Great Danes gearing up for return to Idaho

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- Back on Dec. 9 of last year, the UAlbany football team marched into Moscow, Idaho, and played probably the most meaningful game in program history. The Great Danes upset the fourth-ranked Vandals, 30-22, to reach the semifinals of the FCS playoffs for the first time ever. Nine months later, they're headed back to the Kibbie Dome for a rematch.

UAlbany and Idaho will meet again Saturday with not quite as much at stake. But this matchup still poses as much of a challenge for Greg Gattuso's bunch. Idaho is again ranked fourth in the nation among FCS teams, and just this past weekend, went on the road to beat Wyoming, an FBS squad.

But the Danes are coming in confident after their experience last year; they know what it takes to win in that environment, and they'll look to replicate that.

"Our guys went in there last year; we weren't worried about "Kibbie Dome," or anything like that," said Gattuso. "Reese [Poffenbarger] was having a ball in warm-ups. To quote him, "I can throw the ball 90 yards in here." We don't play into it. I know people were surprised we won the game last year, but we just go out and try to play our game. We don't try to do anything fancy and get caught up in the hype. They're (Idaho) No. 4 in the country; great. That doesn't mean anything this early in the year. What matters is we go out and play our best football, and we show improvement from this week. That's critical to us. If we want to have a shot to win a conference title, or to make the playoffs this year, this is a big game; we gotta go play well."

Kickoff Saturday is set for 4 p.m. EST. The game can be streamed on ESPN+.