Jul. 27—The sun is gradually setting earlier and earlier and football season is drawing closer and closer.
In about a month, two head coaches will kick off their on-field tenures on opposite sidelines, leading the area’s two Division-I football programs.
Advertisement
Thomas Ford’s Idaho Vandals will meet Jimmy Rogers’ Washington State Cougars at 7 p.m. Aug. 30 at Gesa Field in Pullman.
WSU kicks off camp on Wednesday. Idaho has not publicly announced a start date as of Saturday night.
Here are three questions for the Cougars and Vandals ahead of fall camp.
Who are the starting quarterbacks?
Ask Ford who will be slinging the football for the Vandals come Week 1, and you get about the most definitive answer to any of the questions within this article.
“I would be pretty shocked if Joshua Wood wasn’t our starting quarterback,” Ford said on Monday during the Big Sky Conference’s media day in Spokane.
Advertisement
The Vandals welcomed Wood to Moscow toward the end of spring camp in April. The 6-foot-2 gunslinger from Graham, Wash., spent the last three seasons at Fresno State of the Mountain West.
He sat out his first two seasons before taking an active role in all 13 of the Bulldogs’ games a year ago. Wood was a situational QB during the regular season and made his first career start versus Northern Illinois in Boise’s Famous Idaho Potato Bowl on Dec. 23.
In that game, the sophomore passed for 180 yards and accounted for three touchdowns, including a rushing score to raise his season rushing TD total to six.
Vandal QBs Jack Wagner and Nick Josifek were two out of the three signal-callers who started for Idaho last season. While Ford was transparent in that he expects Wood to win the job, it doesn’t mean that Wagner and Josifek — both sophomores — won’t see the field this year.
Advertisement
While Ford has a starter in mind, Rogers took a different approach at the end of WSU’s spring camp, which saw returning senior Zevi Eckhaus take the bulk of the snaps with WSU’s No. 1 offense
“The (starting QB) job isn’t just straight-up Zevi’s,” Rogers said on April 12. “There’s gonna be more competition coming this summer.”
That competition arrived in the form of two Power Four transfers — sophomore Ajani Sheppard of Rutgers and redshirt freshman Julian Dugger of Pitt.
Eckhaus’ advantage remains his experience. He was a three-year starter at FCS Bryant (R.I.) and started the Holiday Bowl last year, leaving a positive impression with over 300 yards passing and four total touchdowns (three passing, one rushing) in a 52-35 loss to Syracuse.
Advertisement
Sheppard has not attempted a pass in a college game, while Dugger started Pitt’s bowl game and ran for 88 yards with one TD.
Can new coaches make a positive impact?
Both teams have new coaching staffs, with new philosophies, systems and styles.
Ford’s arrival is much more of a return, considering he led the running backs and coordinated special teams for the first two years of former coach Jason Eck’s tenure.
Daily headlines, straight to your inboxRead it online first and stay up-to-date, delivered daily at 7 AM
Idaho senior Nate Azzopardi credited Ford as a source of cultural continuity from the previous staff, which led Idaho to three consecutive FCS playoff appearances.
Advertisement
After one season as an Oregon State assistant, Ford found his way back to Moscow and promoted former Idaho quarterback Matt Linehan from wide receivers coach to offensive coordinator.
Ford tapped Cort Dennison, who brings Power Four coordination experience from Louisville, to coordinate the Vandals’ defense.
The Vandals are returning 56 letterwinners from last year’s roster, while WSU has around 20.
Rogers brings his back-to-back FCS national championship-winning staff from South Dakota State, including offensive coordinator Danny Freund and defensive coordinator Jesse Bobbit, who returns to Pullman after serving as a WSU graduate assistant in 2020 and 2021.
Advertisement
WSU also added 16 SDSU Jackrabbits to the roster, including 10 defensive players and three running backs.
The Idaho offense will certainly carry a different complexion given the addition of Wood, a mobile QB.
Rogers’ Cougars adopt a seemingly more physical playing style than recently seen on the Palouse.
The WSU defense will double the number of linebackers on the field from last season, from two to four, with the middle of the Cougar defense featuring a bevy of former Jackrabbits. The WSU offense promises to be a run-first unit, an about-face from the late Mike Leach’s Air Raid, which WSU continued to run in different respects over the past five seasons.
Advertisement
Both coaching staffs are on the younger side, which may work to their respective advantages when it comes to connecting with the talent on their roster.
Which position groups will see the most competition?
While almost every position group will feature competition over the next month, no room may feel the heat in Moscow and Pullman more than the offensive line.
In a clash of loyalties, WSU employs Mike Iupati, an Idaho legend and former NFL player, as its assistant O-line coach, along with position coach Taylor Lucas.
The Vandals turn to Coeur d’Alene’s Loren Endsley to lead its offensive line.
Advertisement
WSU returns two former starters along the line, with Brock Dieu likely taking the full-time job at center while Christian Hilborn slides over to right tackle permanently.
Sixth-year senior Azzopardi is one of three Vandals with starting experience, joining left tackle Layton Vining and left guard Kiegan Henson.
Other position groups to watch include WSU’s linebackers and Idaho’s wide receivers. Both groups feature a mix of transfers and returners who must step up after the bulk of last year’s starters left.
These are far from the only questions facing the Cougs and the Vandals with just over a month to go until their gridiron encounter. Some answers will reveal themselves during camp, while others may not be apparent until the sun sets on the final Saturday of August.
One thing is for sure: football season is right around the corner.
Taylor can be reached at 208-848-2268, staylor@lmtribune.com, or on X or Instagram @Sam_C_Taylor.
