Listening to someone who's been there

Idaho players were pleasantly surprised last Thursday when former Vandal great Mike Iupati stopped by, during his bye week with the Arizona Cardinals, to speak to the team.

“It was really a great message,” Idaho coach Paul Petrino said. “What hit me the most, and hopefully hit all our players the most, was how proud he was to have his degree. We really brought him in to get everybody fired up, and talk about how great it was to play in a bowl game. And he did that, but what struck me ... was how proud he was to be a Vandal, how proud he was to have that degree. To have a guy that’s had the success he’s had, as long as he’s played in the NFL, to go on and on about his degree was a great message to our players.”

While at Idaho, Iupati played in the Humanitarian Bowl in 2009 -- only the second time the Vandals played in a bowl game, and Idaho’s last bowl appearance. Iupati was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers with the 17th overall pick in the 2010 NFL draft. He played five seasons with the 49ers, including one trip to the Super Bowl, before signing with Arizona in 2015 as an unrestricted free agent.

Idaho is 5-4, 3-2 and tied for fourth in the 11-team Sun Belt. The Vandals, who travel to last-place Texas State (2-6, 0-4), are just one win away from bowl eligibility. The Vandals have three chances, all against teams with losing records, to get that one win, but Petrino said Idaho is just focusing on one game at a time.

“Each week’s a new week,” he said. “You earn the right to win on Saturday with how well you practice during the week. It’s the process and the preparation of getting ready to play. That’s the way we’ve done things, and that’s the way we’ve always done things, and it’s just a lot easier for everybody to believe in it now.

“I think it’s just ... let’s go out and do everything we possibly can to win this week, try not to talk about that (bowl eligibility) with the players, try not to have them think about that. I said to them, ‘it’s a one-game championship each week.’”

The Vandals have another bye next week, then wrap up the regular season with home games vs. South Alabama (4-5, 1-5) on Nov. 26 and vs. Georgia State (2-7, 1-4) on Dec. 3. Kickoff for the South Alabama game has been moved up to 12:30 p.m. It was originally scheduled for 6 p.m.