Success on the field in the best FCS conference in the country rarely comes from an individual player. Usually, it takes numerous pieces to come together to build something special.
When Jason Eck took over the head job for the Vandals before the 2022 season, there were plenty of talented holdovers from the Paul Petrino days. Eck brought in an impressive coaching staff. That, combined with Eck’s elite skill of inspiring players,coaches and the entire community with his personality gave Idaho momentum. And a tremendous recruiting effort spurred on by his special teams coordinator and running backs coach Thomas Ford Jr.
All those factors culminated to reignite Idaho football, for three years bringing the most excitement in the Kibbie Dome since the Vandals’ return to the FCS ahead of the 2018 season
Four seasons later, Eck is at New Mexico getting national attention as the next man up for a power conference job. And Ford is entering his second season as the head man in Moscow.
In 2025, the pieces weren’t there for Ford to bring Idaho back to the FCS Playoffs for the fourth straight season. The talent drain after Eck left was devastating. From quarterback Jack Layne (New Mexico) to wide receiver Jordan Dwyer (TCU) to running back DeShaun Buchanan (New Mexico) to linebacker Xe’ree Alexander (UCF/Washington), maybe Idaho’s best jumped ship despite the familiarity with Ford, who was an assistant in 2022 and 2023 before spending 2024 on Oregon State’s coaching staff.
Although Ford’s first season resulted in a 4-8 record, there were bright spots. The recruitment of talented quarterback Joshua Wood, competitive games against Washington State and San Jose State, a Halloween night win over NAU to name a few. Four losses by less than seven points and untimely injuries eventually derailed Idaho’s 2025 campaign.
While the season ended with a disappointing record, Ford and his staff continued to show recruiting chops, first by holding on to Wood this off-season, and second by bringing in the highest-ranked recruiting class in the FCS.
The most important new piece may have been on the coaching staff. Despite rolling out some talented players on the offense, the Vandals ranked eighth in the league in scoring and total offense at just 25.2 points and 377 yards per game, respectively, in 2025.
It was clear to Ford that he needed to make a change. He brought in veteran OC Ian Shoemaker to lead the Idaho offense, a move inspired at least in part to help Wood rise to meet the hope of Vandal fans when the former Washington Gatorade Player of the Year first arrived in Moscow.
Shoemaker is a 30-year coaching veteran with stops at every level across the country. The well-regarded play-caller and quarterback coach has helped talented quarterbacks rise to a championship level before. He was the offensive coordinator at Eastern Washington in 2020 and 2021, coaching the Eagle offense to prodigious numbers. EWU averaged 537 yards and over 40 points per game under Shoemaker’s leadership. Eric Barriere threw for 5,070 yards and 46 touchdowns on the way to winning the Walter Payton Award in 2021.
“Coach Shoemaker brings in a ton of experience and that has been a fun thing for me to experience and learn as a coach,” Idaho offensive line coach Loren Endsley said. “Learning how he puts stressors on defense is one of the biggest things I think about. Watching his offenses and seeing what he has done here, you see the stressors he puts on the defense and I think it is going to leave a nice clean box for us to run the ball.”
As the OC and QB coach at Eastern, Shoemaker helped Eric Barriere to back-to-back Walter Payton Award Finalist seasons, winning the award as the FCS Player of the Year as a senior. Wood was originally committed to Eastern Washington when Shoemaker was the OC for the Eagles but decided to sign with Fresno State when Shoemaker left for Hawaii.
“I’ve known the man (Shoemaker) since I was a senior in high school,” Wood said. “He understands and knows the details it takes to be a quarterback like Eric Barriere. To have the opportunity to play and learn under a guy that coached a guy like that is a blessing. We are going to have a hard, physical, high-flying, energetic, explosive offense. We are going to step on the field and punch you right in the face in the run-game coming downhill and then spread you out and hit you four-verts right up the field.”
Another important piece for the Vandals is a deep group of weapons for Wood.
