UI Narrows Football Search To Three

Idaho’s football coaching search is down to three finalists.

The Spokesman-Review has learned that Washington assistant coaches Chris Tormey and Scott Linehan, and California assistant Tim Lappano will be interviewed - today or possibly on Monday.

All are former UI players and assistants.

Lappano was en route to Moscow on Saturday. Linehan and Tormey were tending to UW recruiting duties, and it wasn’t known when they’ll arrive.

Attempts to reach the finalists were unsuccessful.

UI athletic director Pete Liske originally interviewed seven candidates. He met with Idaho’s search committee Saturday, and eliminated from contention were assistant coaches Denny Schuler (Cal), Bob Petrino (Nevada), Dan Cozzetto (Arizona State) and Art Valero (UI).

Of those passed over, none was more upset than Valero, who will now join former Vandals coach John L. Smith at Utah State as an assistant head coach and perhaps offensive coordinator.

“Surprise can’t describe it, shock can’t describe it. I don’t know if there is a word that can describe it,” Valero said. “Basically they said I wasn’t qualified.

“When he (Liske) said that, it totally blew me away and I hung up on him. I may not have given him a chance (to elaborate).

“When Chris has been a coordinator only one year, when Tim was only a coordinator for a short time, when Scott’s been a coordinator two years… What the hell does he (Liske) think I’ve been doing the last five years? I’ve been coordinating academics, strength and conditioning, an assistant head coach and an offensive coordinator (one year). Obviously, he doesn’t look down the hall and see what’s going on.”

Though he was offensive coordinator, Valero didn’t call most of Idaho’s plays last season. He called plays along with Coach Smith and assistant Paul Petrino.

“If that was the knock against me, Lord help them,” Valero said. “That’s something that would come from people who don’t understand what football is all about.”

“I’m not going to get into those things,” Liske said. “They were all qualified or they wouldn’t have been considered.”

Schuler was the only candidate who didn’t have a tie to Idaho as a coach or player.

“It sounded like he (Pete) wanted someone who had a little closer ties to Idaho and wanted to run a lot of things they run,” Schuler said. “Our offense is a little removed from what they’ve done.”

Said Petrino: “I’m disappointed because I know I would have done a good job.”

Liske said the timing of having to conduct a search couldn’t be worse.

“These are horrible conditions, with everybody making home (recruiting) visits and trying for verbal commitments, with the NCAA Convention… it’s incredible. Every day that goes by is a blow (to recruiting) for the program.”

Liske has decided not to release names because most of the candidates - and their families - know each other.

“We want to get it done as quickly as possible,” he said, “with as few distractions as possible.”