VANDAL NOTES: After a bye, Idaho resumes pursuit of bowl
MARK NELKE | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 8 years, 6 months AGO
Mark Nelke covers high school and North Idaho College sports, University of Idaho football and other local/regional sports as a writer, photographer, paginator and editor at the Coeur d’Alene Press. He has been at The Press since 1998 and sports editor since 2002. Before that, Mark was the one-man sports staff for 16 years at the Bonner County Daily Bee in Sandpoint. Earlier, he was sports editor for student newspapers at Spokane Falls Community College and Eastern Washington University. Mark enjoys the NCAA men's basketball tournament and wiener dogs — and not necessarily in that order. | November 3, 2016 9:00 PM
Paul Petrino spent last Saturday like most dads who are also sports fans.
He got up early, and played basketball with his daughter, Ava. Then he sat down and watched hours and hours of college football.
Petrino, of course, is also Idaho’s head football coach, so he took advantage of the Vandals’ bye week, before Idaho (4-4, 2-2 Sun Belt) travels to Louisiana-Lafayette (3-4, 2-2) on Saturday.
“I gave the coaches the day off (Saturday), since we haven’t had a day off since we started,” Petrino said.
He watched in particular the Louisville-Virginia game, a game Louisville won 32-25 to keep the Cardinals’ slim College Football Playoff hopes alive. His brother, Bobby, of course, is the Louisville head coach, and Paul previously was an assistant there, and still has fond memories of the program, the city and the people there.
On the bye ... and assessing the Sun Belt: “It was a long grind,” Petrino of playing eight straight weeks to start the season, “so it was good for them to freshen up. And it was good for them to go against each other one on one; I think that makes you better.”
Petrino lumped Arkansas State (3-0 Sun Belt) in with Troy and Appalachian State (both 4-0) as the class of the conference.
As for the rest, “everybody else is pretty equal. Anyone can beat anybody on a given day,” he said.
Idaho lost at home to Troy (34-13) and lost at Appalachian State (37-19).
The Vandals do not play Arkansas State or Georgia Southern (3-2) this season. Idaho needs two wins in its final four games to become bowl-eligible.
“We’ve won some close games in the fourth quarter, and I think we’ve done a nice job in the second half,” Petrino said of the first eight games. “There’s been a couple games there where we got a little outmatched as the game went on ... our motto all year has been to keep it close and find a way to win it in the fourth quarter, and that’s what we’ve got to get done this weekend, to be honest with you.”
MORE IMPORTED STORIES
THE FRONT ROW WITH MARK NELKE: Sunday, April 3, 2016
Coeur d'Alene Press | Updated 9 years, 1 month ago
ARTICLES BY MARK NELKE
PREP FOOTBALL: Post Falls runs past Sandpoint
Sandpoint (2-1) hosts Davis High of Yakima on Friday.
Big Sky Football Kickoff: Plenty of new faces will need to step up for Vandals
“I’ve been very impressed by Zach’s natural ability to rush the passer,” Eck said. “And he’s worked hard on his body, he’s up to about 222 pounds now, and I really think he can be a difference maker for us. He’s still doing some things with the linebackers, but I think his speed can give some offensive linemen problems (as an edge rusher).”
THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Journey to a title in Bonners — with a brief stop in Cd’A
“The whole process has been completely amazing,” said Nathan Williams, now in his fourth season as the Badgers boys basketball coach. “And the parents … it’s an hour and a half to Spokane, Coeur d’Alene, when we’d play an AAU game, and an hour and a half back, and there were so many times there was 6, 8 inches of snow. And we’ve got a game at 8 a.m. They’d always schedule us at 8 a.m., coming from Bonners. So we’re waking up at 5 … it was crazy. But the commitment from the parents and the kids has been amazing.”