THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Vandal coach Ford on local players, and those who transferred out — and those who stayed (part 3)

The Idaho Vandal football team is down to two players from the five northern counties in Idaho — Owen Forsman, a redshirt sophomore placekicker from Lakeland High; and Alex Green, a redshirt junior offensive lineman from Lake City. 

In addition to the transfer of former Priest River High standout Matyus McLain to Washington State, the Vandals also saw two other players from the area transfer — defensive end Trevor Miller (Post Falls) left to play at NAIA Montana Tech in Butte, and linebacker Wayne Queen (Lake City) was considering a couple NAIA schools at last check, Idaho coach Thomas Ford said. 

Three Vandals who entered the portal ended up signing with other Big Sky schools. 

“It’s not ideal,” Ford said recently, while in Coeur d’Alene for a Vandal football recruiting function at The Coeur d’Alene Resort. 

Though he noted in the case of linebacker Will Cornelson, a transfer from Tyler Junior College who ended up at Weber State, his head coach at Tyler was recently named associate head coach at Weber. 

THE OTHER Sky-to-Sky transfers were safety Hayden John, who landed at UC Davis, and wide receiver Trenton Swanson, who signed with Eastern Washington. 

Idaho is scheduled to play at Weber State on Oct. 10. Idaho plays host to EWU on Nov. 7. UC Davis is scheduled to visit Idaho on Nov. 14.

“Every kid that transferred, we talked before, because I knew that was something that was a possibility,” Ford said. “For example, for Matyus, it made a lot of sense, because he knew he was going to be able to go to a bigger school, and get some good financial incentive to go.” 

Linebacker Dylan Layne, an Oregon native, transferred to Oregon State for his final season. Cort Dennison, who was defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at Idaho last season, is now co-defensive coordinator/linebackers coach at OSU. 

Among the other transfers known to have found landing spots, safety Matt Irwin ended up at Central Florida. 

Ford said cornerback Caleb Ricks, who played as a true freshman at Idaho last fall and earned some national honors, was the lone Vandal to transfer to an FBS school (San Diego State, which will be part of the new Pac-12 starting this fall). 

“I thought if he’d stayed one more season for us, he’d go to a Power 4 school,” Ford said. “There’s no doubt in my mind.” 

Ford said when the Vandals recruited Ricks, they “kinda knew” he might not be around Moscow for the duration. 

“We told him in recruiting that we’d probably only have him for two years, so we were really trying to stick to that plan,” Ford said.  

FORD SAID he had an idea that McLain, coming off a strong redshirt sophomore season as an edge rusher, would consider transferring. 

“Nowadays, you can kinda get a feel,” Ford said. “I felt like we had three players who played well enough that they could go garner some actual financial incentive, and he was definitely one of those guys.” 

The other two? 

One was Ricks. 

The other? 

Quarterback Joshua Wood.  

But Ford said Wood, the Day 1 starter as a redshirt sophomore after transferring from Fresno State, had “no interest in leaving this year.” 

“Joshua and I have a really special relationship,” Ford said. “He felt like he didn’t play as well as he wanted to. We didn’t win as much as he knows we’re capable of, and he wanted to finish the job. And one thing he told me that was really important to him was, graduating from Idaho. He’ll graduate next December, so getting a degree with the Vandals was something that was really important to him, and there was never a time that he thought he was going to go in at all.” 

Wood missed two games with an injury last year, when the Vandals finished 4-8 and missed the postseason after three straight trips to the FCS playoffs. 

“There was never a conversation (about leaving),” Ford said. “It was always ‘Coach, I’m here with you, I’m back, I want to go win here.’ And I think that tells you what kind of kid he is, because I know for a fact if he went in he would have gotten paid.   

“Trust me, we are paying him less than his market value, for sure.” 

Ford said the Vandal offense might look a little different under new offensive coordinator Ian Shoemaker. 

“Just a different style of football,” Ford said. “We’re still going to be physical in the run game, we’re still going to try to get you in to throw it over your heads. I just think the sequencing and the flow will be a lot different.” 

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.