Vandals open practice for spring football season

MOSCOW — Idaho’s football team got back to the field on Friday night for its first official practice of the season — just four weeks until the season opener.

Practice looks a little different this year. With COVID protocols in place, the Vandals have split up some of the practices to minimize traffic on and around the field. Special face shields have also been installed in each helmet as an extra precaution.

“I thought it went good,” Idaho coach Paul Petrino said. “Right now we kind of have separate practices. For the first two days we kind of broke it up with an offensive practice and a defensive practice. When we get shoulder pads on we’ll go ones-on-ones and twos-on-twos.

“I thought the offense did a lot of good things. There was some good execution, some nice throws and catches and some runs. Defense was flying around and doing some good things. For the first day I thought it went well. I was excited.”

Petrino and the Vandals will be replacing a lot on offense, including star wide receiver Jeff Cotton, who led the nation in receptions per game a season ago. Transfer quarterback Mike Beaudry will look to step in right away with some of those new options at receiver, but will certainly rely on veteran Cutrell Haywood as well.

Most of the defensive side of the ball is back, including a pair of Preseason-All America linebackers in Tre Walker and Christian Elliss,

The Vandals return to action today morning for a closed practice.