Idaho returns its top two receivers from last year in Ryan Jezioro and Marquawn McCraney. Nolan McWilliams also played in 12 games for Idaho. Injuries cut Tony Harste’s season short after being a reliable target for the first few games and Montana State transfer Junior Alexander will look to finally make his Vandal debut after suffering an injury during fall camp last year. Alexander is former Top 100 recruit who spent time at Washington and Arizona State before playing 2024 in Bozeman and 2025 trying to get healthy for UI.
Senior wide receiver Zack Card, an Oregon State transfer, played in every game for the Beavers over the past two seasons and will look to make an immediate impact for the Vandals.
Noah West-Baranco and Chance Bogan lead a tight end group that has plenty of talent but little experience.
“Nolan McWilliams, Ryan Jezioro and Noah West-Baranco were all young guys last year,” Wood said. “But these guys are big playmakers and they will be stepping up for sure.”
Wood was the leading rusher for Idaho last year, but the next four on the list are all gone, lost to graduation or medical retirement. Hayden Kincheloe returns to bring a punishing run style but has rounded out his game to be a more versatile weapon. Carlos Matheney had the most yards of any returning running back, but that number is just 15 rushes for 75.
It was clear to the Vandal staff that they needed immediate help and Ford again showed his recruiting chops. True freshman Kenny Golston from Oklahoma was recruited by Oregon, Oregon State, Missouri and Indiana but chose the Vandals. His senior year highlights show his potential and he has a great shot to make an immediate impact with the vacuum left in the RB room. Junior college transfers Ferrari Miller and Damonte Bias will also be in the mix for the starting job Friday in San Luis Obispo as the Vandals kick off their season on national television at Cal Poly.
“We have done a nice job bringing the right guys in,” Ford said. “Ferrari and Damonte have been here since January and Kenny Golston has really made an impact since he got here this summer. When you add in the improvements that Kinch has made, that room looks really good. When you put it behind our offensive line, I think we will be able to move the ball.”
While Ford and his staff are still determining who will take the starting spot for the running backs, the offensive line brings back maybe the most experienced group in the Big Sky Conference, anchored by four-year starting center Layton Vining.
“That group takes a lot of pride in being the anchor of our offense,” Ford said. “It starts with Layton Vining. He is like a coach on the field. He may be one of the smartest players I have ever coached. He is going to be able to correct some things on the field. Our system has answers, but when the picture changes, you want someone in there who can manage that and be the engineer of the offensive line group.”
Vining is just the tip of the iceberg for the Vandals, along with Vining, tackles Leon Evans and Charlie Vliem and guard Kiegan Henson played in all 12 games for the Vandals in 2025 while Howard Stedford played in 11 and Tyler Skinner played in eight games.
When installing a new offense, having an experienced offensive line that is seeing their third system in three years is going to be a vital piece of the puzzle if Idaho hopes to have success this year.
“It is always different, but a lot of these guys have experience in different systems,” Endsley said. “Once you have those different experiences it becomes easier to make that transition. There is some carry-over in every offense, but it is really crucial to understand ‘the why,’ behind what the offense is doing. We spent the spring installing everything, but we spent the summer and fall camp understanding ‘the why.’”
When the Vandals take on Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo to open the season on Friday night, they will face a team with a new head coach and a new $50 million dollar football facility named after legendary coach & broadcaster John Madden, all in front of a national audience on ESPN.
Cal Poly will bring a whole new scheme, and new personnel under first-yeat head coach Tim Skipper. Plenty of unknowns await. But Ford knows that, with anything, it is important for the Vandals to put all the pieces together and play to their ability.
“There are going to be new schemes, offense, defense and special teams. You have an idea of what they are going to do based on where the coordinators have been in the past, but you really don’t know how they are going to use what they have,” Ford said. “We are going to control what we can and do what we are best at. We’ve spent all spring summer and fall camp trying to put our players in the best position to be successful and that is our focus. Most importantly we have to worry about ourselves and take care of business.”
Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. Pacific / 8 p.m. Mountain on ESPN and on ESPN Unlimited.
