On the way up to the Kibbie Dome you could hear one thing – Yelling. Not just one boisterous voice, but multiple voices. Reaching the gates of the SprinTurf, the voices were those of engaged, energetic, coaches running around and making themselves heard.
An impressive sight to behold, and a stark contrast from the pace of practices of Idaho yesteryear.
There were very little breaks in the action, coaches pushed pace, pushed drills to keep going and going and going. High tempo was easily the theme of the day on both sides of the ball.
It was windy and cold conditions, so it’s hard to put too much merit in to performances on the day considering many of the skill players are from warmer parts of the country and are used to playing inside the dome.
The highlights of the practice was obviously the performance of the quarterbacks, with four players competing to be named the starter out of spring. Austin DeCoud shined, throwing the ball with a lot of zip and showed touch throwing it down the field.
Chad Chalich had a couple of nice throws and seems to be improving his arm strength, but also had a batted pass at the line of scrimmage and threw two picks.
Taylor Davis showed the best combination of arm strength and accuracy but still has work to do with going through his motions and reading the defense, he held on to the ball too long at times.
As for Anthony Neyer, the new junior college addition, it’s hard to get a read on him after just one practice. Doesn’t seem to have the strongest arm and his foot work was a little bit awkward, but again this is just the impression from one practice.
It was easy to see Paul Petrino was both from Montana, and also very excited. He was in shorts and even going as far as running 30 yards down the field after one play to tell a receiver to finish his run. He was excited, and so was his staff.
We were able to catch up with coach Paul Petrino, defensive end Maxx Forde and quarterbacks Taylor Davis (No. 12) and Chad Chalich (No. 11) after practice: