THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Vandals coach on scholarships, taking the next step ... and much more

The Idaho Vandals brought their football road show to The Coeur d’Alene Resort on Wednesday, trumpeting a haul of some 45 recruits.

Really? 45?

Most college football recruiting classes number in the 20s — some might even be in the 30s, and some might be in the high teens.

But 45?

Idaho coach Jason Eck explains:

“We can have up to 85 guys on scholarship, for the 63 (full-ride) scholarships, so you can split that up,” he said in an interview with The Press on Wednesday afternoon. “We’re trying to find a lot of guys who qualify for academic scholarships, guys who are 3.0 GPA and above, because we can stack that money on top of the athletic money. That’s something that’s unique to FCS football.”

He said there were three factors for such a large recruiting class:

One, we were a little under with our numbers last year, and we did that a little bit intentionally, because there were a couple of places where we looked at guys and we couldn’t get them, and we really tried to set lines and not go below them; we didn’t want to reach on guys,” Eck said. “That was something, the year I worked for coach (Dennis) Erickson in 2006 (at Idaho), he used to say, ‘Don’t worry about the guys you lose to other schools, because if you lose a kid to, say, (a school in your conference), you have to deal with that kid four days over the next four years. But if you make a mistake and take the wrong player into your program, you’re dealing with that guy every day over the next four years. Because of that, we were a little bit under, we probably had about 78 guys on scholarship last year.”

Also, the Vandals wanted to have a few extra spots open for this year’s recruiting class, in part because there several area players the Vandals wanted.

“I think you’re also going to see classes trending bigger, because of the second thing — the transfer portal,” Eck continued, “so you’re going to have more churn on your roster. A healthy churn is if you have backups on your team who are trying to transfer to get more playing time.”

He mentioned a Vandal player who was a hard worker, but coaches were honest with him, telling him he was going to be a third-string linebacker at best on this team. The player ended up in the portal, and wound up at another Big Sky school, where he worked his way into the starting lineup.

“Worked out for him, and I thought that was a healthy thing, because he was not going to be a starter for us,” Eck said. “But he found a place he could.”

He said that type of roster turnover is going to lead to bigger classes.

“The third thing, we’re recruiting and treating our walk-on players the same as our scholarship players,” Eck said. “So that list (of 45) includes guys who are not on scholarship, and that’s a program (philosophy). We’re trying to recruit those guys as scholarship players. We’re really looking for guys who are close to being scholarship players — maybe there’s one little thing that kept us from offering them.

“There’s multiple guys that turned down scholarships (elsewhere); there’s one guy that turned down a scholarship in our league to walk on. I think getting really good walk-ons that we can develop into starters down the road … we put six guys who walked on on scholarship in the year that I’ve been the head coach — four that we put on after spring ball, and two after the fall season.”

One of the walk-ons in this year’s class is edge rusher Trevor Miller of Post Falls, the 5A Inland Empire League Player of the Year.

“Probably the walk-on I’m most excited about in this class is Trevor Miller,” Eck said. “Trevor Miller is a scholarship player; I expect him to be a starter for us some day. I think he’s really good … he was a guy, if recruiting had fallen differently, I thought he was a scholarship-level player. We had a couple other guys we thought were slightly ahead of him … we still really wanted to get him, because we thought he had a bright future. We like to play a lot of D-linemen, keep them fresh, so we recruited him as a scholarship player, and I think he’ll earn one during his time.”

All told, FCS teams can bring 110 players to training camp in August — of that, 85 scholarship players and 25 walkons.

“Once your school starts you can go unlimited, but lots of schools have limits, because of gender equity and things; we’re going to be able to bring an extra five guys in to get us to 115,” he said. “Last year we ended the season with like 103 players on the team; that was a little light, we had some injuries and things. By the end practice was a little thin, which I think hurt us at the end, so that’s why I went to the administration; that’s where having that extra five guys can help you, because with some of those season-ending injuries, just to make sure you have enough healthy bodies for practice.”

ECK ALSO touched on a few other topics in his interview with The Press, including:

HAVING TO “RE-RECRUIT” HIS CURRENT PLAYERS, WITH THE TRANSFER PORTAL LOOMING:

“I remember being a young coach, and you kinda joked that once kids signed, recruiting’s over. And the joke was, OK, now you’re going to be really hard on them,” Eck said. “That’s changed a little bit. You have to make sure kids are having a great experience … it’s tricky, any time you have a group of 110, 115 players, you’re not going to make everybody happy, when you can only put 11 on the field at a time. The key thing is, you want to keep your best players happy, keep those guys engaged, and you have to do a good job developing the young guys, keeping them engaged until the time when they’re ready to compete. I think we lost a few good backups that we wouldn’t have minded being back.”

