Here's hoping coach Petrino sticks around

Consider us re-invigorated, Paul Petrino, and for that we thank you.

Five years ago, the Idaho Vandals were a struggling mess, with head coach Robb Akey fired after going a less-than-pedestrian 20-50 at the helm.

The only thing worse than watching poor football was watching poor football without any athletes from the school’s namesake state.

Around that time, a scribe from Sandpoint wrote a column taking the Vandals to task for their lack of homegrown players, at least any on the two-deep depth chart.

Back in the 1980s, the Vandals were led by the likes of talented Idaho quarterbacks Kenny Hobart, a decathlete from Kamiah, and John Friesz, a gunslinger from Coeur d’Alene who went on to a nice NFL career. They were just two on a team that featured plenty of Gem State talent, the operative word being featured.

Does anyone remember Erickson’s Air Express, as it was dubbed when Dennis Erickson stopped briefly at Idaho on his rocket ship up the coaching ladder back in the ’80s? Or Keith Gilbertson and John L. Smith, whose teams dominated a Boise State program that was languishing in the Big Sky cellar, with homegrown players, at that.

Then Boise State, led first by the late Pokey Allen, then Dirk Koetter, Dan Hawkins and finally Chris Petersen, started to own the top in-state recruits, with impact starters on both sides of the ball. They turned the tide and started dominating Vandal teams that fell in love with junior college players from anywhere but here. The Broncos even competed for national championships, strange as that sounds.

The altogether forgettable Akey era ended unceremoniously when he was fired after a dyspeptic 70-28 loss to Louisiana Tech, dropping the Vandals to 1-7, and worse, irrelevance.

The only thing worse than that score was the regional apathy, especially in the once fertile recruiting pipelines of fan bases like Coeur d’Alene and Sandpoint. There simply wasn’t a lot of reason to care.

THEN PAUL Petrino came along, with a Montana-bred coaching pedigree, his father having built a power at Carroll College, where his brother Bobby once played quarterback. Funny thing about the Montana schools — they love their homegrown players, and do just fine with them.

When Coeur d’Alene quarterback Chad Chalich and receiver Deon Watson Jr. signed with Akey and redshirted during his final season, many of us had a reason to care about the Vandals for the first time in a long time.

Sandpoint, which gave the Vandals the likes of Jerry Kramer, Crosby Tajan and Ryan Knowles, to name just a few, now has Carlos Collado, Josh Suto and Kyle Perry on the Vandal roster. The Vandal buzz in Bonner County, and around the state for that matter, is back.

What kind of buzz has Petrino built? The Vandals were the subject of a big Associated Press feature recently (when was the last time that happened?) and the Petrino brothers were featured in the most recent ESPN the Magazine.

The university will get a chance to showcase the team and state in a nationally televised ESPN bowl game on Dec. 22, when the Vandals (8-4) tangle with Colorado State (7-5) in the only football game on that day.

Even if it’s the unfortunately-named Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, the mere fact the Vandals are bowling in FBS football is worth celebrating. And savoring, too, as next year is their last before dropping down to the FCS, which eschews bowl games in favor of a 24-team playoff.

We can only hope Petrino sticks around when the prodigal son Vandals renew old acquaintances with Montana, Montana State, Eastern Washington and Idaho State in the Big Sky Conference.

Bigger programs are sure to come calling, having witnessed the transformation from irrelevance to Sun Belt power delivered by Petrino.

YEARS AGO I was lucky enough to meet Paul’s older brother Bobby Petrino, currently the coach of Louisville and Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Lamar Jackson. Bobby was the quarterback coach at Arizona State, the first college coach to come visit my younger brother Jake Plummer in Boise when recruiting started.

The last thing he said before leaving our front porch was that he “wanted to get the snake in the desert.” The early recruiting worked, as Jake ended up becoming a Sun Devil more than a year later.

As he is wont to do, the nomadic Petrino left ASU after a couple years, replaced by current Browns head coach Hue Jackson. The two are just part of the late Bruce Snyder’s prodigious coaching tree at ASU, which includes scores of current pro and college head coaches and coordinators.

I was quickly on board when the Vandals hired the younger Petrino to breath life into a program on life support. In four years, he’s done just that, and then some.

Being a Montana guy, Petrino is no doubt well aware that the sledding won’t get any easier in the FCS, divisions be damned. Some might even argue a better brand of football is played in the Big Sky than the Sun Belt.

Let’s just hope the red-hot coach is around in two years to test that theory. For now, we’ll settle for a win in the Famous Idaho Potatohead Bowl, or whatever the heck it’s called.

Eric Plummer is the sports editor of the Daily Bee. For story ideas, comments or suggestions, he can be reached at eplummer@bonnercountydailybee.com.