Paul Petrino and Jeff Choate have never met.

But Petrino, not too far removed from his first season as a college football head coach, said he could probably imagine what Choate is going through in the days leading up to his first game as head coach.

Choate, the former St. Maries High star, and ex-Post Falls football coach and athletic director, makes his head coaching debut tonight when his Montana State Bobcats visit the Idaho Vandals in the season opener for both teams.

“He’s going to be so fired up,” said Petrino, beginning his fourth season at Idaho, his first head coaching job. “He’s going to onside kick, or fake a punt ... he’s going to do something. He’s a special teams guy ... because all those years you’ve been an assistant, you want to do all those things. And now that he’s the head coach ... ”

While Montana State will be looking to make Choate a winner in his first game as Bobcats coach, Idaho will be looking to win a season opener for the first time since 2010. The Vandals and Bobcats will be Big Sky rivals in 2018, but Idaho has more immediate goals — the Vandals firmly believe they’ll win enough games this season to be bowl eligible for the first time since 2009.

“We’re still excited, but we’re more confident this year,” Petrino said of his team’s mindset heading into the season opener.

In preparing for Montana State, Petrino said his coaches watched tape not only of last year’s Bobcats, but also watched tape from other teams as well. That’s because Montana State defensive coordinator Ty Gregorak was at Montana last year, and offensive coordinator Courtney Messingham was at Indiana last year. And Choate was special teams coach at Washington last year.

“One thing they have is a bunch of tough guys that like to hit and fly around,” Petrino said. “I feel like we’re playing the (Montana) Grizzlies, we’ve watched so much tape on them. It’ll be interesting to see if they’re running the stuff we’ve been studying.”

Montana State’s starting quarterback this year, junior Tyler Bruggman, redshirted at Washington State in 2013 before transferring. He was at Louisville in ’14 and Scottsdale Community College last fall.

“He was one guy I was actually recruiting when I was at Arkansas my last year (in 2012),” Petrino said.

With most of their key offensive players back from last year, the Vandals are expected to score lots of points. The key will be how many points the Vandals give up.

Idaho went 4-8 last year, its most wins since 2010. Montana State went 5-6 last year, and coach Rob Ash was fired after nine seasons. Last year’s quarterback, Dakota Prukop, graduated and transferred to Oregon and earned the starting job for his final collegiate season.

Petrino grew up in Montana, where you pledged allegiance to Montana or Montana State at an early age. He said while many of his high school teammates went on to play at Montana State, he was recruited “really hard” by Montana, before deciding to stay home and play for his father at Carroll College.

Choate, meanwhile, recalled following the Vandals after moving to the St. Maries area prior to his sophomore year in high school. He remember watching Idaho greats like John Friesz, Kenny Hobart, Jeff Robinson and Kasey Dunn. The Vandals didn’t recruit Choate coming out of high school, but he was OK with that, saying “I don’t think I was good enough or smart enough, so I didn’t take it personally.” Choate played at Montana Western in Dillon before embarking on his coaching career.

Many of Choate’s high school buddies attended Idaho, as did his youngest brother. And Choate still owns a home on Lake Coeur d’Alene.

“I’m sure we’ll have a good contingent of Lumberjack faithful there,” Choate said of tonight’s game. “Some will be cheering for the Vandals, but I might have a few with me too.”

Choate was interested in the Vandal job when Petrino was hired, but said he didn’t formally apply.

“That was a place where, growing up, I would have loved to have had a chance to play, and I didn’t get that opportunity,” Choate said. “Getting a chance to go back home (as a coach) ... I don’t want to get embarrassed in my own backyard. I don’t want to go back to the lake and hear how I got beat by the Vandals.”