If it wasn’t for Idaho, Montana would be having the worst week out of any of the Big Sky Conference teams.
But luck has it for the Grizzlies, it’s hard to get much lower than a 71-21 loss to your rival that comes with a 45-14 deficit at the end of the first half.
That’s where the Vandals are at, coming off a brutal loss to Eastern Washington that left them at 2-4 overall and 1-2 in the Big Sky.
In their first two seasons in the FCS since returning to the Big Sky in 2018, the Vandals have posted identical conference records of 3-5 — which was also their record in two of their last three years in the Sun Belt. In the six-game 2021 spring season, they went 2-4.
In that time, their most memorable win is…a 28-21 win over Eastern Washington in the spring season opener? A 45-21 blowout of Idaho State in 2019?
The point is that the Vandals haven’t been very relevant since they’ve rejoined the league — not bad, certainly not good, just kind of there.
It’s certainly not the way the Vandals pictured things going when they rejoined the FCS. Last week’s capitulation drove home the point.
Even their Little Brown Stein games against Montana have been pretty nondescript: a 46-27 loss in 2018, a 42-17 loss in 2019.
This year’s edition of the rivalry will come with both teams on a down note.
For Montana, it’s the start of a run of four straight games against teams in the lower half of the Big Sky before the season finale against Montana State. After a blistering start to the season, the Grizzlies have skidded with two losses in their last three games, including last week to Sacramento State.
QUICK HITS
Location: Moscow, Idaho
Mascot: Vandals

Founded: 1889
Enrollment: 10,791 as of fall 2020.
Stadium: The Kibbie Dome, properly known as the ASUI-Kibbie Activity Center, holds 16,000 for football games. Built in 1971, it received its famous arched roof in 1975. ESPN recently lauded it as the weirdest stadium in college football.
Notable alumni: Sarah Palin, vice presidential candidate; Dan O’Brien, Olympic decathlon gold medalist; Jerry Kramer, NFL Hall of Famer
THE COACH
Paul Petrino (ninth season at Idaho, 32-63)
Petrino was born in Butte, grew up in Helena and played quarterback at Carroll College. His father, Bob “Putter” Petrino Sr., was the longtime head coach at Carroll, and his brother, Bobby Petrino, has coached at Louisville and Arkansas and is the current head coach at Missouri State.

Like his older brother, Paul Petrino started his coaching career at Carroll, spending two years as the offensive coordinator for the Saints (1990-1991). He went on to spend time as an assistant at Idaho, Utah State, Louisville, Southern Miss and Louisville again.
That last stint ended in 2006 and got him one year as the wide receivers coach for the Atlanta Falcons before he returned to the college ranks, spending time as the offensive coordinator at Arkansas, Illinois and Arkansas again. He was named the head coach at Idaho in 2013.
With the Vandals still in FBS at that point, his first two teams won one game apiece. By 2016, he had improved them all the way to 9-4, with six wins in the Sun Belt Conference and a win in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.
In the five years since, Idaho hasn’t won more than five games.
THE OFFENSE — PLAYERS TO WATCH
QB Zach Borisch, 6-0, 187, So.

With C.J. Jordan and Mike Beaudry out injured, the Vandals are expected to start Borisch, without question the most unorthodox quarterback in the conference.
For one thing, he’s still listed as a wide receiver on Idaho’s website. For another, he only has eight pass attempts all year. He’s completed five.
“If they go that direction, need to go that direction, the run game is hard to stop and they get a lot of good things out of it,,” Hauck said. “But that kid (Borisch) can throw it down the field some. He can complete passes down the field and they will keep you honest even though they want to run it more than they want to throw it.”
Borisch, a former Washington 3A Player of the Year as a quarterback at Kamiakin High, was press-ganged into playing QB in the spring when Jordan and Beaudry went down. The Vandals grabbed him off special teams — and he ran for 205 yards in his first start against Eastern Washington, the second-most by a quarterback in school history.
He’s started the most recent three games in the fall for Idaho and gone over 80 rushing yards in all three, including 119 last week against the Eagles.
He also went 4 for 7 with 58 yards passing in that game. The Vandals often won’t even pretend to be interested in throwing the ball with Borisch, but so far that hasn’t stopped his running. He’s quick, shifty and tough, probably the best natural runner Montana has seen since the season opener against Washington.
Of note, the two best running quarterbacks the Griz have played this year — Eastern Washington’s Eric Barriere and Sac State’s Asher O’Hara — both had success at times against Montana’s defense.
WR Terez Traynor, 6-4, 212, So.
With Hayden Hatton out for the last two games for Idaho, Traynor is the Vandals’ top receiver.

He’s got 26 grabs for 351 yards, both team-highs — and not bad marks at all considering his quarterbacks for the last three games have been a wide receiver (Borisch) and a freshman (Gevani McCoy).
The sophomore from Louisville is a transfer from Western Kentucky, where he had four catches in 2020.
Hatton, if he returns against the Grizzlies, would give the Vandals a nice 1-2 punch. He was a first-team all-conference player in the spring.
THE DEFENSE — PLAYERS TO WATCH
LB Tre Walker, 6-1, 240, Jr.

Walker was the preseason Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year after a first-team All-American season in the spring, when he had 54 tackles in just four games.
He’s past that mark in the fall with 55 tackles in six games, plus three tackles for loss and a forced fumble.
The stout Walker is probably the best pure middle linebacker in the conference — always around the ball and stopping everything that comes up the middle on the ground.
LB Charles Akanno, 6-1, 250, Sr.
If Walker is the run-stopping, tackle-accruing middle linebacker, Akanno is the gamebreaking outside guy for Idaho.
The senior has just 20 tackles, but seven of those are for loss. His four sacks are in the top 10 in the conference, right around guys like Weber State’s star defensive end George Tarlas and Montana’s breakout linebacker Marcus Welnel.
He had 13.5 tackles for loss in just eight games in 2019, and led the Vandals again in that stat with 7.5 in six games in the 2021 spring season.