‘Be the hammer, not the nail’: Idaho looks to stun FCS playoffs in quarterfinal against top-seeded Montana State

MOSCOW, Idaho – The temperature was holding steady at 31 degrees. The practice field was illuminated by artificial light overhead in the evening chill, and the players, as they breathed, steamed like dragons.

Idaho starting linebackers Jaxton Eck and Zach Johnson joined a handful of other Vandals in making a statement and going through practice Tuesday with bare arms and in shorts

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They have more than passing familiarity with cold-weather football. Johnson played for Lake City High School in Coeur d-Alene, and Eck played at even colder Brookings High School in South Dakota.

Idaho has left its climate-controlled Kibbie Dome to work out outdoors this week.

This bravado is part of what Eck’s father, Idaho coach Jason Eck, said is needed to flip the script on undefeated Big Sky Conference champion and Football Championship Subdivision top seed Montana State.

The Vandals return to Bozeman on Friday night for the FCS quarterfinals against the team that dispatched them 38-7 in October in the regular season.

With key players who were knocked out of that game or who missed it entirely with injuries available for duty in the playoffs, the Vandals expect to be a much tougher out.

Idaho has won six straight games – including a 34-9 win against Lehigh in the FCS second round – since falling to the Bobcats.

Nonetheless, the Vandals face the formidable challenge of standing up to MSU offensive and defensive lines that routinely knocked the Vandals off the ball in the first meeting,

They are going to have to at least slow Bobcats quarterback Tommy Mellott, the Big Sky Offensive Player of the Year and a finalist for the Walter Payton Award honoring the best player in FCS.

Idaho’s biggest challenge this time around may not be scoring more than seven points but keeping the Bobcats from scoring 38 again.

Mellott has had a supreme senior season, throwing for 2,280 yards and 26 touchdowns with a single interception, and running for 307 yards and six touchdowns.

In Montana State’s second-round 49-17 win against Tennessee Martin, Mellott threw for a career-high 300 yards and four touchdowns as the Bobcats rolled up 501 yards of total offense.

“He is a good player, obviously,” Johnson said. “We have got to factor that into our game plan.”

“He is going to make some plays,” Jaxton Eck said.

MSU relies heavily on run-pass options. One way to attempt to counter that is to confuse Mellott’s reads.

“We want to give him different looks,” Eck said.

“We have to always know where he is at,” Johnson said, “and when he pulls the ball, we have got to stay disciplined. Don’t let him get out in space.”

Eck, an All-Big Sky first-team linebacker, is Idaho’s leading tackler with 121 this season. Johnson is third with 81, and he intercepted a pass and returned it 76 yards for a score against Lehigh.

Idaho will welcome a similar play against the Bobcats.

“We have got to get off to a faster start than the first game,” Johnson said.

“We don’t want to get down by a lot,” Eck added.

In October against MSU, Idaho went with third-team quarterback Nick Josifek, until he was knocked out by an injury. Second-team quarterback Jack Wagner, who was also injured and serving as the emergency backup, had to finish the game. Leading rusher Nate Thomas was also out with an injury, and backfield starter Elisha Cummings left with a leg injury.

All of them, with the exception of Josifek, who is out for the year, are available. Season starting quarterback Jack Layne, who has missed all but six games with collarbone and wrist injuries, is back, healthy and sharp.

Layne threw for 318 yards and three touchdowns against Lehigh. In the six games he has played, he has 1,233 passing yards with 12 touchdowns and three interceptions.

With the absence of Thomas and Cummings, Idaho discovered a solid running back in Deshaun Buchanan. In eight games , Buchanan is averaging 6.8 yards per carry, 472 overall, with five touchdowns.

In addition to giving the defense a bigger challenge, the Vandals wants to get MSU in more third-and-long possessions this time. The Bobcats use a robust running game to stay ahead of the chains.

“They just kind of run their stuff,” Johnson said.

But Eck said Idaho’s linebackers need to stand up against it.

“Be the hammer, not the nail,” he said.

The drubbing in October lingers for Idaho.

“It is hard to explain,” Johnson said. “We didn’t play that great of a game.”

Eck said Idaho’s defense made too many mental errors.

“We have got to be faster and we have got to be more sound,” he said.

The rewards for doing so would lead the Vandals (10-3) to a school-record 11-win season and a spot in the FCS semifinals

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