BIG SKY FOOTBALL KICKOFF: Vandals strive to get 'this much better'

By MARK NELKE

Sports editor

SPOKANE - Idaho's first three seasons in its return to the Big Sky Conference in football have been filled with high expectations - followed by results that, well, were not quite that high.

In 2018, the Vandals finished 4-7, 3-5 in the Big Sky.

In 2019, it was 5-7, 3-5.

In the pandemic-shortened spring 2021 season, Idaho was 2-4 in league and overall.

The Vandals are still looking for their first berth in the FCS playoffs since leaving the Big Sky after the 1995 season, and spending the next 22 seasons at the FBS level.

What is it going to take to get Idaho over the proverbial playoff hump?

"Just getting this much better," Vandal junior fullback Logan Kendall said Monday, at the Big Sky Football Kickoff at the Davenport Grand Hotel in Spokane. "I think that spring season helped us out a ton, and this summer, we just focused on getting this much better … and finish those games that we were a play away from winning."

Idaho junior linebacker Tre Walker agreed.

"Just finishing those games — just to have that mindset of getting this much better will help lead us exactly where we want to go," he said. "We have a lot of great players, and it just comes down to the end of the game and just finishing the game."

Idaho is just 1-10 in Big Sky road games since rejoining the league in 2018 — that winning coming in overtime at Northern Arizona in the 2019 season finale.

"I would say, No. 1, we’ve got to win road games, the second thing is making more big plays, and eliminating big plays from the opponents," said Idaho coach Paul Petrino, entering his ninth season in Moscow. "Really, the chemistry and character … I think they’re a lot closer right now, all the tough things they had to do for COVID made them a lot closer. I just think the character or our team is going to be close, and that’s how you win close games."

Prized recruit: Walker was named the conference's preseason Defensive Player of the Year, after totaling 54 tackles last season, including 4.5 tackles-for-loss, and being named a finalist for the Buck Buchanan Award.

Not bad for someone whose wasn't exactly highly recruited coming out of Fresno Central High.

"Idaho was my only offer," the 6-foot-1, 235-pound Walker said.

"(Assistant) coach Eric Brown found him and brought in the tape and we watched it," Petrino recalled of the recruiting process. "He was actually at the top of our board. Honestly, it was at one of our meetings I was like, ‘Yeah, go get him, but I bet we don’t get him at the end.' 'He was a little bigger than us' — that was actually said at a meeting one time, so we’re very fortunate and very happy that we got him."

The 6-4, 264-pound Kendall has developed into an effective fullback at Idaho. He's not the first Vandal from Cheney, where Eastern Washington is located, he's just the most recent one.

Idaho is 2-2 vs. EWU since the Vandals returned to the Big Sky, including home wins in 2019 and this past spring.

"I'm friends with a decent amount of players from Eastern," Kendall said. "That game is definitely super personal when we play Eastern … I feel like it’s a mutual respect, but in the end, we want to win those games."

No more do-overs: Last spring, one Vandal game was rescheduled due to a COVID-19 outbreak within the program, and several other Big Sky teams suffered the same fate. Three teams chose not to play league games last spring, and one other played just three games before shutting it down.

This year, the Big Sky is pushing vaccination ... vaccination ... vaccination. If a team can't play because it is missing too many players because of a COVID-19 outbreak, that team will forfeit.

"There’s just no room in our schedule for makeup games; that’s why there will be forfeits instead of no-contests or makeup games, said Big Sky commissioner Tom Wistrcill, who is pushing for football teams to have at least 80-85 percent of their players vaccinated.

"Even if you have a breakout, and you lose 4-5 players, you still have enough to play the game," he said. "No different than if those guys were injured."

He said Sacramento State is requiring every student that participates in an activity to be vaccinated, but in a conference with 13 schools in eight states, it's difficult to have a blanket policy."

Wistrcill said conference officials are still working on establishing testing protocols for teams, and hopes to have those in the next few weeks.

What if both teams have a COVID outbreak, he was asked?

"We’ll deal with that if we get there. Please, I hope that doesn’t happen," he said.

On Monday, Wistrcill said one school is at close to 90 percent in vaccinations, while some schools are at 25, 30 percent.

"I would say the average is just below 50 percent," he said. "Which is concerning, if we’re trying to get to 80, 85 percent, and here we are, almost to Aug. 1."

Barriere back: Opponents thinking they'd seen the last of elusive Eastern Washington quarterback Eric Barriere last spring hopefully held onto their game plans, after the 6-1, 210-pounder took advantage of the COVID exemption to return for a sixth season in Cheney (he redshirted in 2016).

The soft-spoken Barriere said he would have "probably transfered up somewhere," if he hadn't decided to return to EWU, where on Sunday he was named the conference's Preseason Offensive Player of the Year.

"It makes my life a whole lot easier, for sure," EWU senior linebacker Jack Sendelbach said. "You go back to the sidelines you get to watch him play — he does a lot of amazing things. He’s a great leader too, so having him back on your team makes your life a whole lot easier."

"I was excited, actually," Idaho's Walker said when he learned Barriere was returning. The teams are slated to meet Oct. 16 in Cheney. "I like playing against him … like coach Petrino said, just having great players to compete against is just fun."

Let's play two: Montana was one of the three Big Sky teams to not play a conference schedule — Montana State and Portland being the other two.

The Griz played a pair of home games, beating Central Washington 59-3 and Portland State 48-7.

"I thought we had the perfect plan," Montana coach Bobby Hauck said. "I liked it going in and I like it even better coming out, retrospectively. Great spring practice session, and we had two games. If we would have seen value in that (six-game season) we would have done it."

So you didn’t see value in it?

"No," he said.

Why?

"I just don’t think you want to play two seasons in 10 months," Hauck said. "And at our place the goal wasn’t to play six games, it was to play 10 (counting possible playoff games)."