It shouldn’t be all that difficult to muster up a few reasons why Saturday’s season-opener is a must win football game for the Idaho Vandals. There’s the obvious — a win-deprived fan base that has developed an unquenchable thirst for victory since 2009, the last time that the Kibbie Dome was at full capacity. Then there’s the man at the helm. A win in Paul Petrino’s debut has countless implications, one of those being the gargantuan impression he’d leave on a program that was oh so emphatic in landing their guy this past spring.
More than anything, Saturday will serve as an important gauge for the future. The independent Vandals won’t be flying solo next season, and Petrino’s first test comes against a North Texas program that knows Idaho’s future conference all too well.
Of course, it’s not to say that slipping away with a victory in Denton is a signal that Idaho should move forward without caution, but it is a gauge, even if the vision is still a little foggy.
In the Sun Belt Conference that it just dashed from, North Texas has been nothing more than mediocre. Three years ego, pre-Dan McCarney, the Mean Green could better be described as dismal. Still, the team had won just seven combined conference games in the two years McCarney has been in charge.
It’d be premature to label this a do-or-die game for the Vandals, but citing it as a “be competitive or fear for the future,” game is fairly accurate.
Look no further than the Idaho record books to fully comprehend how crucial games like these are for the Vandals. The Moscow program is in the midst of a four-game skid with the North Texans, dating back to the teams’ sparring days in the Sun Belt. Though the pair hasn’t clashed since 2004, the Vandals didn’t fare well in the conference when they lost to North Texas, winning four games in five years against Sun Belt opposition.
Though the Vandal nation would like to see the team sooner than a Sept. 14 home-opener, road tests like this weekend’s are the same ones that have doomed Idaho in recent years. Look no further back than last season, when Idaho gave up at least 40 points on the road on five different occasions.
But don’t look for any sympathy from the Sun Belt. Idaho will begin to embrace the trips to Las Cruces, N.M., and New Mexico State, the closest university in proximity to Moscow.
Don’t think that a loss Saturday will be a strong indicator of things to come.
But don’t dare think that the Vandals can skate through the Independent schedule and coast into the Sun Belt if they can’t top a less-than-attractive Mean Green squad.
Theo Lawson can be reached at [email protected]