Idaho Preview: Ready to Roll
It might have seemed like an act of mercy when Florida pulled starting quarterback Feleipe Franks in the second quarter of a late-season nonconference game against Idaho last November. Franks had already thrown three touchdown passes and run for another score, and the Gators held a 42-0 lead when he retreated to the sideline. But then true freshman Emory Jones entered the game and attacked the Vandals’ defense just about as ruthlessly as Franks had. Jones threw two touchdowns of his own to help Florida finish off a 63-10 victory.
The story of that game – young, inexperienced quarterback finds his footing against a lower-division opponent – is of some relevance this weekend as Penn State takes its turn playing host to the Vandals. The Nittany Lions have a new QB in Sean Clifford, and they want to get their passing game off to a strong start after experiencing a decline in productivity last year.
This could be an advantageous matchup in that regard. It wasn’t just the Gators who gave Idaho problems in 2018. The Vandals finished 10th in the Big Sky Conference in pass defense, allowing 242.2 yards per game through the air. The low point was a 62-18 loss to rival Idaho State in which Bengals quarterback Tanner Gueller threw for 498 yards and eight touchdowns.
Penn State probably won’t do that to anyone, but it is hoping to build a potent aerial attack around Clifford and a partially revamped receiver corps. Clifford, a redshirt sophomore, won his duel with redshirt freshman Will Levis, and while he’s only thrown seven passes in his career to date, that experience as Trace McSorley’s backup helped make the difference.
“You’ve got an older guy who played in games and really competed like crazy and did everything that he needed to do from the time the season ended,” coach James Franklin said. “But Will did, as well. Will is very, very talented and has got a very, very bright future. But I think when it’s close like that, you’re always going to go with the older, more experienced player. That’s really what Sean is, and he’s done a great job. Both of those guys have earned all the coaches’ respect.”
In addition to introducing a new starting quarterback, the Nittany Lions will also be looking to develop more consistency in their receiver corps than they saw last year. Franklin acknowledged those problems on Tuesday, saying the wideouts “maybe didn’t play as well as they would have liked.”
They’re now under the direction of a new position coach in Gerad Parker, and Franklin said that lately he’s been seeing the improvements he’s been looking for.
“I think those guys are going to have a very, very impressive year based on what Coach Parker has been able to do,” Franklin said. “But also, those guys are older and more experienced. K.J. Hamler had a really good year last year. He’s going to be better because of that. Jahan Dotson, same thing. I actually believe the same thing about [Justin] Shorter. The injuries and the adversity he had to overcome last year, I think, are going to help him. Daniel George was able to gain some experience.
“I think we’re in a situation again where we’ve got a two-deep at the very least, and some positions are three-deep. Cam Sullivan-Brown, we feel very good about [him]. Dan Chisena, I think, is a guy who’s got a lot of buzz on our team right now. And Mac Hippenhammer, I would describe him as just a ballplayer. … He understands spacing, he’s got great body control, tremendous ball skills. So I think everybody will be pleased with that group and excited to watch them play.”
The Nittany Lions might have thought they had an advantageous matchup going into last year’s opener, but that confident aura evaporated during a fourth quarter in which Appalachian State scored 28 points and forced its heavily favored opponent to scramble just to send the game to overtime. There’s a big difference, though, in that App State went into that game with a history of sneaking up on unwary Power Five opponents, while Idaho does not. Since 2016, the Vandals have played four Power Five teams (Washington, Washington State, Missouri and Florida) and have lost to all four by a combined score of 246-51. They surrendered more than 50 points in each of those games.
Over the years, Idaho has bounced around between conferences and even between divisions. For most of their early history, the Vandals played in the Pacific Coast Conference, a precursor to the Pac-12. But the PCC disbanded in the late 1950s, and since then they’ve been football nomads. After a few seasons as independents, they moved into the Big Sky Conference. Then came an upgrade to Division I-A and a five-year stint in the Big West, followed by a switch to the Sun Belt and a subsequent move to the Western Athletic. When the Western Athletic dropped football after the 2012 season, they returned to the Sun Belt as football-only members. That arrangement lasted only four seasons. When the league announced three years ago that it was booting Idaho and New Mexico State after the 2017 season, the Vandals opted to return to the Big Sky, the conference they had left in 1995.
The return to the Big Sky has brought with it a return to a lower division. The Vandals, who played in (and won) three bowl games during their 22 seasons at college football’s highest level, last year became the first program to voluntarily drop from the Football Bowl Subdivision to the Football Championship Subdivision.
Taking a team built for the game’s top division into the FCS might seem like a formula for immediate success, but their first season back in the Big Sky brought its share of transitional difficulties. Idaho opened with a 79-13 loss to Fresno State, and while things got better when the team began playing its new conference rivals, they didn’t get a lot better. Idaho finished 4-7, ending the year with that 63-10 loss at Florida.
There have been a lot of changes since then, especially on defense. Senior cornerback Lloyd Hightower might be a familiar name, as he’s back after ranking eighth in the FCS with 13 pass breakups last season. But 12 players on the defensive depth chart have yet to play their first snap for the Vandals. Coordinator Mike Breske will be relying heavily on an influx of transfers, a contingent headlined by defensive linemen Noah Elliss (a Mississippi State signee coming out of high school), Noah Kim (formerly of Santa Rosa Junior College) and Kayode Rufai (formerly of Boise State).
The Nittany Lions have made some additions of its own, of course, and with their combination of returning players, incoming freshmen and transfers, they are eager to get the season started off right. To hear Franklin tell it, the Lions are feeling good as they make the final preparations for their opener.
“We had a great camp,” he said. “We’re as healthy as we’ve been after training camp in a long time. A lot of the sports science adjustments we’ve made after gaining all this information over the past couple of years have been really valuable. So we’re in a good place. This is going to be an important week of prep for us, and then [we’ll be looking to] go out and play well on Saturday and build confidence.”