After allowing the opposing offense 40 consecutive points, while his own went scoreless, Paul Petrino made note of an important point before proceeding with his weekly news conference Monday.
Courtesy photo by Ilya Pinchuk | University of Idaho
Idaho coach Paul Petrino shows disappointment on the sideline during the Vandals’ 40-6 loss against the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas.
“I told the whole team last night, usually you make your biggest improvement between game one and game two,” he said.
For the first time since taking on Idaho’s head coaching responsibility, Petrino will be able to analyze game film of his team, rather than the practice and scrimmage tapes his coaching staff has been accustomed to.
And with the Vandals’ 40-6 loss Saturday at North Texas, there will be a lot to fix, and the game film surely won’t run dry.
“You can practice all you want, have mock games but the speed of the game, being on the road, the band playing as loud as it’s playing behind the bench, the crowd’s yelling stuff at you…” Petrino said. “A few of them didn’t play as well as they played all fall camp.”
For Petrino and staff, the reparation process may follow a “pick your poison” theme.
That process could begin with the Vandal secondary, which allowed senior quarterback Derek Thompson to pepper his receivers for 349 yards on 23-of-27 passing.
Leading receiver Brelan Chancellor hauled in six of those for 135 yards and one touchdown.
Or maybe the staff prioritizes clock management, which was the first indicator of things to come after the team burned its third and final timeout of the half just a couple of minutes into the first quarter.
“To be honest with you, I still don’t know who called that third timeout,” Petrino said. “We used two of them and that third one was a mystery one, I don’t know where it came from.”
The “mystery timeout” came immediately after Idaho’s efficient march downfield and ensuing touchdown pass from quarterback Chad Chalich to fullback Jake Manley. The Vandals then proceeded to recover an onside kick, as momentum continued to surge on the visiting sideline.
But with 32 players — exactly half of the traveling squad — having never played a snap of FBS football, the youth and inexperience began to emerge from the shadows. It would only take a couple of drives to see the momentum slide across to the Mean Green sideline.
“There’s a lot of guys that looked a little bit like the deer in the headlights out there,” Petrino said. “That can’t happen, they have to believe in their training, trust what their technique and fundamentals are.”
The desperation of Idaho’s season opener increased when offensive line starters Mike Marboe and Cody Elenz left the field with injury. Defensive end Maxx Forde would then go out with cramps.
Petrino cited those injuries as day-to-day, noting that he prefers not to discuss ailments early in the week.
The lack of experience was also evident on special teams. True freshman Austin Rehkow had a Bobby Cowan-esque day punting, with six of his punts totaling 284 yards, and a long punt going for 62 yards. But Rehkow will have to tune up his kicking game, which left four points on the board after the Spokane native missed a point-after-attempt in the first quarter and a 39-yard field goal attempt in the fourth quarter.
Still, Petrino was able to praise his young kicker’s debut.
“He had a great day punting, he had a great onside kick and the extra point was not his fault,” Petrino said. “If you go through the whole day, he was about 95 percent doing a great job.”
The special teams flaws also came in the form of the punt coverage team. On three returns, Chancellor accumulated 111 yards with a long return of 62 yards for North Texas. He returned a single kick return for 28 yards.
The Vandals look forward to a familiar foe Saturday when they take on a Wyoming team that nipped Idaho in last season’s Kibbie Dome overtime thriller. The Cowboys were able to hang with Big 12 opponent Nebraska in their season-opener, losing 37-34.
The Vandals meet former Idaho offensive coordinator Jason Gesser — now a quarterbacks coach in Laramie — and the Cowboys at 1 p.m. PDT at War Memorial Stadium.
Theo Lawson can be reached at [email protected]