One starter, for example, who could have been tempted to transfer was Hayden Hatten, Idaho’s record-setting wide receiver.

“Hayden, I don’t know if he could play for everybody in the country, but 90% of the people in the country he could play for,” Eck said. “There’s a lot of Power 5 places he could play for. He’s a Power 5 player, and we have to do a great job of developing him, and keeping him healthy, because I think he’s a guy who has opportunities in pro football in his future.

“I do think guys can reach their full potential at the University of Idaho. I think we have what we need, both coaching staff wise, strength staff-wise, facilities. It’s not as fancy as the Power 5 (schools). We’re going to get you all the protein you need in our fueling station — it’s not going to be filet mignon and lobster to get it — but I don’t think your body really knows where the protein is coming from, once it’s inside you.

“I don’t think guys really help their draft status very often by transferring up,” Eck added. “Now, it’s different if someone’s going to pay you money, but the NIL money is still not the same … the best money you can do is get your second NFL contract; that’s the really big money.”

ON HAVING FIVE QUARTERBACKS ON THE ROSTER — ALL EITHER ENTERING THEIR FRESHMAN OR SOPHOMORE SEASONS:

Gevani McCoy, the Jerry Rice Award winner as the top freshman in FCS last season, will be a redshirt sophomore this fall. Jack Layne, who played briefly this past season, will be a redshirt freshman, as will Ridge Docekal. Jack Wagner and Hogan Carmichael will be true freshmen.

The two older quarterbacks, J’Bore Gibbs and C.J. Jordan, entered the transfer portal.

“Last year at this time we had no idea who was going to be the starter, it was a wide-open race,” Eck recalled. “It’s not a wide-open race this year, now it’s Gevani’s job. And Jack did a good job, won the backup job last year, (when he got his chance against Idaho State he did a good job).

Those guys’ emergence kinda put the writing on the wall for the other guys.”

Besides …

“Will those five guys travel all the way through? In three years will it be the same five guys? Probably not,” Eck said. “Great example: Last year, we took Jack Layne as a walk-on, and Ridge as a scholarship player, and Jack ended up playing ahead of Ridge, and earned a scholarship. This year, we have two quarterbacks coming in, one’s a scholarship (Wagner) and one’s a walk-on (Carmichael). Just because we’re predicting one’s going to be a little better right now doesn’t mean he’s going to be better over time.”

ON WHAT SEPARATES IDAHO FROM THE TOP TEAMS IN FCS:

“Probably the biggest thing that separates us from a South Dakota State and a North Dakota State is, we have to keep getting better at the line of scrimmage,” Eck said. “We have to be more physical, stronger, bigger at the point of attack — O-line, tight ends, D-line at the point of attack. I think that’s what separates a top-20 team that gets in the tournament to being one of the contenders to win the thing. It doesn’t happen overnight; it’s a process. In this year’s recruiting class, we took eight O-linemen and 10 D-linemen. We have to keep developing them once they’re in.

ON BEING IN FRISCO, TEXAS, AND WATCHING SOUTH DAKOTA STATE, WHERE ECK WAS AN ASSISTANT FOR SIX SEASONS BEFORE COMING TO IDAHO, WIN THE NATIONAL TITLE:

“I was happy,” Eck said. “The O-line was four (of five) guys that I recruited. They brought in one transfer who started at right tackle. The other four spots were guys that I coached and recruited. Mark Gronowski was the quarterback when we went to the championship game in the spring season, and he tore his ACL in that game. So for him to come back and get vindication and win it … it was mostly guys that I got to coach, so I was very happy for the coaching staff. For coach Stieg (John Stiegelmeier) to win and ride off into the sunset, was pretty awesome, and coach (Jimmy) Rogers (who was named to replace him), who I spent six years working for … “

Had the timing been different?

“I knew coach Stieg was getting near the end of his career,” Eck said. “But this (the Idaho job) was too good of an opportunity to pass up. I knew we could win here, I didn’t know how fast; I wasn’t maybe sure we’d go to the playoffs right away the first year, so I think we’re ahead of schedule that way, but I knew we could be a top-10 team in FCS, perennially. But we’ve got to keep building, we have to stay aggressive, not feel good about what we’ve done so far, because you look at the history of Idaho the last 20 years, have a great season in ’09, then a losing season the next year. Bowl game in ’16, great season, ’17 season, no good.

