Wednesday afternoon in the Kibbie Dome new Idaho coach Paul Petrino announced the signing of 28 new players to the Idaho football program. In addition to eight early signees there were 20 who sent in letters of intent today, and up to five more who could be signing officially in June.
Below is our table of the commits announced – Players listed under LoI signed were players who were on the official release from the school. Players listed under Verbals are players who we have reason to believe are still committed to the Vandals and will be signing in June as gray shirts.
[ultimatetables 1 /]
A few quick notes on the class before we get in to comments from Petrino
– Trent Cowan will come in as a receiver to begin with
– Zach Cable will play the 3-technique on the defensive line. He may need to add some bulk for that
– Dezmon Epps is listed a WR/DB, but will see time in the return game
– Kevin Shelton will come in as a tight end to begin with
– Will Schmidt could see some time in the punter competition
– As expected, Tueni Luepamanu will start out at fullback, but Petrino sees him growing in to a defensive line role later in his career
– JC signee Delency Parham won’t join the team until June
– Austin Rehkow was recruited to potentially handle both the kicking and punting duties at Idaho
As for gray shirts, there were a number of verbal commitments who were expected to sign but weren’t able to due to a new NCAA rule we presume is to strictly enforce the 25 scholarship-per-year limits. With three of the early enrollees counting toward the class of 2012 it means that Idaho’s 2013 class is full with its 25. Usually a gray shirting prospect would still be able to sign his LoI on signing day, even if he isn’t planning to enroll until Spring semester. Now those players aren’t able to sign until June 1.
Montlake Terrace, Wash. safety Mason Stone told Vandal Nation he’s been given paperwork from the coaching staff guaranteeing his scholarship. He said linebackers coach Mike Anderson told him about the situation last week shortly after the staff was made aware of the rule.
“It’s kind of a bummer,but kind of a blessing in disguise, I’ll be able to get my masters done in the time I’m there, give me time to develop, it gives me six years to finish my college career,” he said.
Stone will have a signing ceremony on June 1 and remains committed to Idaho.
Players likely to join him in signing on June 1 are Bothell, Wash. running back Danny Wilson, Jireh Prep (N.C.) DB Jawon Johnson, Capital HS OL Steven Matlock and Paradise Valley (Phoenix) OL Patrick Johnson
Now on to some comments from Petrino –
On the new coaching staff dealing with the persona of the 3-21 record from the past two seasons
“I think with the new staff, the excitement of the new staff. We’re not going to talk about anything that happened in the past, we’re just going to move forward. We just talked about moving forward, they saw the kids here working hard and they feel the energy.”
On signing two JC quarterbacks and having six total scholarship quarterbacks
“You watch basketball, if you don’t have a point guard you’re going to lose games. You watch football, if you don’t have a quarterback you’re going to lose games. So I just made the odds a little better. Instead of just taking one of them and missing, I took two of them so my odds are better that one of them is going to be a great player and we’re going to win, along with the kids we have on campus.”
He added – “There was a time in our recruiting where I wasn’t sure if I was going to get (Josh McCain), to be honest with you. Around the mid-year section so I made sure we got Anthony (Neyer). So I just made my odds higher to make sure we end up with a good quarterback”
On the last few months hitting the ground running as a new head coach
“It’s been crazy, but it’s fun. I was just talking to my brother the other night on the phone, if you look back at Louisville and Arkansas those first classes were our best classes. You sign the best guys you can find, you don’t over-analyze it and you get your best class. Really that first year you just go by what you see on tape.”
On retaining Armond Hawkins after late interest from Nevada
“Nevada got our commitment list and just tried to steal them all late. They were on the phone all night long with Isaiah Saunders, that happens, that’s part of coaching. Everybody tries to steal eachothers commitments at the end. It’s one of those you’re calling them back and forth all night long, we got the fax and they didn’t. That’s a good thing for us”
On the punter competition
“That’s a good question. Maybe a couple of these kids. Good punter in HS is Will Schmidt, Cowan is a great punter but he doesn’t want to hear that. Jordan (Grabski), was a Rugby punter…it’ll be someone on this list… We don’t have a punter on campus right now. We’ll find out.”
We’re working on uploading the video now. As soon as it’s up we’ll have it on here.