Aug. 2—Having done the hard work of drawing a massive recruiting class to replace the slew of headliners it lost after a historic 2023 football season, the University of Idaho coaching staff is now getting its first chance to bring the entire new roster together and sort things out.
Toward that end, the East Practice Field was bustling on Tuesday morning as the Vandals began their second day of fall camp under a spotless sky while temperatures climbed into the upper 80s.
Big shoes to fill
Particularly in need of shoring up is Idaho’s special teams unit, which lost standouts like kicker Ricardo Chavez and punt returner Jermaine Jackson. Idaho headman Jason Eck and special teams coordinator Tyler Sutton agree that the emphasis this year is on depth and consistency over and above any individual star power.
“I think guys have done a good job stepping up to fill those spots,” Eck said. “It’s going to have to be a team effort, though — we’re going to have to be good with all 11 guys who are out there. Sometimes last year, our specialists were so good they kind of covered up everything else. … You don’t want to put the pressure on one guy of replacing a great player; it’s really a collective effort.”
Sutton likewise expressed his excitement to see “more and more guys that I’m feeling, and our staff are feeling, we’re going to be able to really count on in game situations.”
“The more guys you have that can do a lot of things the way that we’re asking them to, (it) really gives us some flexibility,” he continued. “Make sure guys are fresh, and the guys that are out there are going to be as fast as they can possibly be.”
Leading candidates for the starting positions are emerging.
“Cameron Pope’s doing a great job being a place kicker for us right now,” Sutton said. “I think the punting job is good competition — LJ Harm is doing a good job for us — and then our snappers are stepping up continually making each other better every day.”
Eck named redshirt junior and University of Alabama transfer Xander Echols as the “leading candidate” for long-snapper, albeit with multiple other players bringing “real heat” in the early days of camp.
“Electric” Williams joins the crew
No new addition to the special teams — or indeed, perhaps the Vandal roster as a whole — has generated more buzz than Weber State transfer Abraham Williams, a two-time All-American kick returner whose name appears on this year’s East-West Shrine Bowl 1,000 list of prospective NFL draftees.
A 6-foot-1 fifth-year senior, Williams has amassed 1,433 yards on 42 kick returns through his collegiate career, adding 535 yards last season alone. He said he made the move here because he felt the UI coaching staff “got him.”
“Everything just sounded right, sounded perfect for me — everything that I wanted, too,” explained Williams, who said he is focusing on his defense at corner and will also vie for punt-returner action to go along with his signature kick returning.
“Man, that guy’s electric,” Sutton said of Williams. “We’re really excited about him. The great thing about him and our relationship is, for everything that he’s done in his career already, he’s still eager to learn.”
Bringing it all together
Eck concluded Tuesday’s practice with words to the whole team about ways to negate an opponent’s momentum, noting that football offers a particularly strong opportunity to “reset” with regular 20-to-30 second breaks between plays, in contrast to sports like basketball in which the action is much more continuous. The single most important thing, he said, was for players to encourage and celebrate each other and raise general morale, in keeping with the theme that this year’s Vandals will be defined more by depth and team dynamics than exceptional individuals.
Are those dynamics being established? New additions to the roster answered in the affirmative. Echols — who could be seen laughing with the likes of fellow long-snapper Jace Eastlick and special teams quality control coach Theodore Brown as they ran drills — said the team already “has a great atmosphere going this year” after two practices.
