Eck leaving Idaho to coach New Mexico; 4 Vandal stars hop into portal

After three successful seasons as football coach at the University of Idaho, Jason Eck will depart Moscow and take over as head coach at New Mexico of the Football Bowl Subdivision ranks and the Mountain West Conference.

New Mexico made the announcement that it had hired Eck on Saturday morning, just hours after the Vandals lost at Montana State on Friday night in the quarterfinals of the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs.

Eck arrived in Moscow in 2022 and turned a Vandal football program that had two winning seasons in the 22 years prior to his arrival — and had recently made the switch from the FBS back to the FCS — into a program on the rise.

Under Eck, Idaho was 26-13 over three seasons, making the FCS playoffs in all three years and making it to the quarterfinals in each of the past two years.

“I am truly humbled to be selected as the head coach of the New Mexico Lobos,” Eck said in a news release issued by New Mexico. “I know that the university community, students, alumni, Lobo Nation and greater Albuquerque and New Mexico communities are eager for success and I cannot wait to give that to them. We will have tremendous coaches and support staff and develop our student-athletes into elite athletes, UNM graduates and people. My wife, Kimberly, and our five children are thrilled to be a part of Albuquerque and we are ready to go!”

Idaho’s 2024 season ended with a 52-19 loss to No. 1 Montana State on Friday night.

Fifteen Vandals earned All-Big Sky Conference honors this season, including nine defensive players.

Despite injuries to significant starters, the Vandals won 10 games for the first time since 1993 and were perfect at home (6-0) for the first time since 1996.

Eck navigated a third year on the Palouse that saw Idaho lose a slew of starters to graduation, the transfer portal and the NFL, including quarterback Gevani McCoy and wide receiver Hayden Hatten.

Third-year Vandal Jack Layne won the starting QB job out of camp but broke his collarbone in Idaho’s 24-14 season-opening loss to Oregon, now the No. 1-ranked team in the FBS.

The Vandals started three quarterbacks this season with Layne returning to start five of Idaho’s last six games, including a 34-13 second-round FCS playoff win over Lehigh at the P1FCU Kibbie Dome on Dec. 7.

Eck played college football at Wisconsin in the 1990s and began his coaching career as a graduate assistant in Madison. His first tenure in Moscow was as Idaho’s offensive line coach from 2004-06.

He takes over a UNM football program that lost coach Bronco Mendenhall to future-Pac-12 school Utah State after just one year in Albuquerque.

The Lobos of the Mountain West Conference are coming off a 5-7 season, but upset Washington State 38-35 in November.

“We are grateful for everything that Jason has done to elevate Vandal football, Idaho Athletics, the University of Idaho, our community and state,” Idaho athletics director Terry Gawlik said in a statement. “We wish Jason, Kimberly and the entire Eck family the best of luck. Jason took over a struggling team and built a culture, brought excitement and winning back to the dome immediately. We now look to the future to find the next leader of the Vandal football program. The foundation for success has been laid and we will look to the future with the goals of winning Big Sky and national championships.”

Four key Vandals enter transfer portal

In the hours following Eck’s departure, at least four Vandals put their names in the college football transfer portal, including Layne and star wide receiver Jordan Dwyer.

Layne and Dwyer made their announcements on social media.

Layne started eight games for the Vandals over the past three seasons, beating Idaho State three times and leading the Vandals to a 6-2 record with him under center. His two losses were to Oregon and Montana State, the current No. 1 teams in the FBS and FCS, respectively.

The sophomore from Lake Oswego, Ore., passed for 1,477 yards, 14 touchdowns and four interceptions through six starts in 2024.

Dwyer, a sophomore from Puyallup Wash., entered the portal with two years of eligibility remaining. In three years at Idaho, Dwyer played two full seasons after playing just four games as a true freshman, making 109 catches for 1,651 yards and 18 touchdowns total.

Dwyer broke out in ‘24, making 78 catches for 1,192 yards and 12 touchdowns in a season that saw him become a feature of an Idaho offense that lost two star wideouts to NFL training camps in Hatten and Jermaine Jackson.

He wasted little time Saturday in announcing offers from Eck’s New Mexico, Nevada, Montana and Washington State among others.

A pair of Idaho All-Big Sky-Conference defenders also hit the portal on Saturday in defensive lineman Dallas Afalava and defensive back Dwayne McDougle.

The pair also made their announcements on social media.

Afalava anchored a dangerous unit and accounted for 31 tackles and 4.5 sacks through each of Idaho’s 14 games this season.

The Rainier Beach High School (Seattle) alumnus spent two years on the Palouse, accounting for nine sacks and 56 total tackles.

After three years in Moscow, McDougle also hit the portal on Saturday. McDougle redshirted in 2022, then played in 26 total games over the next two seasons, including each of Idaho’s 14 games in ‘24. The sophomore from Oakland made 87 total tackles with two interceptions and 11 passes defensed.

More Vandals could hit the portal in the coming days as Idaho searches for its next coach.