VANDAL FOOTBALL: Eck announces two new assistants
From news services
Idaho football coach Jason Eck announced the hire of offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Luke Schleusner.
“My family and I are extremely excited for the opportunity to join the Idaho Football family,” Schleusner said. “We can’t wait to get acclimated to the Moscow community. I am excited to continue to work with Jason and I am sold on his plan to build a consistent winner and bring a Big Sky Championship to the Kibbie Dome.”
Eck also announced the hire of tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator Tyler Sutton.
“I am fired up to be on Coach Eck’s staff,” Sutton said. “Coming from an FCS program I have seen what he has done on the national level for the last few seasons, and it is exciting to be able to work with him and learn from him. We are going to work tirelessly to put together a team that will win championships and represents Vandal Nation proudly.”
Schleusner comes to Idaho from South Dakota State where he worked under Eck as the wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator. He was at South Dakota State for for eight seasons serving as the tight ends coach for the first six and before moving to the receivers ahead of the spring 2021 season.
He also had coaching stops at his Alma Mater North Dakota, Minnesota State-Mankato and Western Illinois.
“Luke is really smart. I am trying to surround myself with people that are smarter than me,” Eck said. “He is a great evaluator and developer of talent. When he was at North Dakota, he coached and recruited Kenny Golladay who has gone on to be a very good pro, when he was at Minnesota State, Mankato, he recruited and coached Adam Thielen who has turned out to be a very good pro and when he was at South Dakota State, he took Dallas Goedert from a walk-on to a second-round pick. Not many coaches at the FCS level have a track record like that of developing talent.”
Schleusner coached the rise of the Janke twins over the last two seasons. In the fall of 2021, Jaxon Janke tallied 72 receptions for 1,165 yards and five touchdowns. Jadon Janke tallied 41 receptions for 641 yards and nine TDs.
Before moving to receivers, he coached multiple All-Americans at the tight end position and including Goedert and Cam Jones.
During his first season at South Dakota State, in 2014, Schleusner directed a group that complemented the passing game and provided strong run blocking for a Jackrabbit offense that averaged 31.8 points and 435.1 yards of total offense per game.
Sutton comes to Idaho from San Diego where he was the offensive coordinator and running backs coach for the last two seasons. In his time with USD, Sutton has been a part of six consecutive seasons of nine or more wins, eight conference championships, five FCS Playoffs appearances, and two FCS playoff wins.
“San Diego has always been a high-output program. They don’t have scholarship players but have upset teams in the FCS playoffs so, I know that they know how to do more with less,” Eck said. “Tyler and I have been in close communication over the last few years through coaching connections. He is an achiever. He played DIII football and then started as a volunteer coach at San Diego. He went from volunteer coach to position coach and position coach to Special Teams Coordinator before finally the Offensive Coordinator. That impresses me when guys continue to get promoted.”