BIG SKY FOOTBALL KICKOFF: Jason Eck, past and present

By MARK NELKE

Sports editor

SPOKANE — Tom Wistrcill remembers crossing paths with Jason Eck more than two decades ago, when Eck was a graduate assistant at Wisconsin, his alma mater, and Wistrcill’s father, Don, was coaching women’s cross country at nearby Winona State University in Winona, Minn.

“I had met him through (Wisconsin football) coach (Barry) Alvarez, and kinda watched him from afar,” recalled Wistrcill, now commissioner of the Big Sky Conference. “I just knew he would be a really good head coach.”

Fast forward some two decades, when Idaho athletic director Terry Gawlik was looking to hire a football coach.

“When Terry mentioned that he was a candidate, I was like, I think he’s a really good fit for our conference,” Wistrcill said. “I think he’s like a lot of our other coaches — good, solid people, really hard worker, and I think he’s a really good choice for Idaho. Look forward to working with him.”

Portland State coach Bruce Barnum remembers applying for some jobs way back then, “and he (Eck) was the competition,” said Barnum, sporting a snazzy shirt made by Columbia.

They chatted briefly on Sunday at the Big Sky Football Kickoff in Spokane, and “I’m going to send him some Columbia shirts,” Barnum said.

UC Davis was one of five teams to make the 24-team FCS football playoffs last season. But in their playoff opener, the Aggies were routed, 56-24, by a South Dakota State team where Eck was the offensive coordinator.

Asked what Eck’s offense did well vs. UC Davis that day, Aggies coach Dan Hawkins laughed and said, “everything.”

“Well they’re obviously well coached, extremely talented, knew what they were doing, had a good plan,” he added. “They’re one of the few outlets that legitimately stand up to (FCS power) North Dakota State.”

Eastern Washington football coach Aaron Best said he’s known Eck for about 15 years.

“We actually interviewed for the same job in 2007 at the University of Idaho, when (head) coach (Robb) Akey came in. Neither of us got it, so neither of us were good enough at the time — probably still aren’t,” Best deadpanned.

Two weeks after South Dakota State beat UC Davis, the Jackrabbits saw their season end with a 31-17 loss to Montana State in the FCS semifinals.

Soon after that, Eck was named head coach at Idaho.

Portland State (Oct. 22 in Moscow), UC Davis (Nov. 12 in Moscow) and EWU (Nov. 5 in Moscow) are all on Idaho’s schedule this year.

“As an O-line guy, he’s probably going to run the ball, then play action,” said Best, a fellow O-line guy. “With newness comes a breath of fresh air, so we won’t know what to expect until we get to the latter part of the season, after watching them play. But I imagine they will be a tough outfit, committed to each other, want to establish the run, want to play sound defense, much like they did in Brookings when he was at South Dakota State as offensive coordinator.”

ECK, ON Monday at his first Big Sky Football Kickoff at the Davenport Grand Hotel, spoke of the addition of quarterback J’Bore Gibbs, a junior who was at South Dakota State when Eck was there.

Gibbs has had a pair of torn ACLs, and hasn’t played since the spring 2021 season. Eck said Gibbs played well vs. Minnesota in the 2019 season opener, then started out strong in a game against North Dakota State and its freshman quarterback, Trey Lance.

“I think he looks as good as ever,” Eck said. “Any time a guy’s had a couple injuries like that you hold your breath a little bit. He’s a solid athlete, and he throws it very well. Very strong arm.”

Of the returning quarterbacks, sophomore CJ Jordan showed signs last fall, but was lost for the season to injury after four games. And sophomore Gevani McCoy appeared in three games as a true freshman last year, seeing his first action in that 71-21 loss at Eastern Washington.

“It’s going to be a unique quarterback competition,” Eck said. “CJ is such a great athlete — probably the fastest and the biggest and the strongest … Jabore’s got a strong arm, good demeanor for a quarterback. Gevani has that moxie as a quarterback, he’s a leader, he’s confident … it’s going to be a good battle. We have to do a good job of sorting it out, and sorting it out in a hurry.

“We have to do a good job of projecting the race early,” Eck said, so the starter can get most of the reps before the opener at Washington State.

Some five weeks ago, Idaho announced the hiring of Caleb Heim as strength and conditioning coach. The former assistant strength and conditioning coach at South Dakota since 2018, Heim worked with the football, women’s basketball and volleyball teams.

“South Dakota, they beat us the last two times we played them (at South Dakota State), and they weren’t beating us on recruits a lot,” Eck said. “So they were getting guys, and developing guys that weren’t heavily recruited. … and were becoming really good players. They played hard, and were strong.”

Eck said Northern Arizona coach Chris Ball said when the Lumberjacks played South Dakota, he noticed “just how big that team was and how physically they were, and they beat the heck out of Northern Arizona last year.”

As for Heim at Idaho …

“His effect will be over a few years, but I’m really happy with what he’s done so far,” Eck said.

Eck created a buzz when he was hired by Idaho in December. He’s hoping to keep that momentum going on the field.

“I’m very happy how the summer went,” Eck said. “The key thing now, we’re going to have adversity. We’re going to have times when we’re going to have to come back — whether we have injuries, whether we have a tough loss, and the key is, we need to keep that positivity and keep that momentum, even in the face of adversity. That’s going to be the challenge this fall, as we try to maintain our quest to get better.

“It goes both ways – when we have adversity, and when we have success. That’s a challenge too.”

Since 1998 (9-3) and 1999 (7-4), the Vandals have not had back-to-back winning seasons. After going 8-5 and winning the Humanitarian Bowl in 2009, Idaho was 6-7 the following year. And the Vandals followed their 9-4 season in 2016, culminated by a win in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, with a 4-8 campaign.

If you’re counting, that’s two winning seasons since 1999.

“Look at Idaho over the last 20 years,” Eck said. “When they’ve had a good year, they haven’t been able to keep it going. You can’t feel too good when you have success, because everybody’s coming for you when you have success.”