Bringing the Wood: Idaho banking on big-play potential of transfer QB from Fresno State
Talk about not being afraid to break the mold.
New University of Idaho football coach Thomas Ford Jr. returned three quarterbacks from 2024 with meaningful game experience who helped the Vandals to a 10-4 record and the quarterfinals of the FCS playoffs.
This fall, none of the three is on the two-deep roster.
Enter Joshua Wood and Sawyer Teeney.
Wood, the starter, is a redshirt sophomore who transferred to Idaho from Fresno State. After missing all of 2023 with an injury, the 6-foot-3, 215-pound Wood – who finished the regular season with 195 yards passing in a reserve role – left Fresno State with a bang. In a loss to Northern Illinois in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, Wood passed for 180 yards and a touchdown, and ran for 32 yards and another score.
After drawing inquiries in the transfer portal from Arkansas, Miami, Michigan State and Utah, Wood – who says he also followed Washington State since his early years, because his father, Victor, played for the Cougars from 1984-88 – concluded “at the end of the day, I am a Vandal.”
Wood says he came to Idaho “because I want to win a championship. This team is a contender.”
As an Idaho assistant, Ford recruited Wood and has known him for more than a decade, since Wood began training at Tracy’s Ford Sports Performance – owned by the coach’s brother – in Seattle.
“I don’t think we could have found a better guy,” Ford says of Wood.
True freshman Sawyer Teeney, a 5-11, 192-pounder from Silverton, Oregon, will open the season as Wood’s backup. Teeney arrived in Moscow several days after the start of preseason camp without a scholarship and has been upgraded to preferred walk-on. Teeney threw for 7,914 yards and 92 touchdowns in his three seasons in high school.
Wood and Teeney beat out redshirt sophomore Jack Wagner, who played in 11 games last season after starter Jack Layne was hurt. Layne followed former coach Jason Eck to New Mexico.
Wagner passed for 1,389 yards and 12 TDs in 2024. When Wagner battled injuries himself, Nick Josifek – another redshirt sophomore – got into six games and passed for 282 yards. Redshirt freshman Rocco Koch also saw action, playing in three games and rushing for 53 yards and two scores.
“Our offense last year was good,” Ford says. “This year we are a little more explosive.”
It also promises to be cohesive. Wood says he has known several of his new Vandals teammates since Little League days.
“Meshing with them has been no problem.” As for the rest of the team, “it has been a great transition. The whole team has welcomed me.”
That’s especially the case among the quarterbacks. Early in fall camp, before he was named starter, Wood said of the QB competition “everyone is helping everyone. At the end of the day, whoever needs help, in the (QB) room we help each other. It’s all about love in there.”
Wood appears to be taking his role as team leader seriously. At a point in Idaho’s most recent scrimmage, the non-playing quarterbacks were clustered at the 40-yard line. Except for Wood. He was 40 yards down the sideline near the line of scrimmage at the 20-yard line, where he loudly exhorted the reserve offense on the field.
Wood also has a feel for his new team’s history. His QB coach and offensive coordinator, former signal caller Matt Linehan, led Idaho to a wild Famous Idaho Potato Bowl victory in 2016. Idaho outlasted Colorado State, 61-50, in a game where the Vandals and Rams combined to tie or break 24 Potato Bowl records on offense.
Wood smiles. “I looked up his tape from when he played.”
As Ford integrates a new starting quarterback and backup into the Vandals’ offense, he can lean on Idaho’s returning leaders like six-year senior captain and left guard Nate Azzopardi, who says of Wood, “if we can keep a clean pocket for him, I am confident he is going to make a lot of plays for us. It has been smooth sailing ever since he got here.”