Vandals’ style of play is unsexy, but effective

The Idaho Vandals have reached the halfway point of their season and it is safe to say that they have figured out the formula to win with their young offense.

The 23-17 win over Northern Arizona on Saturday at the P1FCU Kibbie Dome was 2024 Idaho football to the letter: Rely on the rushing attack, win time of possession, protect the ball and attempt to minimize mental mistakes.

Yes, the last two are keys for just about every football team at any level, but for the Vandals it is paramount.

Simply put, the 41-13 dominant win over UAlbany is the aberration of the Idaho season. Maybe it is because the Great Danes have lost too many players and are not as good as they were last season.

The Vandals are just not built in a way to blow out a solid team, and the Big Sky is littered with those solid teams with seven of the 12 now ranked in the latest Stats Perform Top 25 rankings.

Freshman quarterbacks Jack Wagner and Nick Josifek have done a solid job covering for starting quarterback Jack Layne who is recovering from a broken collarbone. Both bring different skill sets to the table and it has made the job of coach Jason Eck difficult.

Against the Lumberjacks, Eck kept the two quarterbacks on a rotation. Each signal-caller played two consecutive offensive series and then switched.

There is a saying in football, “if you have two quarterbacks, you have no quarterbacks.” For the Vandals, there was almost no need for a quarterback as they had 42 rushing attempts out of 55 total plays.

It is not the sexiest offensive style, but for an Idaho team with one senior on offense and a slew of freshmen getting their first taste of college football this season, it has almost been a necessity.

I brought up in my preview last week that the Vandals are undefeated this season when they don’t turn the ball over. The moment they do, they had been winless until Saturday.

The Vandal defense had a massive goal-line stand on a drive that Northern Arizona started at the Idaho 5-yard line. The turnover was less of a mistake by Josifek and more a great play by NAU’s Cory Hall, who was able to get to his target and get a hand on the quarterback before he could start his throwing motion.

The mental mistakes do not only get placed on the players on the field. Eck has a tendency to be a risk-taker offensively and enjoys a few trick plays sprinkled into his play calling. On Saturday, the head coach kept those trick plays to a minimum. He started the second half with a flea flicker that was then forced into tight double coverage and was short of its target.

Other than that first play of the half, Eck kept things conservative, especially for him. It allowed both Wagner and Josifek to rely on running backs Elisha Cummings and Nate Thomas to gain chunk yards and also kept Idaho out of third-and-long situations.

The Vandal defense is one of the best units in the Football Championship Subdivision level, and I would argue that the front seven is not matched by any other FCS team.

I have talked to several people about the homecoming game and nearly every conversation has started with how tight it got in the end. However, even with NAU getting the ball with a chance to take the lead late in that game, I had a sense of calm about everything.

It is situations like Saturday that the Idaho defense was built for. Three times this season the opposing team had the ball in the closing minutes with the chance to take the lead. The UI defense has stood tall in all three.

Do not get it twisted, there are areas of improvement that Idaho needs to work through. In the last three games the Vandals have struggled to get anything going offensively in the second half. Minus a late push against UC Davis, Idaho has had a tendency to stall out offensively in the final 30 minutes of the game.

Maybe when Layne gets healthy and is able to play again the offense can open things up a bit more, but for now the game plan needs to be focused on simplicity and careful decisions.

Idaho’s road does not get any easier as it travels to Bozeman, Mont., to take on No. 3 Montana State, but the mindset should remain the same: Run the ball, attempt to get an early lead and allow the Vandal defense to protect it.

Isbelle can be reached at 208-848-2268, risbelle@lmtribune.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @RandyIsbelle.