming in (Jordan) that I hope, couple years down the road, looks like Eastern’s quarterback (Eric Barriere). He’s very athletic, very talented, can do a lot of different things. it’ll be a really good competition between the three.”

BALDWIN’S RETURN TO THE BIG SKY

He spent the past three seasons as offensive coordinator at Cal. At Cal Poly, he takes over a team where the previous coach ran the option.

“It was an opportunity that I thought had so many positives to it,” he said. “It wasn’t so much returning to the Big Sky over anything else, it was just an opportunity with Cal Poly .... different things I thought were in place to make Cal Poly a very special place. There was something very authentic and very real about Cal Poly and the program ... and it’s vision. There was a vision from the top, and that was big.”

PETRINO ON IDAHO’S DEFENSE

“Defense should be one of our strengths, for sure. Basically all the front seven are back,” he said.

Losing Charles Akanno in the middle of the year hurt the Vandals. He’s back, as are linebackers Christian Elliss and Tre Walker, and “those three guys will be the best three players on our defense,” he said. “I think Nate deGraw (a redshirt junior defensive lineman from Post Falls High) was probably the most improved player on our defense. I was an assistant at Idaho when his dad (Mike) played here.

“The biggest thing is our secondary. I think we’re going to be strong up front, and in the front seven. It’ll just be how well we play in the secondary — and obviously in this league that’s a big, big thing. I do think we’ll have a few guys that can rush the quarterback, though.”

ON WHAT POSITION COACHES WOULD LIKE TO PLAY, IN A DREAM WORLD

Best, who played center at Eastern, said he would like to play quarterback for the Eagles in their dynamic offense.

Petrino was an option quarterback for his dad at Carroll College

“If we were in a dream world, honestly I’d like to be a great big, 6-6, 320 offensive tackle,” he said.

Baldwin said his dream position would be “playing slot reciever at Eastern Washington, and being able to don No. 10 (all-time leading receiver Cooper Kupp). He was not only a great player, he was basically my life coach. I used to tell our staff all the time, ‘You know that kid’s more mature than all of you guys and me put together.’ I’ll don No. 10 at Eastern Washington, and see where that leads.”