Paul Petrino enters his ninth season as Idaho’s head coach in 2021. Petrino got his first taste of Division I coaching as an assistant at Idaho from 1992-94, including three consecutive NCAA Playoff appearances.
The shortened spring 2021 season was filled with ups and downs. The Vandals were ranked in the FCS polls for the first time since 1995, just before making the jump to FBS. Despite the 2-4 record, Petrino and the Vandals made significant strides toward what should be a successful 2021 fall season.
The linebacker duo of Christian Elliss and Tre Walker lived up to the expectations, with both finishing in the top-10 in the conference in tackles and earning All-Big Sky First Team honors. Elliss would go on to sign with the Minnesota Vikings in the offseason, while Walker would earn Stats Perform FCS All-America First Team honors. In total, 12 Vandals earned All-Big Sky honors, including Cade Coffey who took home the recognition as both a punter (second team) and kicker (honorable mention). Coffey also brought home some national hardware, earning his third All-America recognition as a second team selection, according to Stats Perform.
The Vandals continued to improve in 2019, the second season back in the Big Sky. The non-conference portion of the season included a big win over nationally-ranked Eastern Washington in the Kibbie Dome and a tight battle at Wyoming. The Vandals saw some flashes during the Big Sky portion of the season, earning wins over Idaho State and Cal Poly. Idaho closed the season with record-setting performances from wide receiver Jeff Cotton and quarterback Mason Petrino to defeat Northern Arizona in overtime. Cotton would lead the nation in receptions per game at 8.8, and finished second in the country in yards per game. Cotton would go on to get picked up by the Los Angeles Chargers in the offseason.
Off the field, the Vandals posted a team GPA of 3.13 in the spring of 2020, smashing the previous team record. The entire department posted back-to-back record GPAs in 2019-20, in part due to the incredible success of the football team academically.
Idaho's 2018 campaign, its first in its return to the Football Championship Subdivision and the Big Sky Conference, included the Vandals' first win over a nationally-ranked opponent in 11 years. North Dakota came to the Kibbie Dome as the No. 25 team in the country according to the coaches' poll. Idaho came away with a 31-27 victory thanks to Mason Petrino finding Cotton in the end zone with 27 seconds to play. It was Idaho's first win over a team ranked in either national poll (media or coaches) in the FCS or FBS since 2007.
The 2017 team featured the first five-year class of Vandals under Petrino. Among that group was record-setting quarterback Matt Linehan, 1,000-yard rusher Aaron Duckworth and Academic All-America wide receiver Jacob Sannon.
A four-year starter under Petrino, Linehan surpassed some of the most sacred names in Vandal football history. He became the program’s all-time leader in completions and when his senior season was cut three games short by injury, Linehan finished just shy of Doug Nussmeier’s record for career passing yards.
Idaho played a school-record seven one-possession games in 2017, including its five conference losses coming by a combined 24 points, on the way to finishing 4-8. Still, the team featured 10 all-conference selections. For the first time since 2008 three Vandals picked up first-team accolades, including Duckworth who became the first Idaho running back to earn first-team all-league honors since 2000.
Petrino’s head coaching career thus far is highlighted by Idaho’s 2016 campaign. He guided the Vandals to bowl eligibility for the first time since 2009 - and won their bowl game in record-setting and entertaining fashion. For his efforts, Petrino was voted the 2016 Sun Belt Coach of the Year.
The Vandals’ bowl eligibility was the result of their posting their best regular-season record since the 1998 team (Idaho’s first bowl team) went 8-3. They wrapped up the year 9-4 after beating Colorado State 61-50 in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl – largely recognized as one of the most entertaining of the bowl season. It was the highest-scoring bowl game of 2016 and Linehan, who was named game MVP, had one of the top pass efficiency ratings of any quarterback involved in postseason play.
The bowl victory was the culmination of not just gritty, determined efforts week-in and week-out during 2016, but of the first four years of Petrino’s reign. After back-to-back one-victory seasons, the Vandals were 4-8 in 2015. That marked the beginning of the on-field visibility of the process that started in December 2012 when Petrino was hired.
From the minute he arrived on the University of Idaho campus, Petrino infused the Vandals with an intensity that reverberated around the Kibbie Dome and throughout the Vandal Family. His practices mirror his personality – focused, intense and determined.
