Arkansas offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Paul Petrino has been hired as head football coach at Idaho, according to multiple reports.

A news conference is scheduled for today at 1:30 p.m. in Moscow to introduce the new coach.

Petrino was one of five finalists for the Vandals' job.

One of the other finalists, Jason Gesser, served as interim head coach over the past four games of this season, going 0-4 as Idaho finished 1-11.

Gesser, also the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, replaced Robb Akey, who was fired in October after a 1-7 start to the season and a 20-50 overall record in his sixth season.

The other finalists were Blaine Bennett, Central Washington head coach; Brian Lindgren, offensive coordinator at San Jose State; and Chris Tormey, defensive coordinator and secondary coach at Wyoming, and a former Idaho player, head coach and assistant coach.

Petrino, brother of former Arkansas head coach Bobby Petrino, was born in Butte, Mont., and played quarterback at Carroll College in Helena, Mont., from 1985-88.

He has 21 years of college coaching experience. He started out as an assistant at Carroll, then was an assistant at Idaho (1992-94) and Utah State before the first of two stints at Louisville. In between those stints, he was quarterbacks coach at Southern Miss.

More recently, he spent one season (2007) as an assistant with the Atlanta Falcons, and has had two stops at Arkansas and one at Illinois. His teams at Louisville averaged 41.1 points per game from 2003-06.