Vandals ready themselves for A&M

Usually Idaho football practices are noisy only because of Robb Akey’s booming voice. But on Tuesday afternoon, the Vandals blasted something that vaguely resembled crowd noise through speakers at their outdoor practice facility, hoping to replicate the atmosphere they’ll play in on Saturday evening at Texas A&M. It was loud, but probably not nearly as loud as 85,000-plus fans crammed into the Aggies’ Kyle Field.

For more on UI’s practice and a conversation with first-year offensive line coach John McDonell, a Spokane native, click below.

*******

The Vandals went for more than two hours, focusing on scout work and shoring up special teams after a shaky effort in that regard against North Dakota. Idaho ended its practice with a series of field goal attempts, with most of the attention paid to the blockers in front of Trey Farquhar. Last week he had an extra point and a field goal blocked. … UI was without starting left guard Sam Tupua (broken hand). He was at practice in shorts and no pads. Right guard Jordan Johnson, who sat out last week, practiced and appears to be a go for Saturday’s matchup with the ninth-ranked Aggies. … Backup offensive tackle Spencer Beale went down with an ankle injury during practice. Akey said he didn’t know the severity of the injury, but the Vandals were already thin at tackle after Matt Cleveland and Tyrone Novikoff. … Defensive end Vince Keener practiced and could be available to play on Saturday, Akey said. Keener has missed the first two games of the season. Defensive coordinator Mark Criner had targeted this week as a possible return for Keener; the 254-pound sophomore from Arizona had impressed coaches during spring camp. … Receiver Justin Veltung practiced for the first half of Tuesday’s session. He had his injured toe on ice later in practice. “I expect him to have a big game against Texas A&M and the rest of the season,” receivers coach Luther Carr said. Veltung had two catches in limited action vs. UND — his first game back. Carr said he doesn’t think Veltung is 100 percent healthy yet.

*******

Finally, here’s a Q&A I did with O-line coach John McDonell after Tuesday’s practice. He’s dealt with a wave of injuries since late in fall camp, especially at guard and center. The Vandals’ patchwork line will go against an A&M defense that notched eight sacks in its opener against SMU. Already UI has given up seven sacks on the year. McDonell, a Gonzaga Prep graduate, has coached most recently at Memphis and Bowling Green, but also has been the O-line coach at Notre Dame, Purdue, Standford and Washington State.

SR: Your thoughts on the line’s play so far having to deal with injuries?

McDonell : In the offensive line, one of the No. 1 things you always want to build is continuity. And we had a really good camp. The game of football, guys get nicked up and those type of things. There are two ways to look at that. That’s opportunity for someone else to play and go from there. You wait for everybody to get healthy and get back on track.

SR : What did you see from the backup guards (Guy Reynolds, A.J. Jones, Bilal Liggins) on Saturday?

McDonell : There’s a number of things to take from that. I really thought their effort was good and their attempt to be real physical. … We need to work on technique, game speed — those type of things. Obviously as the game and the team went on, our performance started to gel a little bit. They started to (play) much, much better. So that’s really encouraging.

SR : Getting push up the middle, is it technique or physicality?

McDonell : It’s both. It’s every single play being able to react to what the defense is trying to do. The No. 1 thing is pad level. Pad level has always got to be low, especially in the interior. Footwork, fundamentals, all that kind of stuff is got to second to none.

SR : Did those three guys merit more time, depending on health of other guys, with their play?

McDonell : Like I said, it’s all encouraging. I’ve told everyone on our offensive line that you never know when you’re number is going to get called. So you have to prepare yourself to be a starter. And there’s proof in the point. They got great game experience and we’ve got a long football season to go ahead. So this was just a start for us. This was really their first game.

SR : Safe to say that Jordan Johnson and Sam Tupua are ahead of those three guys? Obviously they have more experience.

McDonell : Well, they’re more experienced. I think that’s the biggest thing. They’re just more experienced. So that’s kind of where it is right now. But to have those guys play really helped everyone with the visualization of what they can and can’t do.

SR : I noticed in the North Dakota game even inside individual series you had guys going in and out.

McDonell : Whenever that happens there’s usually something I want to say to somebody. … And there’s a few alignments where we’ve had six offensive linemen in and a tight end out. So Guy and Bilal have been that guy, so sometimes they go in and out or they go back in and it looks like they’re going to an inside position but they might be going to a tight end position.

But if they made a mistake or if I saw something that I think needs to get corrected right now, then correct it right now so it doesn’t happen again.

SR : For your first year, it sounds like quite a challenge.

McDonell : Yeah, but this is such a great place. I’m having a blast. Coach Akey and the kids, it’s just a great place. It’s coaching. … In the game of football injuries happen. It’s how you respond to things and how you react to things.