Idaho football staff, players prepare for game scenarios
Aug. 26—MOSCOW — With a completely new staff on the sideline and in the booth, every little detail is critical.
That was evident during the University of Idaho's football practice Thursday.
The team started practice with a round of warmups and immediately ran into the tunnel for about 10 minutes. The delay was to emulate what pregame will look like inside the Kibbie Dome during the 2022 season.
"Today was all about going over every little detail with the players," Idaho coach Jason Eck said. "From how we warm up, to where we sit on the sideline and where we're going during halftime."
Following the pregame speech and meeting, the team fled to the sidelines and opened up with the kickoff unit.
Following the kickoff, the Vandals began a simulated game experience. The coaches yelled out certain scenarios from the sideline and the units on the field reacted to it.
"Today was a real mental day," Eck said. "Most of the time you'd do this the week before a game, but we flipped it because we wanted to do Saturday night outside."
When the starting offense first took the field, the man under center was redshirt freshman Gevani McCoy.
McCoy handled most of the snaps for the Vandals during the walk-through, however, the other quarterbacks on Idaho's roster got some reps as well.
McCoy demonstrated his arm talent during the last four seconds of a two-minute drill Thursday.
Offensive coordinator Luke Schleusner finished the period with a Hail Mary call and McCoy tossed it 50 yards to the end zone for a touchdown with relative ease.
"I just try to put as much power into the throw as I can," McCoy said. "When I throw it, I try to throw it to a high point so it comes off with a high release and honestly there isn't much to it."
Despite Idaho's season opener against Washington State being eight days away, Eck still isn't in a hurry to announce who the starting quarterback will be.
"We're still trying to evaluate and make the right decision on who our quarterback is going to be," Eck said. "It'll be an exciting day Sept. 3 on the Palouse to see who the quarterback is going to be."
Eck also got some playing time during the practice at nose guard. The offense was coming out of the shadows of their own goal line when Eck lined up in the one shade and delivered a pass rush.
"I think I could've gotten a sack, but we want to keep our offensive line fresh," Eck said. "We didn't want to tire out our offensive line and I think I'm a little bigger than most of Washington State's defensive linemen."
New look stadium
The Idaho Athletic Department announced on Twitter that it will offer a brand new ticket option to Vandal fans this season.
The option is called the "Field Club Experience" and the features include on-field premium seating; a private bartender with beer, wine, and soft drink options (no-host), and complimentary snacks.
The price for a single-game ticket will be $250 and season tickets will be $1,000.
"I think it's awesome," Eck said. "We're trying to do everything we can to make this a great environment and make it a fun event for the fans."
According to McCoy, this new addition to the stadium is a direct impact of the "Eck era"
"There's been a lot of change going on since he's been here," McCoy said. "With our team, our dome and our nutrition center. There's been a lot of positive things coming to Idaho."
Pixley can be reached at 208-848-2290, tpixley@lmtribune.com or on Twitter at @TreebTalks.
