Eck settling in at Idaho

With the Idaho Vandal and “Grumpy Joe” logos sitting in view above his right shoulder, a jovial and charismatic Jason Eck spoke for an hour earlier this week on a livestream show with the prominent UI podcast and fansite, Tubs at the Club.

For Vandal fans, it was a refreshingly candid glimpse of their new coach, who talked about a wide array of topics from confirming the hire of offensive coordinator Luke Schleusner, to his Corner Club beer of choice: Kokanee (queue the debate from lovers of Rainier, PBR or Rolling Rock).

Eck’s talk with the Tubs crew came amid a whirlwind of Vandal news this week.

Let’s take a look:

Eck’s salary to go before State Board

Eck’s proposed five-year salary goes before the Idaho State Board of Education during a meeting at 1 p.m. Pacific today.

The details of the contract were divulged by the ISBOE in its notes.

The contract lists a base salary of $300,000, which includes an annual media payment of $125,000.

With incentives, Eck could earn an additional $78,500. That includes $10,000 if Idaho wins the FCS national championship. An FCS playoff appearance would earn him $5,000.

Eck’s predecessor, Paul Petrino, had a base salary of $446,214.40 — reportedly the highest among Big Sky coaches at the time.

Petrino was hired when Idaho still was a Football Bowl Subdivision program. UI dropped back down to the Football Championship Subdivision in 2018.

Schleusner hired as offensive coordinator

Eck’s offensive coordinator will be the coach who was his right-hand man when he was offensive coordinator at South Dakota State.

Jackrabbits passing game coordinator/receivers coach Luke Schleusner was picked to lead the Vandal offense under Eck.

Schleusner arrived in Moscow on Tuesday, apparently after encountering multiple road closures and poor weather across the Pacific Northwest after picking up a new vehicle in the Seattle area. Eck told a story about Schleusner going down through Oregon to get to Moscow, noting there are rarely road closures because of weather in South Dakota.

Schleusner was at SDSU for eight seasons, serving as tight ends coach for the first six before moving to receivers ahead of the spring 2021 season.

He also had coaching stops at his alma mater North Dakota, Minnesota State-Mankato and Western Illinois.

Eck noted while at North Dakota, Schleusner coached and recruited Kenny Golladay of the NFL’s New York Giants. While at Mankato, he also recruited and coached Adam Thielen of the Minnesota Vikings.

But maybe most impressive was turning Dallas Goedert from a walk-on to a second-round pick while at South Dakota State. Goedert now is a star tight end for the Philadelphia Eagles.

“Luke is really smart. I am trying to surround myself with people that are smarter than me,” Eck said. “He is a great evaluator and developer of talent. … Not many coaches at the FCS level have a track record like that of developing talent.”

Sutton added to staff

In one of the more surprising hires, the Vandals drew Tyler Sutton from sunny southern California to the frigid Palouse.

The former University of San Diego offensive coordinator joins Eck’s staff as tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator.

Sutton was with the Toreros for nine seasons, the past two as offensive coordinator.

He contributed to the success of an explosive San Diego offense that ranked top-10 nationally in scoring offense in back-to-back seasons in 2018 and 2019.

“I am fired up to be on coach Eck’s staff,” Sutton said in a news release. “Coming from an FCS program, I have seen what he has done on the national level for the last few seasons, and it is exciting to be able to work with him and learn from him. We are going to work tirelessly to put together a team that will win championships and represent Vandal Nation proudly.”

Another potential hire that has not yet been confirmed by Eck nor the university is Rob Aurich as defensive coordinator, which was reported by national football reporter Bruce Feldman.

Aurich is the current special teams coordinator/inside linebackers coach at South Dakota.

Odds and ends with Eck

In a segment called “Dumb Questions,” Eck answered a series of lighthearted questions on the Tubs podcast.

Some highlights:

Visor guy: Some coaches come to be known for a particular fashion item. For some, it’s a ballcap; for former Washington State coach Nick Rolovich, it was a fedora; for former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel, it was a sweater vest; for Eck, it’s a visor.

“I’m a big visor guy,” Eck said. “My wife (Kimberly) would tell you she likes looking at my hair a lot, so she doesn’t like me covering it up.”

Superstitious: Athletes and coaches generally fall in two categories: the superstitious and the unperturbed. Eck said he’s the superstitious type so, “If we win, I’m going to wear the exact same outfit the next week.”

Beer of choice: As mentioned above, Eck tabbed Kokanee as his go-to beer.

“You can’t get Kokanee in other parts of the country and I really liked that when I lived here,” the coach said.

New official beer of Vandal football?

Grumpy Joe in mascot semifinal round

While the Vandals didn’t make it to the postseason on the field, their helmet made a splash in the national Helmet Bowl by helmettracker.com.

A yellow Vandal helmet with the Grumpy Joe logo — a fresh take on an old logo that was used sparingly this season — advanced to the semifinal round in a March Madness-style tournament that started with 64 helmets from a plethora of teams at all college levels.

Grumpy Joe eventually fell this week to the Delaware Blue Hens, who feature a helmet similar to the Michigan Wolverines.

The semifinal featured more than 30,000 votes, with Delaware edging Idaho by about 400.

Wiebe may be contacted at (208) 848-2260, swiebe@lmtribune.com or on Twitter @StephanSports.