THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Idaho State on the way to catching on in the Big Sky

Cody Hawkins won’t get a chance to beat Jason Eck this Saturday. 

The first three times didn’t go so well. 

In Hawkins’ first two seasons at Idaho State, the Bengals lost to Eck’s Vandals, by scores of 63-21 and 40-17. 

Eck, of course, left Idaho after taking the Vandals to the FCS playoffs in each of his three seasons, and this year, in his first season at New Mexico, has the Lobos bowl-eligible. 

As fate would have it, Hawkins coached against Eck early this year as well, with New Mexico beating ISU 32-22. 

“Obviously he’s a great football coach; he did a great job at the University of Idaho,” Hawkins said in July, at the Big Sky Football Kickoff at the Northern Quest Casino in Airway Heights. “It speaks to the quality of Big Sky football play to see what he did. It was like he went through the all-conference roster and tried to take everybody to New Mexico.” 

Well, not everybody. But he did take seven of his former Idaho players, and several Vandal assistants, with him, as well as a few players from other Big Sky schools — three from Weber State, two from Montana State, and one each from Montana and Northern Colorado. 

“He’s a great dude, he’s a real good football coach, and he’s a program-builder,” Hawkins continued. “I have a bunch of kids that I went to high school with who are University of Idaho alumni, and he did a great job with the boosters, he did a great job with the students. And he’ll get it going at New Mexico. 

“Every job is a tough spot until you get the right guy in there.” 

YOU MIGHT be able to say the same thing about Cody Hawkins, who brings his Idaho State team to Moscow on Saturday to play the Vandals in the season finale for both teams. 

In his first two seasons in Pocatello, Hawkins’ Bengals went 3-8 and 5-7. 

This year, ISU entered Saturday at 4-6, 3-3 in the Big Sky, and a missed opportunity or two from contending for a spot in the 24-team FCS playoffs. The Bengals have only made the playoffs twice — in 1981, when they won the I-AA national title, and then again in 1983. 

Hawkins created excitement right off the bat by throwing the ball. Problem was, the Bengals couldn’t stop anybody. ISU has since improved its defense and added a running game. 

Not coincidentally, the Bengals led Montana in the fourth quarter earlier this year before losing, then won a couple weeks ago at UC Davis. 

“To me, taking the next step is just getting the program in the right spot,” Hawkins said. “And if you look at our team now, vs. when I arrived, not because of me but because of the program changes — how we support the student-athletes, the staffing, the administration, the amount of scholarships they’re letting us have ... (improvements in) the weight room, the cage, the practice facility, the Dome ... you’re always trying to figure out, how to put our guys in a position to be successful.” 

KAI WHEELER is our local tie to ISU. 

The former Coeur d’Alene High star, a first-team all-Idaho selection at receiver and defensive back last year, originally committed to play baseball before deciding on football. 

“Kai was a guy that we had stayed in touch with for a long time,” Hawkins said of the 6-foot-2, 207-pound Wheeler. “We’ve kinda created a niche on the offensive side of the ball — we call them the Big Body Benzes — trying to get some bigger wide receivers. And last year, for the majority of the season, three of our wide receivers were from Idaho. So staying in-state for bigger guys is something we’ve had success with.  

“We had seen Kai at camp for a couple of years, and he was always a competitor,” Hawkins continued. “We had seen his production this year. We were just trying to find, where does he fit? Is the juice worth the squeeze? Because even though I love North Idaho, he’s closer to U of I, Eastern and Montana than he is to Idaho State. But I think it was a really good schematic fit. So we had stayed in touch with him for a long time, and wanted to make sure we had room for him, because I’m not big into the over-signing component. When we were able to get him, we were excited about it, and he’s going to do a great job for us.” 

Wheeler has seen action in one game this year as a true freshman, so he can redshirt. 

When Wheeler does get on the field ... 

“He’s somewhere between a tight end and a linebacker, but he has really good ball skills, and he’s a big kid," Hawkins said. “Kai’s not a guy that’s going to go in motion, you’re not going to throw Kai bubble screens (though that worked quite nicely at Coeur d’Alene). For our bigger guys on the outside, he fits the mold. We want guys that are going to win jump balls, we want guys that are going to block on the perimeter, and we want guys that can get over the middle, and that’s him. He’s not going to do it with shiftiness; he’s going to do it by running through arm tackles.” 

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 1205, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @CdAPressSports. 

    Cody Hawkins