​Aug. 23—MOSCOW — Idaho football is past fall camp and moving full steam ahead in preparation for Friday’s season opener against Cal Poly.At the outdoor practice field on Saturday, during and after the sunset in Moscow, the Vandals worked on honing their defense and offense in specific situations.”So really, we had kind of two bonus days … where we’re trying to get some base down football, trying to get some third-down red-zone football going, and then we’ll get a chance to repeat it because again we still have Sunday and Tuesday to kind of have similar practices,” Idaho coach Thomas Ford Jr. said.Sharpening their toolsThe Vandals had individual unit drills, where they practiced with their position groups, and some drills where they practiced with a certain side of the ball — be that offense, defense or special teams. Then Idaho got together for specific red-zone and third-down “scout” drills for the offense and the defense in preparation for Cal Poly.During those unit and scout drills, the Idaho coaching staff was essentially quizzing their players on what to do in some situations and figuring out how well they run their respective sides of the ball.”I think the guys are starting to understand what we’re trying to do game plan-wise,” Ford said. “We have a lot available, offense, defense; we have a lot of scheme available, but now that you’re tailoring it to a game plan, I thought our guys are really starting to understand why. Why are we calling this on third down? Why are we calling this in the low red (zone)? So getting that opportunity today was really, really nice, and we’ll have another opportunity here on Tuesday.”AdvertisementThe No. 1 defense was especially tested by defensive coordinator Lee Stalker with Ford sitting on their side of the field too, often communicating with them.”I think tonight on defense, we gave them some really difficult looks, so we got to clean up some things, especially in our man coverage stuff, but overall, I thought it was a pretty good day,” Ford said. “I think more than anything, now you’re looking less at guys standing out and more about who’s executing their job, because I think that’s more important right now.”Fifth-year linebacker and Lewiston High product Cruz Hepburn was with the No. 1 defense, which was switching between base packages in its 3-3-5 package (three defensive linemen, three linebackers and five defensive backs), 4-2-5 package and heavy personnel (5-3-3 or 5-2-4).”I think the big thing is just communication,” Hepburn said about setting up for the different packages. “All our different personnels, you always have different guys on the field. So I think just getting used to playing with each other and being able to really communicate efficiently is the big thing we’re focusing on.”He said it was important for the defense to see the big picture and do it “over and over and over again” so that reacting to certain plays will become second nature.Special teams starters begin to clear upDur