“We have to understand that making the jump from here is going to be harder than the jump we made last year, to go from four (wins) to seven, and we’ve got to embrace that, teams are going to be ready for us; we’re not going to sneak up on anybody this year, but I think we’ll be ready for that.”

Plus, Eck couldn’t predict the future.

“This was the job that was open,” he said. “And who knows; it’s tough to win a national title; there’s always a few breaks you have to have … (South Dakota State’s) kicker missed a field goal at the end of regulation against Northern Iowa, and Northern Iowa was offsides. They got to kick another one and made it. … maybe if they don’t win a national title, coach Stieg doesn’t retire; and the job’s not open.

“So this was a great opportunity; we’re not there yet, but I think we can be playing in that semifinal/championship level in due time.”

Eck noted the year before he started at South Dakota State, the Jackrabbits lost in the first round of the FCS playoffs, then kept going deeper in the playoffs, playing for the title in the spring 2021 season, and winning it this past fall.

“It was a process, to go from losing in the first round, to getting to the second round, getting to the quarterfinals, the semifinals, getting to the championship and losing and getting back and winning the championship,” Eck said. “Steady gains over time, and I think that’s what we’ve got to embark on.”

Eck said South Dakota State did not reach out to him when the head coaching job came open in January.

“And to be honest, I don’t think I would have been interested. I have a buyout in my contract that would have made it tough. Salaries are in the same ballpark. And again, I like what we’re building here. I look at this — people are pretty excited that we won seven games in the first year. Jimmy’s kinda set the bar, because if they don’t win the national title again next year, it’s a disappointing season. It’s not bad to build off lower expectations — raise the bar rather than having the bar be as high as it can be already.”

ON BYRON HOUT, THE FORMER LAKE CITY HIGH STAR, AND NOW HEAD COACH AT HIS ALMA MATER:

“I actually recruited him a little bit when I was at Idaho,” Eck said of Hout, who eventually signed with Boise State. Eck remembers Hout from when Hout was an assistant at Idaho State, and at Montana State, and was happy to hear he is now at Lake City.

“That’s great; hopefully he’ll develop some future Vandals for us,” Eck said.

ON NAVIGATING HIS TEAM THROUGH THE PARTICULARLY TRYING TIMES IN NOVEMBER, FOLLOWING THE MURDERS OF FOUR UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO STUDENTS:

“It was hard, because it affected so many people, whether it was guys on the team that went to high school with the girls up here, whether it was guys who had classes with the girls, or some guys had classes with the guy,” Eck said. “Some of them just knew them socially. One of the players saw one of the girls at the Corner Club that night and gave her a hug goodbye, and then finds out later … one of our coaches had one of the girls babysit for them. I think it affected a lot of the people on the team, and really, being a small community, really affected everybody in the town.

“We didn’t practice great that week, and I said to the coaches as we got ready to play at Idaho State, we have to make sure we’re very simple in what we’re doing. That week in one of our practices, during the team segment, good vs. good, we had two straight plays when Hayden Hatten dropped the ball. Hayden never drops the ball. That’s the kind of stuff you get. And Jermaine Jackson jumped offsides. I told the coaches, don’t expect these kids to have the same razor-sharp focus that we usually expect from them. We better work in enough wiggle room in our game plan that we can overcome that and still win the game. And … we played hard, and found a way to win the game. But it was hard.”

ON THE VANDALS’ HIGHER EXPECTATIONS THIS SEASON — FACING A TOUGHER SCHEDULE:

“The four other teams that made the playoffs this year, we play all of them,” Eck said.

Idaho didn’t play Montana State and Weber State last year.

“We miss Cal Davis, which is a good team that beat us last year. We miss Northern Arizona, who we beat pretty handily, we miss Portland State … we’ve got to rise up to do it.”

Idaho bought out of a Division II game vs. Western Oregon, and replaced it with a game at FCS Lamar, so the Vandals have an all-Division I schedule.

“That made it so we only have four home games, which isn't ideal, but it does give us our best opportunity to get to seven Division I wins,” Eck said. “I think if you get to seven Division I wins you’re always going to have a real good chance of being a playoff team in our conference.”

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @CdAPressSports.