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Idaho Football

Coach Jason Eck leaving Idaho for New Mexico

Coach Jason Eck went 26-13 in three seasons at Idaho.  (Geoff Crimmins/For The Spokesman-Review)
By Peter Harriman The Spokesman-Review

MOSCOW, Idaho – A day after being eliminated in the quarterfinals of the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs by Montana State, Idaho is suddenly scrambling to maintain a three-year upswing in its football fortunes as coach Jason Eck and key players are leaving.

Eck has signed a five-year contract to coach New Mexico. Within hours of that news Saturday, starting quarterback Jack Layne and leading wide receiver Jordan Dwyer announced they were entering the transfer portal.

Eck, 47, compiled a 26-13 record with Idaho in his three years , taking the Vandals to the FCS playoffs every year.

They were eliminated in the first round in 2022 and in the quarterfinals the past two years.

Before that, Idaho had not enjoyed a winning season since 2016, when it finished 9-4 and beat Colorado State 61-50 in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.

Two years later, the Vandals had been dropped by the Sun Belt Conference and abandoned a 22-year venture in the Football Bowl Subdivision to return to the Big Sky Conference and FCS.

“We are grateful for everything that Jason has done to elevate Vandal football, Idaho athletics, the University of Idaho, our community and state,” UI Athletics Director Terry Gawlik said of Eck’s departure.

“We wish Jason, Kimberly and the entire Eck family the best of luck. Jason took over a struggling team and built a culture, brought excitement and winning back to the dome immediately. We now look to the future to find the next leader of the Vandal football program. The foundation for success has been laid, and we will look to the future with the goals of winning Big Sky and national championships.”

At New Mexico, Eck replaces Bronco Mendenhall, who posted a 5-7 record in one year before resigning to take the head coaching job at Utah State.

Success at New Mexico has historically been elusive. The last coach with a career winning record was Marv Levy, who went 14-6 in 1958-59.

Mendenhall was reportedly paid $1.2 million a year. When he was hired at Idaho in 2022 for his first head coaching job, Eck’s base salary was $175,000. Incentives brought that up to close to $400,000 annually.

Eck, in the midst of a successful tenure as offensive coordinator at South Dakota State University – the current two-time defending FCS champion – was hired to lead Idaho on Dec. 18, 2021. He had formerly been an assistant coach at Idaho from 2004-06.

In addition to reaching the FCS quarterfinals the past two seasons, Eck coached quarterback Gevani McCoy to the Jerry Rice Award, honoring the FCS’ most outstanding freshman, in 2022. This past season, Idaho went 10-4, winning 10 games for only the third time in school history and finishing undefeated in the Kibbie Dome (6-0) for the first time since 1996.

“I am truly humbled to be selected as the head coach of the New Mexico Lobos,” Eck said in a statement announcing his hiring at New Mexico.

“I know that the university community, students, alumni, Lobo Nation and greater Albuquerque and New Mexico communities are eager for success, and I cannot wait to give that to them. We will have tremendous coaches and support staff and develop our student-athletes into elite athletes, UMN graduates and people.

“My wife, Kimberly, and our five children are thrilled to be a part of Albuquerque and we are ready to go!”

One of Eck’s sons, Jaxton, a sophomore, is an All-Big Sky Conference linebacker and Idaho’s leading tackler this past season with 134 tackles, with three tackles for loss and an interception.

In his time with the Vandals, Eck showed he understood Moscow and Idaho fans trapped in mediocre seasons and reminiscing about glory days in the 1980s and 1990s when Idaho ruled the Big Sky, won nine conference championships and made 11 playoff appearances.

He sought to change that. Eck united fans behind an image when he repurposed an “ears up” V hand sign for the SDSU Jackrabbits from his time there into a “V’s up” signal for the Vandals.

After key wins, such as reclaiming the Little Brown Stein traveling trophy from Montana in 2022, Eck would bring the hardware to Moscow’s iconic Corner Club bar to celebrate with fans.