Vandals honing their craft through repetition heading into game week

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Aug. 23—MOSCOW — Idaho football is past fall camp and moving full steam ahead in preparation for Friday's season opener against Cal Poly.

At the outdoor practice field on Saturday, during and after the sunset in Moscow, the Vandals worked on honing their defense and offense in specific situations.

"So really, we had kind of two bonus days … where we're trying to get some base down football, trying to get some third-down red-zone football going, and then we'll get a chance to repeat it because again we still have Sunday and Tuesday to kind of have similar practices," Idaho coach Thomas Ford Jr. said.

Sharpening their tools

The Vandals had individual unit drills, where they practiced with their position groups, and some drills where they practiced with a certain side of the ball — be that offense, defense or special teams. Then Idaho got together for specific red-zone and third-down "scout" drills for the offense and the defense in preparation for Cal Poly.

During those unit and scout drills, the Idaho coaching staff was essentially quizzing their players on what to do in some situations and figuring out how well they run their respective sides of the ball.

"I think the guys are starting to understand what we're trying to do game plan-wise," Ford said. "We have a lot available, offense, defense; we have a lot of scheme available, but now that you're tailoring it to a game plan, I thought our guys are really starting to understand why. Why are we calling this on third down? Why are we calling this in the low red (zone)? So getting that opportunity today was really, really nice, and we'll have another opportunity here on Tuesday."

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The No. 1 defense was especially tested by defensive coordinator Lee Stalker with Ford sitting on their side of the field too, often communicating with them.

"I think tonight on defense, we gave them some really difficult looks, so we got to clean up some things, especially in our man coverage stuff, but overall, I thought it was a pretty good day," Ford said. "I think more than anything, now you're looking less at guys standing out and more about who's executing their job, because I think that's more important right now."

Fifth-year linebacker and Lewiston High product Cruz Hepburn was with the No. 1 defense, which was switching between base packages in its 3-3-5 package (three defensive linemen, three linebackers and five defensive backs), 4-2-5 package and heavy personnel (5-3-3 or 5-2-4).

"I think the big thing is just communication," Hepburn said about setting up for the different packages. "All our different personnels, you always have different guys on the field. So I think just getting used to playing with each other and being able to really communicate efficiently is the big thing we're focusing on."

He said it was important for the defense to see the big picture and do it "over and over and over again" so that reacting to certain plays will become second nature.

Special teams starters begin to clear up

During fall camp, there was a kicking competition between three kickers — juniors Owen Forsman, Owen Adams and Tyler Kinsman, a transfer from Oregon.

Ford said that the answer at kicker has become clear.

"We feel pretty good about it. Owen Forsman has really had a great camp. I think he's going to be our primary kicker," Ford said. "He's going to do kickoffs for us. He's really going to be our field-goal guy."

Ford did mention that Kinsman has done well and that he may contribute some in the punting game, possibly getting some work in with fifth-year punter Cameron Pope. Pope was down with an illness at practice on Saturday.

He also mentioned that junior Tommy O'Sullivan has the upper hand at the long snapper job, although there has been a battle with sophomore Jayden Fernandez.

He said O'Sullivan seems to be "a little bit more locked in on the details."

For the return game, Ford said there may be a variety of players who receive the ball.

"I think Damonte (Bias) could be back there," Ford said. "Zack Card has a lot of experience returning. Marquawn (McCraney) is more of an off returner, but he'll be back there some as well. So we've got a few guys that we could put back there. Trais Higgins is coming back from kind of a little bit of an injury that he had early in camp. So we've got a few guys back there returning."

Preparing for Friday

Idaho will face Cal Poly at 7 p.m. Friday at Mustang Memorial Field in San Luis Obispo, Calif.

Ford said the plan for the rest of the practices is to have them be similar to Saturday.

"Practices like today, where we're getting a lot of walk and talk for our (individual drills) to really get our technique down, and then really getting into some fast stuff when we get to team (drills)," Ford said. "Trying to make sure that we're efficient in our periods, trying to make sure that our (individual drills) matches what we need to get done, but not a snap more."

Ford said that full pads will be on today, half pads on Tuesday, then a "no-sprint" Wednesday and then just helmets and lightweight shoulder pads on Thursday.

Hepburn said that he is excited for game day and he feels like the defense is ready for game action.

"We've made huge strides over fall camp, and I think this defense is definitely ready to get after it," Hepburn said.

Junt can be reached at 208-848-2258, tjunt@lmtribune.com or on X @TrevorJunt.

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