Vandals begin Big Sky play at NAU

Today, Idaho at Northern Arizona, 1 p.m. TV: ESPN+. Radio: 92.5 FM, 1080 AM

By MARK NELKE

Sports editor

Heading into the fourth week of the season, the playing field is finally level for the Idaho Vandals.

Speaking to the media in advance of today’s Big Sky Conference football opener at Northern Arizona, first-year Idaho coach Jason Eck was asked what he’s learned about his team through the first three weeks.

“Not a lot,” he replied. “Our first three games weren’t really level playing fields either way. We were, on paper, heavy favorites against Drake, and the other two teams (Washington State and Indiana), on paper, were heavy favorites against us. These are two teams that are pretty evenly matched; it’s going to be who plays better on Saturday.”

Both Idaho and Northern Arizona are 1-2. The Vandals played the two Power Five conference teams tough in defeat, then pulled away in the second half to beat Drake by 28 points.

The Lumberjacks lost 40-3 at Arizona State, won 10-3 at Sam Houston (which is transitioning to FBS) and lost 27-24 at home to North Dakota, ranked No. 22 in FCS.

In the spring 2021 season, Sam Houston beat South Dakota State, where Eck was an assistant coach at the time, in the FCS championship game.

“Their defense is what impresses me,” Eck said of NAU. “Holding Sam Houston to three points on the road … I’ve seen that Sam Houston offense, playing them at my former school in the playoffs, and that’s a good offense. They’ve gone up against a lot of athletic, running quarterbacks, so they’ve had some tough offenses to handle. They haven’t had a Pioneer League team (like Drake) on their schedule. They’ve played three really quality opponents, so this is definitely going to be a good test for the Vandals.”

Sophomore quarterback RJ Martinez has thrown for 630 yards and two touchdowns with four interceptions for NAU. The Lumberjacks are averaging just 72 yards per game on the ground, but Eck said NAU might emphasize the run against Idaho as the Vandals are allowing 148 yards per game on the ground.

“The biggest thing is stopping the run, and letting them bleed us. We can’t give up 5 yards a run.

The biggest thing is stopping the run, and (not) letting them bleed us. We can’t give up 5 yards a run,” Eck said.

Chris Ball, in his fourth season at NAU, was an assistant coach at Washington State three different times (1989-90, 2000-02 and 2008-11).

Eck noted six Arizona players on the Vandal roster, in particular the Hatten twins (Hayden and Hogan), who might be a little extra motivated after not being recruited by NAU.

Eck said the Vandals need to be scoring more touchdowns on offense (seven so far) and kicking less field goals (six), and said penalties are killing too many Idaho drives. He said he can live with the occasional holding or pass interference penalty.

“But the pre-snap ones, and the post-snap late hits, those are foolish,” he said.