Say, maybe the Idaho Vandals and Florida Gators can play each other on Xbox 360.

It may come to that. Another day passed with no resolution on whether the two teams' game -- washed out by rain and lightning last Saturday -- will be played on another date this season, or whether the Vandals will get the $975,000 payday they were counting on for their trouble.

For more on the Vandals, follow the link.

-- Idaho athletic director Rob Spear and the Gators continued their fencing over the fate of the schools' season opener on Tuesday, with no determination by day's end. In an interview with a Boise radio station, Spear pegged the chances of the game being played at "50-50." Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley said a decision should come "Wednesday at the latest."

-- With no film on his own team to watch, Idaho coach Paul Petrino could devote more time to this Saturday's opponent, Louisiana-Monroe -- a 17-10 winner over Wake Forest, one of three Week 1 upsets of schools in the Fab Five conferences by Drab Five teams (not counting FCS bully North Dakota State's stomping of Iowa State). The Warhawks held Wake to just five first downs and 94 total yards, and so impressed was Petrino with ULM's stout defense that he didn't wait until this week to start preparing.

"They run a lot of different things defensively to try and confuse the quarterback and offensive line," Petrino said. "We did work on that some in fall camp -- there were periods we worked on Monroe." 

And he said it's not that unusual to take time to prepare for someone other than an opening opponent.

"If you're going to play Army or Navy, say, you'll work on the option in fall camp because it's something different, something you're not going to see every week," he said. "Monroe is definitely something different on defense. They're in a 3-3, but they line up differently and bring guys from different places. They're not a basic 4-down or 3-down team. No one else does some of the stuff they do.

"All in all, we probably used (parts of) four and a half days on them (in fall camp)." 

-- Petrino kept the lid on naming a starting quarterback last week right up to game time Saturday night, going with redshirt freshman Matt Linehan over Chad Chalich, who started the first seven games of 2013. And while he continues to insist both will play -- either via rotation or what circumstances dictate, Linehan will get the first call against ULM. "Linehan just had a little better fall camp," Petrino said. "He'll be the first one to go out there, but I think they both have improved and are better than what we had at the position last year."

-- While coaches and players were obviously disappointed to get up for the season opener and then not be able to play, Petrino was looking for a silver lining on Tuesday. "If anything, it should make our guys fresh," he said. "We had a really good practice (Monday) night -- really got after it, very enthusiastic, guys flying around. Usually, you make huge strides between your first and second game, but everybody being ready to go (for Monroe), that should help."

-- The Vandals are two-touchdown underdogs to Monroe. Saturday's game has a 4 p.m. PDT kickoff -- weather permitting, of course -- and can be seen online on ESPN3.

 

 

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