It happened one game later than many expected, but the Idaho debut of quarterback Dominique Blackman was definitely an encouraging sign for the Vandal football team.

Blackman, a junior playing in his first football game in two seasons — and his first Division I game — completed 30 of 37 passes for 352 yards and a touchdown in last Saturday’s 21-13 loss at Bowling Green.

“I thought he played with great confidence,” Idaho coach Robb Akey said. “I thought he did a good job of getting guys put around where they needed to be, he certainly stood there in the pocket with confidence and poise, and did a good job of delivering the ball.”

The 6-foot-5, 254-pound Blackman, who last played in 2009 at Los Angeles Harbor (junior) College, seemed to be in a rhythm throwing the ball, and perhaps as important, his teammates seemed to have an extra bounce in their step as the Vandals moved the ball.

“I’m very excited what his future can be, and what we can do with this offense,“ Akey said.

As for glitches, he was intercepted once, and late in the first half and the Vandals driving, they allowed some 30 seconds to run off the clock before calling a timeout.

“All we needed was to get everybody on the line,” Akey said. “We didn’t need to clock it, we didn’t need to call timeout, but when we couldn’t get everybody on the line ... I had to use the timeout to keep the time from running away from us.”

Despite the loss, Akey was pleased that the Vandals competed better than they did in the season-opening 20-3 loss to Eastern Washington. He said they just need to cut down on penalties and finish drives better.

On the downside, Idaho rushed for just 6 yards on 20 carries — an average of 10.8 INCHES per carry.

The Vandals passed the ball 38 times. Akey said ideally he’d like a 50/50 mix of running plays and passing plays, and said the Vandals need to run the ball more.

“Sometimes you need to bang away, and bang away, and then all of a sudden you start to pop some of those runs,” Akey said. “And it requires some patience. We need to maintain that patience.”

Senior Ryan Bass and junior college transfer James Baker have been the only running backs to carry the ball through two games. Akey said the next two backs in line, redshirt freshmen Todd Handley and Justin Parkins, could get some carries soon.

Third-ranked LSU (2-0), which hosts Idaho (0-2) on Saturday, is coming off a 41-3 dismantling of the Washington Huskies last Saturday in Death Valley.

Idaho is a six-touchdown underdog to the Tigers, who lost to Alabama in the national title game last year.

Akey said the Vandals will head to Baton Rouge with nothing to lose — and will take home a check for a reported $925,000 for the effort.

“They’re a physical football team, and they physically whip some folks,” Akey said of LSU. “I think a lot of people lost the game before they ever went in there. And I’m talking about SEC teams, teams in their own conference. I wouldn’t say we’re quite an SEC team, though if their conference wanted us, we’d be happy to go.”

Idaho, you’ll remember, is without a conference to play football in next season.