Vandals 'waste' a day, in Petrino's assessment

MOSCOW - To the untrained eye, the Vandals swarmed to the ball, finished their runs and appeared to make a couple nifty plays.

However, to the well-trained eyes of first-year coach Paul Petrino, his Vandals were doing anything but.

Decked out in full pads for the first time in Petrino's inaugural fall camp, the coach left the platitudes behind as he delivered a scathing review of the Vandals' fifth day on Friday.

"I thought it was terrible," Petrino said. "I wasn't happy with it at all. It was not good day. There was about three individuals that practiced really hard, but the rest of them wasted today.

"It was terrible. It's unacceptable."

The coach did not get into specifics about what he disliked and instead chose to focus on what the next day will bring - or more pointedly, what he expects to see when the Vandals hit the field for their first scrimmage of the fall this morning at 10.

"We're just looking for some guys to come out and play hard and be aggressive, really," Petrino said. "The biggest thing is that I want to see guys that are being tough, being physical and give great effort. I want to see effort grades that are really high - and there are some guys that are battling, so that will play a big role."

Of the many position competitions taking place, the most intriguing one remains the race for the starting quarterback job.

Through the first five days of camp, Chad Chalich, Josh McCain and Taylor Davis have all seen time with the No. 1 unit - with very little, if any, separation created thus far.

And although there is no clear leader heading into today's scrimmage, Chalich, who was proclaimed the frontrunner by Petrino heading into camp, knows that the pressure is on all of them to outperform the others.

"Coach wants to see what us three quarterbacks have in store - to see who scores the most touchdowns," Chalich said. "We're going to come out and play football and have fun.

"It's a competition right now for the spot, so I'm trying my best. The other two guys are trying their best to get that spot. We're coming out here each day and trying to play better than each other each day and do our best."

While McCain saw the most time with the No. 1 unit on Friday, Petrino said that he could go with Chalich first today just because he came into camp as the leader.

Even if Chalich does get the first call, the coach made it clear that just because a player goes first, it doesn't necessarily mean he's in the lead.

"It really doesn't matter who goes first," the coach cautioned. "They'll all get the same amount of plays. They'll all go with both groups.

"They'll all get a bunch of plays and then we'll evaluate how the whole week went."

The "Hunters" return - Although his coach wasn't terribly pleased with how Friday's practice went, junior linebacker Marc Millan, who is a big hitter by trade, was thrilled to be back in pads for the first time since April.

"We're feeling great," Millan said. "We were running around, excited to hit. Ready to get it going."

Millan, a 6-foot-1, 215-pound JC transfer from Santa Ana College in California, joined the team for spring camp and appears to have claimed a starting linebacker spot beside fellow Golden State transfers Juan Martinez and Eric Tuipulotu.

All three are new to a unit that was forced to start from scratch after losing fan favorites Robert Siavii, Homer Mauga and Su'a Tuala to graduation after last season.

Millan, however, has filled the void nicely by making a handful of impact plays throughout both spring and fall camps and has assumed a leadership role within the unit.

On the first day of fall camp, Petrino listed both Millan and sophomore linebacker Broc Westlake as two luminaries within the linebacker corps.

"It's what you wait for all year - from the last game of last season to today," Millan said of throwing on the pads. "We're hunters."

Absences and infirmary report - Offensive lineman Jesse Davis and running back Kris Olugbode were both absent from practice.

"I only talk about the guys at practice," Petrino said.

Safety Trey Williams was spotted on crutches and tight end Mike LaGrone was the only regular without pads. Williams, who is a likely starter when healthy, has yet to practice in fall camp.

NOTES - Today's scrimmage is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. and will be held on Idaho's SprinTurf Field outside the Kibbie Dome. ... Kickers Austin Rehkow and Ryan Bordner each worked on field goals near the end of practice. Rehkow was the more accurate of the two, drilling several short and medium length kicks down the middle. Bordner made a couple, but also sailed quite a few wide right.