Paul Petrino likely turned a few heads — and elicited a few chuckles — with his bold proclamation the other day.

Last year, in Idaho’s return to Big Sky Conference football for the first time since 1995, the Vandals underachieved.

Picked to finish fourth by the coaches and fifth by the media in the 13-team league, Idaho instead finished tied for ninth at 4-7 overall, 3-5 in the Sky.

This year, conference coaches and media each picked Idaho to come in eighth.

Still, that didn’t stop Petrino, entering his seventh season as Idaho football coach, from proclaiming at the conference’s media day on Monday that his team was the “sleeper” team to win the Big Sky.

WELL, OK, you can’t blame Petrino for being optimistic.

He did coach Idaho to a nine-win season and an FBS bowl appearance in 2016, where the Vandals manhandled Colorado State in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl in a game that was not as close as the 61-50 final score would indicate.

Since then, however, the Vandals have won just eight games in two seasons.

So if Idaho is going to contend for the Big Sky title — or at least, a berth in the FCS playoffs — the Vandals must improve in several areas.

- Tackle better in space, and make more plays after the catch.

“Some of the guys we signed in the secondary will tackle better in space,” Petrino said. “(Receivers) Jeff Cotton and Cutrell (Haywood) had a really good spring, making people miss, and I’m excited to see our freshmen run around and make people miss in space.

“I think we’ll improve in those areas. We need to.”

- Improve on defense in general.

Idaho’s roster lists 13 transfers, 10 on defense. One of those is Davontae Ginwright, a senior defensive back who played for a 12-1 Western Michigan team in the Cotton Bowl vs. Wisconsin.

“We recruited some talent on defense,” Petrino said.

- Beat the good teams in the Big Sky.

Idaho’s five conference losses were all to teams who finished in the top six in the Sky — Eastern Washington and UC Davis, which tied with Weber State for first, Montana State, Idaho State and Montana. Only the Montana State loss (24-23) was particularly close.

“We’ve got to beat the top teams in the conference,” Petrino said. “We’ve got to find a way in the fourth quarter, to out-grit them and out-tough them. Find a way to win those close games in the fourth quarter.”

Idaho beat Portland State, which finished tied for ninth with the Vandals last year, and Southern Utah, which finished 12th. UI’s other “conference” win was over North Dakota, which left the conference after the 2017 season, but because of scheduling already in place, last year’s game counted in the Big Sky standings.

PETRINO MADE another bold proclamation at media day on Monday.

“We need to have somebody win Newcomer of the Year in the Big Sky,” he said.

“Is that Satchel (Escalante; a junior transfer defensive back)? Is that (junior transfer defensive lineman) Kayode (Rufai) from Boise State? Is that Davontae from Western Michigan? Is that Noah Elliss as a true freshman? Is that (wide receiver) Kevin McGuire as a true freshman? Ideally, we need a defensive player to win Newcomer of the Year. If we do that, and our O-line plays the way they’re capable of, then we should be playing a 13th game.”

Elliss, a four-star recruit at defensive tackle and a former Mississippi State signee, is the younger brother of former Vandal Kaden Elliss and current senior linebacker Christian Elliss. But the younger Elliss (listed at 6-4, 330) looks more like his father, Luther Elliss, who played at Utah and was a Pro Bowl defensive tackle in the NFL, and is on the Vandal coaching staff.

Petrino said Noah Elliss is “on track” to be eligible.

“That’s a big get,” he said.

- Speaking of recruiting ...

People who gauge that sort of stuff have ranked this year’s Idaho’s recruiting class high.

Petrino said one reason is that Idaho is now in its second season in FCS after dropping down from FBS.

“I think it just helped us to be removed from it (the dropdown) for a couple of years,” Petrino said. “At first moving down, some of the homes you go into, parents would go, ‘How much do you really care about football? You’re moving down.’ I think that kinda hurt us for about a year and a half. But now that we are what we are ... that’s in the back window. Now we can get back to just recruiting, and that’s not going to come up anymore, now that we’re in a league. I think that wasn’t a factor this year, and one reason our recruiting was better.”

That all sounds nice. And I guess it’s possible — after all, they were good enough to go to a bowl game three seasons ago.

But things have changed since then, and now we’ll see if the Vandals can prove it on the field.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.