During the roller coaster which is the college football season, perhaps it was a lot to ask for the Idaho Vandals to maintain the same high level of intensity for three games in a row.

“We played with such great passion and excitement at Wyoming, and against Eastern Washington,” Idaho coach Paul Petrino said the other day, in his weekly meeting with area media.

He noted the Vandals gained a lot of yardage (497) last week in their loss at Northern Colorado to open Big Sky Conference play, but something was missing.

“We had 18 plays of over 11 yards on offense, and no passion was shown on any of them,” Petrino observed after watching the film. “You have to play with passion and excitement.”

Petrino is pretty confident that passion and excitement will return this week, when Idaho (2-3, 0-1 Big Sky) hosts Weber State (2-2, 0-0) in conference play Saturday at the Kibbie Dome.

Weber is ranked fifth this week in the FCS coaches poll, and fourth in the media poll. The teams will meet for the first time since 1995, which was Idaho’s last year in the Big Sky before returning in 2018.

And Idaho is 6-1 at the Kibbie Dome since returning to FCS last year.

“It’s a huge game; this is one of the best teams in the country,” Petrino said. “If you’re not excited for this, you shouldn’t be playing college football. They’re coming into our place; we should be excited to play.”

In getting his team back into form this week, Petrino said coaches need to “push forward with all kinds of passion, but be positive.”

“They (the Vandals) took their week off (passion wise, last week); now its time to have it back,” He said. “Better have it back this week.”

Nick Romano, a true freshman running back from Rocky Mountain High in Meridian, noted the difference in intensity last week.

“We thought we were expected to win, so we jumped out to that lead (17-7 at halftime) and didn’t want to pounce and finish the game,” he said.

That has to change, he said, “so we don’t end up losing games that we shouldn’t.”

Romano had his best game of his young Vandal career, rushing for 132 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries.

“Sometimes with freshmen you see it every day in practice and it’s like, ‘When is it going to spark, and happen in a game?’” Petrino said. “He’s just going to get better and better as he goes on.”