Putting the Idaho in Idaho State

A total of 32 kids from Idaho are listed among the 90 players who comprise the 2019 Idaho State football roster.

Many of them figure to have a big impact this fall, as the Bengals try to back up last year’s winning season (6-5) with another strong campaign.

And a couple of them — quarterback Gunnar Amos of Coeur d’Alene High, and offensive lineman Zion Dixon of Lake City — have North Idaho ties.

Amos, a senior who transferred from Idaho a couple of years ago, is battling junior college transfer Matt Struck for the starting QB job.

“We’ll see who rises, and if we have to do it by committee, we’ll do it by committee,” said Rob Phenicie, in his third season as ISU head coach. “For the last two years, we were always one play away from Gunnar going in (when he backed up starter Tanner Gueller). So he had to be ready.”

In limited playing time at ISU over the past two seasons, Amos has thrown 24 passes, completing 11 for 112 yards, and has rushed for 81 yards.

Struck, who passed for 2,717 yards and 19 touchdowns as a senior at Crater High in Crescent Point, Ore., spent two seasons at Riverside (Calif.) Community College. He was at ISU last fall, but did not see action.

“I love playing with Gunnar,” ISU senior wide receiver Mitch Gueller said last week, at the Big Sky Football Kickoff. “Both those guys, either one of them can give us a great opportunity to win. Gunnar brings a lot of experience, and he can run around and make plays.”

“Matt Struck has an unbelievable arm,” Bengal senior linebacker Kody Graves said. “Gunner can run around and make plays.”

Dixon also transferred from Idaho, where he didn’t play last season. He has one year of eligibility remaining, but since he only played parts of two seasons with the Vandals, the Bengals plan to petition for an additional year of eligibility.

“We’re excited to have him,” Phenicie said. “He’s going to come in and have a big role. … and he’s an Idaho kid. Build Idaho State with state of Idaho players.

“We knew who he was,” Phenicie said of Dixon. “And Gunnar vouched for him. And Shawn (Amos; Gunnar’s father and Coeur d’Alene High football coach) too.”

LAST SEASON, Idaho State was picked to finish 12th by the coaches and 10th by the media. Instead, the Bengals challenged for a playoff berth on the final week of the regular season, before settling for a tie for fourth place at 5-3, 6-5 overall.

This season, ISU was picked seventh by the coaches and the media.

Since ISU won the NCAA Division I-AA championship in 1981, the Bengals have had just eight winning seasons over the past 37 years. And only twice did ISU follow a winning season with another winning season.

Why might this season be different?

“We have 27 seniors,” Phenicie said. “The guys understand how hard it was just to get to 6-5. And especially in this league, nothing’s given to you. I don’t think they’re satisfied. They know we were a game away from getting into the playoffs. And they have a little taste of blood in the water. And they want to go out and prove to everyone that it wasn’t a fluke. For too many years at Idaho State, good seasons like this were followed up by a terrible year. And that’s something these guys and I don’t want to let happen.”

Gueller and Graves pointed to a couple of games in the middle of the season — a 62-28 thrashing of Idaho at home, and an overtime loss the following week at UC Davis, a game they felt the Bengals let slip away — as a turning point in the season and, hopefully, the program.

“In the past, toward the end of the year it wasn’t like we were playing for anything,” Graves said. “The last game vs. Weber State, if we win that game we’re probably getting in (to the playoffs). Every game was a must-win experience. It was a lot more fun playing that way … we were playing for the postseason.”

“I think missing out on the playoffs last year has left us hungry to get a playoff spot,” Gueller said.

AFTER GRADUATING from W.F. West High in Rochester, Wash., in 2012, Gueller signed with the Philadelphia Phillies and embarked on a professional baseball career.

In 2016, he traded in his spikes for football cleats and signed with ISU, joining his brother, Tanner, who went on to start at quarterback for the Bengals the past three seasons.

Mitch said Tanner plans to help out this year at ISU as a student assistant.

Mitch Gueller has caught 134 passes for 2,639 yards and 20 touchdowns in three seasons as a Bengal.

Ever regret giving up on baseball, where balls are flying out of the park at a record pace?

“I was a pitcher, so I made the right choice,” Gueller said with a laugh. “I see those balls flying out of the park and I’m glad I made that choice. Those guys are crushing it. Hitters are different nowadays, for sure.”

He said being away from home and having to figure things out on his own helped prepare him for college life.

“I had a new perspective when I came in to college, and could approach it a little differently,” he said.

Gueller turns 26 in early November — he’s older than one of the assistant coaches. But he’s not the novelty he might be at some other schools.

“We have good group of return missionaries … we do have some 24-, 25-year-old kids on the team,” Phenicie said. “We have a bunch of guys that are married, and a couple of them have kids, It’s not like Mitch is an anomaly. He’s just one of a handful of older guys. But he doesn’t act like it; he’s just a kid at heart.”

GRAVES, SECOND on the Bengals last season with 83 tackles, is one of those Idaho kids ISU is looking to build the Bengals program with. Graves played two years at 3A Fruitland High, then two years at 4A Skyview of Nampa. Two of his older brothers also played at ISU.

Kody said there’s a certain amount of Idaho high school pride on the Bengals. At the recent media day, he noted the players were wearing hats with the “208” area code on them.

“We recruit Idaho pretty heavy,” Graves said. “We have a lot of Idaho kids on the roster, and a lot of them contribute quite a bit.”

Graves recalled a couple of times in high school when his team’s travels took them to North Idaho.

“My sophomore year, I had gone down with an injury,” Kody recalled. It was older brother Hagen’s junior year, and “we went up there and played Timberlake in the playoffs, and they pushed the snow to the side.”

The next season, both Graves brothers were now at Skyview, which traveled to Lakeland for a playoff game on a muddy field.

That was the game Lakeland’s Cade Coffey — now a junior kicker/punter at Idaho — booted a 57-yard field goal.

Both Graves were on the field for that kick, Kody recalled.

“I thought no way he’s making this; it was the longest field goal I ever saw in person,” Kody recalled. “And he made it with ease; he probably would have made it from 65.”

Kody said he was on the field goal block team, “but we were in ‘safe’; it’s got to be a fake,” he said. “When I found out they were going to kick I wanted to watch and see how close he got. I think my brother (Hagen) was actually back there (to return it; in case the kick came up short).”