Montana State, coached by former St. Maries High star and former Post Falls High football coach Jeff Choate, reached the semifinals of the FCS playoffs last year.

So did Weber State — those were the two best showings by Big Sky Conference teams.

Both are run-first, play defense first kind of teams.

A coincidence?

“Probably not,” Idaho coach Paul Petrino said recently.

So what happened to the supposedly “wide-open,” pass-happy Big Sky in football?

“I think there’s still a lot of teams that are wide open,” Petrino said. “NAU (Northern Arizona) throws it a ton. Eastern (Washington) still throws it. Montana, they do both. UC Davis, you would think he (coach Dan Hawkins) throws it a lot, but he runs the ball quite a bit. I think everybody’s kind of a mixture of both. One game might be more pass, one game might be a little more run, depending on what they do well against that team.

“I would say it’s still a little bit more of a wide-open, get-in-space (league), but I would say, two of the best (teams), Montana State and Weber, they run the ball. There’s no question there.”

So where do the Idaho Vandals fit in?

Last year, the Vandals focused on the need for speed at wide receiver and at linebacker, to make more plays on offense and contain the other teams’ playmakers in space.

Petrino said he felt Idaho did that.

But the Vandals, in most of the games they played well in last year, did it with physicality, on offense and defense.

“I think it’s nice when you can spread it out and be wide open, but then when you’ve got to run it, run the ball to win,” Petrino said in an interview with The Press a couple of weeks ago, while in Coeur d’Alene for a signing day function with Vandal boosters at The Coeur d’Alene Resort.

Are other Big Sky teams changing?

“Eastern probably runs the ball more than people think,” Petrino said. “You think they’re so wide open, but they run the ball actually a lot, successfully. I think with the exception of maybe the Air Raid ... Oklahoma ran it 62 percent of the time last year. Nobody really realizes that, but when you look at their stats ... I think ideally, it starts with what your talent does best, but I think most people believe you have to run the ball to win. And that helps your defense stay on the sideline.”

PETRINO GAVE his thoughts on several other topics during the interview, including:

On the signing of Colbey Nosworthy, a senior from Coeur d’Alene High, a standout as a wide receiver, safety and punt returner.

“What’s exciting about him is, he can play on both sides of the ball,” Petrino said. “I think he has great ball skills, which obviously shows up at receiver, but it also shows up on defense ... he’s just got strong hands. He can really go and make plays, and then he’s a real good tackler. He plays both sides (of the ball) very well.”

Will Petrino use him on both sides?

“What I told him is we’d go through fall camp, and depending on how both sides of the ball stack up. He might play both in fall camp, and wherever we can get him on the field first, that’s probably where he’ll play.”

Petrino said his punt returner, wide receiver Cutrell Haywood, is back next year, “but definitely for the future he (Nosworthy) could (return punts).”

On some of the other local players already on the Vandal roster.

“The guy that might have had as good a season as anybody on our team last year is Nate DeGraw (a defensive lineman from Post Falls High, who will be a fourth-year junior next year). Nate had a great year. He really came on, made a bunch of plays for us. Definitely will be one of the leaders on our defense next year. But as the year went on, Nate was one of the better players on our defense, and made a lot of good plays for us.”

Lakeland High product Cade Coffey, of course, will be back for his fourth season as the Vandals punter and placekicker.

“Hopefully Noah Gunn can stay healthy, and compete to be a starter next year,” Petrino said of the offensive lineman from Coeur d’Alene, who transferred last year from the Air Force Academy, and will be a sophomore this season. “He was hurt and sick a lot. He just had a rough year of staying healthy.”

Carter Friesz, a walk-on from Coeur d’Alene, will be a redshirt freshman this fall. Petrino said he’s still in the mix at quarterback, a room which now has five guys, including a high school signee and a grad transfer from UConn — neither of which will be in Moscow for spring ball. Lewiston High product Colton Richardson played just four games last year, so was able to redshirt because of the new rule, and will be a junior this fall. Nikhil Nayar will be a redshirt sophomore.

Petrino said moving Friesz to another position — he played mostly receiver in high school — is a possibility, “because he’s so athletic, but we’ll probably get through spring ball and decide.”

Petrino said Kyle Perry, the Sandpoint High product, plans to graduate in May. He grayshirted, then redshirted, then played three seasons, seeing action at linebacker.

“He had a really good career,” Petrino said.

Ross Chadderdon, a linebacker from Coeur d’Alene High, will be a redshirt sophomore this fall.

“Next year will be a big year for him,” Petrino said. “He played a little bit this year on special teams. It will be a big spring for him.”

On his son, quarterback Mason Petrino, who plans to be a graduate assistant at another university this fall.

“I think it’s great,” Paul Petrino said of his son following in his career footsteps. “I’m excited for him ... It’s what he’s wanted to do.”

What was it like coaching his son?

“It was great and tough; both,” Paul said. “The social media made it harder on the family, and him, but it was still great. It was great to be around him. I didn’t get to see him as much play that sport growing up, so it was great to be around him.

“He handled it really well, and it was a great way for him to end his career. That last game was awesome.”

In his final game as a Vandal, Mason Petrino passed for 498 yards and six touchdowns in a 60-53 overtime victory at Northern Arizona.

Why the Vandals were so good at home last year (4-2), and not so good on the road (0-5) until winning that season finale at NAU.

“That is something that definitely has to improve. Our first conference game next year is at UC Davis, and we need to be ready to go, play well on the road, and get a conference win on the road right off the bat. It was nice to do that the last game of the year for sure.

“They’ve got to get comfortable playing in another setting,” Petrino said. “Some of it was the youth. You have to have a great mentality that you’re going to be road warriors, and go win on the road. Honestly, in the Sun Belt we might have played better on the road than we did at home ... it’s a crazy thing.

One thing Petrino said might help this fall — all four road games in the Big Sky will be to places the Vandals visited two years ago (UC Davis, Eastern Washington, Montana State and Idaho State.

“All the teams we play next year, we’ve played, and once you play them a couple of times, the rivalries build up more. I think that even helped us with Eastern and Idaho State this last year (both wins at home, after getting blown out on the road two years ago).”

On why the Vandals’ third season in the Big Sky could be better than the first two — Idaho was 3-5 in conference both seasons, and 4-7 overall in 2018.

“Last season reminds me of the year before our bowl game,” Petrino said. “We had some ups and downs, but we really finished the way we wanted to.”

Idaho beat Texas State at home in the season finale to finish 4-8 in 2015. The next year, Idaho went 9-4, capped with a win over Colorado State in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl in Boise.

“It’s a great thing to build on all winter and all spring, and go have a great year next year,” Petrino said. “I’m excited for this team; I think it’s going to be a really fun year.”

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.