With his accountability-based approach in place, the Vandals’ APR has improved every season and the team’s spring 2017 grade-point average of 2.91 was the program’s second-highest term GPA prior to 2020. He was using the same approach to elevating the classroom successes as he was on the field where effort and discipline were being preached day in and day out.
The result was the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl victory and one of the most incredible program turnarounds in history. The program had waded through three successive one-victory seasons (one under the previous staff) before four wins in 2015 and the 9-4 2016 team.
Bits and pieces of the progress made deep within the program were evident before the wins started to build on the field. Broc Westlake, a linebacker throughout Petrino’s tenure, graduated in December 2015 with a perfect 4.0 grade-point average and was one of two Vandals to earn the department’s prestigious Rich and Mary Fox Award, which is given annually to the graduating student-athlete(s) with the highest cumulative grade-point average. In graduating Summa Cum Laude, he also was recognized as a National Football Foundation’s Hampshire Honor Society.
In 2015, the Vandals led the Sun Belt in seven statistical categories and were second in another five. Those conference rankings translated to their being in the top 25 percent nationally in 11 categories.
In his first season back at Idaho, he took the Vandals against a schedule that featured not only the eventual national champion, but a total of seven bowl teams, which included four teams that, at one time or another, were ranked among the nation’s top 25. While the Vandals didn’t finish with the win-loss mark he would have liked, his first class of recruits showed it can provide the base for a bright Vandal future.
In that season, Petrino had his first Vandal All-American in punter Austin Rehkow, whose record-setting season earned him a spot on the Walter Camp All-America team. A true freshman in 2013, Rehkow’s average of 47.8 yards per kick is an NCAA record for a freshman as well as the overall record for a player who punted at least 75 times in one season. He went on to become the only four-time first-team all-conference selection in Vandal history.
In year two of his tenure, Petrino took the Vandals back to the Sun Belt Conference after one season as an FBS independent. A passing game fueled by Linehan, a redshirt freshman at the time, and senior receiver Joshua McCain was one of the nation’s best and Rehkow again repeated as the national punting average leader and was a finalist for the Ray Guy Award. The Vandals were significantly more competitive and off the field they made huge improvements in the classroom. The team posted one of its highest grade-point-averages in team history and improved its APR by leaps and bounds.
Coaching football is in Petrino’s blood. Tagging along with his dad, Bob Petrino, Sr., as he coached the Carroll College (Montana) Saints into national prominence, Petrino knew from the time he was six years old he wanted to coach. He played for his dad at Carroll and was the Football Gazette NAIA Division II Player of the Year and a two-time Kodak All-American quarterback after setting 16 school records during a career that included four conference titles and a 36-6 record from 1985-88.
He’s paid his dues – and along the way has put together a résumé of success.
During his 23 years as an assistant, he coached in 12 bowl games and five I-AA playoff games. He spent one season (2007) with the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons. As a Division I coach, he was on staffs who combined for a 152-93 record – a .650 winning percentage.
He already made his mark at Idaho when he coached two players who have been inducted into the Vandal Athletics Hall of Fame – running back Sherriden May and receiver Yo Murphy. They are just a small sampling of the successes of his players. In the 2012 NFL draft, five offensive players under his tutelage were drafted. The group, which included four receivers, represented the greatest number of players coached by one coach in that year’s draft.
For Petrino, the return to Moscow was a return to his Northwest roots. A native of Butte, Mont., he was raised in Helena where his football legacy began. After serving as an assistant to his dad for two seasons (1990-91), he headed to Moscow for his first stop with the Vandals when he was hired as the receivers/running backs/special teams coach in 1992. His next stop was Utah State (receivers/special teams, 1995-97) then on to Louisville (receivers, 1998-99), Southern Miss (quarterbacks, 2000-03), Louisville (offensive coordinator/receivers, 2003-06), Atlanta Falcons (receivers, 2007), Arkansas (offensive coordinator/receivers, 2008-09), Illinois (offensive coordinator/receivers, 2010-11), and Arkansas (offensive coordinator/quarterbacks, 2012).
Petrino and his wife Maya have three children: Mason, Anne Mari and Ava.
