Homecoming might be coming at the right time for the Idaho Vandal football team. Or at least it’s probably a good time for a home game in general.
The Vandals (2-4 overall, 1-2 Sun Belt Conference) play their homecoming game against Louisiana-Monroe (1-5, 0-2) at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Kibbie Dome.
It will be Idaho’s first home game since the team fell to Georgia Southern Sept. 26.
After Idaho’s plane problems last week, the Vandals probably wouldn’t be too excited to try to jump on a plane and head across the country to play Saturday. The players and coaches can sleep in their own beds Friday night instead of on uncomfortable plane seats.
“On the plane, I’m a taller guy so I woke up with the knees aching but I probably got about five hours of sleep,” Idaho junior tight end and wide receiver Deon Watson said. “I didn’t really feel it until Sunday though.”
The Vandals are coming off a 19-16 win Saturday against Troy, ruining the Trojans’ homecoming. Louisiana-Monroe will look to spoil Idaho’s homecoming Saturday.
Idaho held Troy scoreless in the first half and caused four turnovers throughout the game.
“We wanted to win the turnover margin and getting four was extra big for us,” junior safety Russell Siavii said. “I was happy to get one. But it was a team effort and with pressure, you’re going to get a lot of turnovers.”
Siavii said the Idaho defensive line and linebackers did well stopping Troy’s running game in the first half.
“Our front seven was actually stopping the run pretty good, so when it came down to passing downs it was actually a lot easy to cover,” Siavii said. “You didn’t have to think if it was a run or a pass. You knew a pass was coming so you were ready for it.”
Idaho running backs coach Jason Shumaker, who is also the recruiting coordinator and special teams coordinator, said he and the coaching staff liked Penny’s size and athleticism coming out of Cerritos.
“He’s very athletic on his highlight tape,” Shumaker said. “He had a play where he jumped over a guy so we knew he was very athletic. He had scored a lot of touchdowns that year for his team and so then getting to know him and everything we realized he’d be a good fit for the program.”
Penny can also catch the ball out of the backfield. He has hauled in 17 passes for 109 yards this season.
“That’s definitely one of the things that we liked about him was he was a well-rounded player,” Shumaker said.
He said Penny’s ability to catch, run, block and the fact that he’s big appealed to the Idaho coaching staff in the recruiting process.
At 234 pounds, Penny is a bigger running back than most at the college level, but he was bigger last season at 254 pounds.
“(Losing weight) was something we definitely encouraged him to do and be able to help him become what he’s become for us this year, which is carrying the ball 15 times, 20 times a game,” Shumaker said. “I think being heavier he probably wouldn’t have been able to do that as effectively and so he’s been able to be more of an every down guy for us instead of just a third down guy this year.”
Penny said he chose Idaho because coach Paul Petrino was loyal to him from when he first started recruiting Penny and because he said Petrino coached a lot of good running backs that he watched when he was growing up.
Penny also said he came to Idaho because he wanted to turn the program around.
“I always liked being someone who starts trends and stuff like that,” Penny said. “I thought it would be awesome for us to do (it) with the recruits I came here with. With that ‘W’ (against Troy Saturday), I feel like that win is going to start something special.”
Garrett Cabeza can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @CabezaGarrett