Sep. 3—If Idaho State plans on upsetting the Lobos, they’ll have to do so without a key starter.
ISU starting quarterback Jordan Cooke will be out for the “foreseeable future,” head coach Cody Hawkins said Wednesday, and won’t play Saturday against New Mexico.
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Cooke completed 53 of 95 passes for 718 yards, two touchdowns and four interceptions in losses to UNLV (38-31) and Southern Utah (46-24) this season. Hawkins said the redshirt junior played hurt last week against the Thunderbirds and should have had surgery before the game, but “opted not to.”
“We knew he was gonna be out for a month and (we were) trying to figure out the best time to do it,” Hawkins added in a press conference. ” … He really wanted the opportunity to try and play in that football game last week, and for his development as a leader and young man, I thought he deserved that opportunity.”
Without Cooke, Hawkins said quarterbacks Davis Harsin and Jackson Sharman will both play against the Lobos; the third-year ISU coach did not clarify who would start. Neither Harsin, a redshirt freshman, or Sharman, a redshirt sophomore, have starting experience.
Hawkins said Sharman “probably” would have started against Southern Utah if Cooke was not available.
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“The coaching staff feels really good with both of them … I think they both deserve an opportunity to play,” Hawkins said. “You’ll see (of them) both.”
ISU’s running backs have also been dealing with injuries. Leading rusher Dason Brooks (19 carries, 129 yards, two touchdowns) got hurt towards the end of the UNLV game, according to Hawkins, and carried the ball once against Southern Utah.
Backup Robert Marshall IV (four carries, 40 yards) has also been hurt, leaving Carson Sudbery (four carries, seven yards) and Tytan Mason (three carries, 15 yards) to pick up the majority of totes against UNM.
“That’s gonna be kind of a running back (by committee),” Hawkins. “Carson Sudbery is a guy who we know can absolutely do it, has kinda always been in the mix and he’ll probably start for us.”
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Replacing Brawley
Of course, UNM is dealing with a big injury of its own. Starting field safety and team captain Austin Brawley will be out indefinitely with a foot injury but could return towards the end of the season, head coach Jason Eck said Tuesday.
The senior Ohio transfer was considered, by players and coaches alike, to be one of the most valuable players in the defense, due to his knowledge of the Lobos’ 4-2-5 scheme. In replacing him, Eck said safeties Drew Speech and Aaron Smith will rotate at field safety against ISU, with the former likely to start.
“I’m trying to gain the trust of the other guys on defense,” Speech said after practice Wednesday. “Brawley was a big communicator (and) he knew the defense. I’m trying to be myself, but also (be) how Brawley was in the defense and communicate at the level he communicated.”
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Eck also said UNM might have to simplify things to ensure the communication errors are limited in the secondary with Brawley out: “We gotta do a better job as coaches. If you don’t have great communicators, you got to simplify it so there’s less communication,” he said.
Is that happening?
“I ain’t gonna lie, every day (defensive coordinator Spence Nowinsky) makes it nuanced for us, to make it simpler for everybody in the defense,” Smith said after practice Tuesday. “And I feel like the biggest part for us is just communication.”
Schedule change?
As the SEC moves to a nine-game conference schedule in 2026, the league’s 16 member schools will have to cut a non-conference game each in the coming months. The shift will be felt among Group of Five schools in particular, who regularly receive millions in compensation for playing the conference’s bigger programs on the road.
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The question: With the Lobos set to play SEC programs like Oklahoma (2026) and Texas A&M (2027), has either school reached out to UNM about possibly canceling a game? UNM athletic director Fernando Lovo said they haven’t.
“We’ve talked about this internally (and) we’ve got to be prepared for what that might look like,” he said during a press conference Tuesday. “And some of the conversations I’ve had with coach Eck about our scheduling model in the future, luckily for us we were aligned when I hired him and we’re planning for a model that’s most sustainable for us long term — especially now that these games don’t exist like they once did.”
