THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Locals kicking off, Vandal QBs and Canadian motion

Unlike the NFL, college football still has the old kickoff rules. 

But one thing’s the same — you still want a guy that can kick the ball far enough to force touchbacks.

Last Saturday, Owen Forsman, a true freshman from Lakeland High, handled the kickoff duties for the Vandals in their 34-29 victory over Cal Poly at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow. 

Of his seven kickoffs, five of them went into or out of the end zone for a touchback. 

“He kicked well,” Idaho coach Jason Eck said of Forsman. “He had one of them where he kicked the ball all the way out the back of the end zone. 

“He also kicked off at Montana State. We didn’t kick off that much in that game, so you probably didn’t notice him,” Eck noted. 

Montana State won that game, 38-7, shutting out the Vandals until the fourth quarter. Eck used the game as a competition of sorts between Forsman and Owen Adams. 

Forsman kicked off to start the second half, and it was a touchback. After Idaho’s touchdown, Adams’ kickoff went to the Montana State 15. 

So Forsman did all the kickoffs last week. 

“We have two guys with really strong legs, and I’ve been really proud of Forsman,” Eck said. “He struggled when he got here, and I think he was just adjusting to college, and confidence, and things like that, but I think he’s come a long way and grown a lot throughout the year, and did a really nice job kicking off.” 

Idaho plays host to Eastern Washington on Saturday at 6 p.m. at the Kibbie Dome. Three years ago, Eastern’s kicker was Seth Harrison, from Coeur d’Alene High. 

IDAHO MIGHT get its starting quarterback back for the EWU game. 

Jack Layne, a redshirt sophomore, has been out since suffering a broken collarbone in the season opener at Oregon. 

Layne has returned to practice and is throwing, but had not been cleared for contact as of earlier in the week — and quarterbacks are off-limits for contact at practice anyway. He was to have another X-ray this week. 

“If he’s cleared to play, we’d love to have him,” Eck said. 

Whether Layne would start would depend on how he looked in practice, Eck said. 

If he doesn’t start, Jack Wagner, who has started every week but one since the second game, would be the QB. Nick Josifek, who started at Montana State, is out with a broken collarbone. 

The No. 2 QB last week was true freshman Rocco Koch, who saw some action on designed quarterback runs. 

If Layne isn’t ready, who’s the No. 3 quarterback? 

“We’d probably go wildcat,” Eck said, “but we’re optimistic that we’ll get Jack back.” 

Holden Bea, another true freshman QB, suffered a knee injury in fall camp. And while it wasn’t bad enough to require surgery, it’s bad enough to keep him out all season. 

ONE OF many quirky things about a three-team league — once league play starts, one team has a bye from league play each week. 

In the 6A Inland Empire League, league games are the final three weeks of the regular season. 

The first week, Lake City played at Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls had the league bye. 

Last week, Coeur d’Alene played at Post Falls, and Lake City had the league bye. 

This week, it’s Post Falls at Lake City, and Coeur d’Alene has the league bye. 

All three teams were able to find nonleague opponents for the weeks they had the league bye. But it’s not easy to find nonleague games late in the season, and especially the last week of the regular season.  

Coeur d’Alene was able to schedule Raymond (Alberta) for this Friday. The Comets have played other teams down here before, including Sandpoint. 

But still ... 

“It’s funny; they drew straws to see who had the bye the last week, because no one wanted it,” Coeur d’Alene coach Shawn Amos said. “Now we’re really happy ... “ 

That’s because Coeur d’Alene beat Lake City and Post Falls to win the 6A IEL, earn a first-round bye in the playoffs, and a home game in the quarterfinals.  

There are no playoff ramifications this week for the Vikings. They will play Raymond this week, have next week off and then be home the following week for their playoff opener. “Nothing matters (Friday), so it gives us an extra week,” Amos said. “We’ll play Friday, but we’ll treat it however we wanted to treat it ... if we’ve got kids banged up, we’re not going to play them.” 

The game will be played mostly by the rules of American football, although Raymond will be able to use motion rules allowed in Canadian football. 

In Canada, any kind of motion is allowed, as long as there are enough players on the line. Multiple players can move in any direction at the snap — forward, backward or laterally. 

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 X (formerly Twitter) @CdAPressSports.