February 6 – Exact 49 days after accepting the job of head coach with the Idaho football team, Thomas Ford Jr. Recruitment of the trails of day 1.
The first class of Ford includes 10 of the 19 user interface players signed at the start of the signature period in December, when Jason Eck was still head coach and 20 Northwest Pacific players, including eight of Idaho and Washington.
Twenty-three signatories are high school athletes, seven are NCAA transfers and three are junior university transfers.
“I am really excited by the depth of (the class) and from where we got the guys,” said Ford. “One thing that is really important to me is that, in a given year, we really want to be around 60% of the guys in the northwest. And when you look at this course, we are 60% … and You see this correct number in Idaho and Washington, being eight guys each of each state.
Here is a first overview of the future of Vandal Football:
Hewett from Kendrick is at the user interface, the titles of eight local local vandals
Of the 10 recruits of the early signature period to stick to their commitment, the most notable football star could be the Kendrick Sawytt football star.
The wide and versatile and versatile receiver will feel at home in Kibbie Dome, where he won four state championships at small school with tigers during a dominant preparatory football career.
“I think a guy like Sawyer – who is such a productive player, even in a small school – you cannot let these guys escape,” said Idaho’s offensive coordinator Matt Linehan. “If it is in your backyard, you have to take the best players who are in your backyard. And he was an exemplary player at this level.”
The other Idaho recruits in the state of gems include Ballon Taeshaun Reese (Meridian High), the second Jack Giannini (Eagle High) and a multitude of defensive line lines: Shepard Fish (Meridian / High Capital) , Austin Flaherty (Boisse / Borah High), Caden Siegner (Star / Owyhee High), Nate Williams (Eagle High) and Mason Krahn (Nampa / Skyview High).
Fish, Krahn and Williams are all classified as three -star recruits per 247sports.com.
No QB in this class
Fans might notice that there is no quarter-Arrière in this class.
The only QB of the early signature period of the UI – Toa Faavae from the High School room in California – has chosen to follow Eck in the New Mexico.
With the user interface starter, Jack Layne, also transferred to UM, Idaho currently has four quarters on its list, all second -year students – Jack Wagner, Nick Josifck, Rocco Koch and Holden Bea.
Wagner and Josifeck have sometimes contributed to moments during a season in 2024 which saw the Vandals finish with their best record (10-4) since 1993, so the user interface is still promising in this position despite its youth and a lack of new recruits there.
“Coach Linehan, I think, is quite selective in this position,” said Ford about QB. “We don’t want to take a guy just for the list number. We want to take a guy in whom we believe (and) can develop and be a starter here one day.
“So there are a few objectives that we have talked about with and that we could potentially obtain (in the future).”
Uw, Boisse State, Montana State transfers in the mixture
The vandals plunged into the transfer portal for a handful of recruits and emerged with certain names of certain familiar regional rivals.
The Large Lonyatta Alexander Jr. state receiver of the state of Montana, the graduate defensive player Maurice Heims of Washington, the second tight Boover Fisher from Boisse State and the first -year defensive line Redshirt Kai Richardson of the State State Oregon are among the transfers.
Alexander played 15 games, catching 22 assists for 264 yards for the FCS-Runners’ bobcats, which eliminated the vandals in the second round of the FCS qualifiers in December.
The 3 -foot 3 -inch senior could help fill the vacuum left by the Wideouts by Jordan Dwyer (TCU) and Mark Hamper (Wisconsin).
Alexander (Auburn, Wash./Kennedy Catholic High) is someone that the Ford family has known since its first cycle of the undergraduate, starting to be trained and formed by the Ford brothers, Tracy Ford and Reggie Ford, in Seattle region. So familiarity was already there.
“My youngest brother Tracy, trained him since he was probably in sixth or seventh year. And my middle brother Reggie led him to Kennedy Catholic. And it’s almost as if he had been here for four years, “said Ford. “He’s a veteran we needed in this room. We needed a guy who played a lot of football, and obviously (he) played a ton of football.”
Other notes and quotes
The junior offensive line player Howard STEDFORD, of NCAA DII PACE University in New York, is “just a great physical and sporty guy” who is already on campus and impresses coaches with his attitude.
The defensive line was a strong accent put with 11 signatories in total. In total, UI has 21 recruits in defense and 12 in attack.
Fisher did not see any action in BSU, but the taises as a recruit three stars at tight end and were at some point the perspective n ° 3 in Oregon (Sherwood High), by 247sports.com.
Ford on the challenges of a short recruitment window for its staff: “I probably think that the biggest challenge was to try to find guys who correspond to our program and do it in such a short time. The guys, As, a calendar year, you are able to examine much more in terms of their character, their work ethics and these things.
Ahead
The Idaho begins spring training on March 24 with the annual spring match scheduled at 6 p.m. on April 25 at P1FU Kibbie Dome.
The sports journalist Sam Taylor contributed to this story.
Full name POS. Ht. Wt. Yr. Hometown / Lycée
