Idaho corner Jhamell Blenman stuck through coaching change. Now both sides are benefiting.
MOSCOW, Idaho – As Jhamell “Deuce” Blenman pours hopes, dreams and experience into a senior season, he is one of a handful of University of Idaho graybeards who seem like relics from a former era.
Blenman is a sniper as an open -field tackler with 12 hits in three games, and he is a steadying presence primarily at left cornerback in a young Vandals’ defensive backfield.
“He is one of our more experienced cornerbacks in the room. I can kind of trust him,” said Idaho cornerbacks coach Treston Decoud.
“I am a more physical defensive back. I have to be because of my size ,” the 5-foot-11, 190-pound Denman said. “I am not the biggest. But I am strong.” His facility for dropping receivers and running backs in the open field is a learned skill, he adds.
“It is one of the hardest things to do in football.”
Blenman has been around. He was originally recruited from Compton, California , by former Washington State coach Nick Rolovich and redshirted with the Cougars in 2021. After Rolovich was released by WSU for refusing to get a COVID vaccination and replaced by Jake Dickert, Blenman said, “I tried to stick it out.”
He went through spring football with the Cougs but decided “the coaching switch wasn’t for me.”
Blenman returned to California for a successful junior college season at Cerritos College, where he made 38 tackles, intercepted a pass, broke up nine passes and blocked a kick, then he found his way back to the Palouse. Stanley Franks, who had been a graduate assistant with WSU when Blenman was in Pullman, had moved to Idaho to be the defensive backfield coach when Jason Eck took over for Paul Petrino in 2022. Blenman developed a good relationship with Franks and became a Vandal.
It took him a while to get on the field regularly. In his first season at Idaho in 2023, he recorded six tackles. Last year, he had 12. Blenman went through another coaching change when Thomas Ford Jr. succeeded Eck, who left to coach at New Mexico. This change couldn’t have gone better. Decoud followed Franks, who followed Eck to the Lobos, and he got his first look at Blenman last spring.
“I didn’t know if he was fast, quick, had ball skills or what,” Decoud remembered. “But in spring I could see him come alive.”
Blenman made plays but was inconsistent, so Decoud told him : “ ‘You can play for us. But you have got to make plays.’ In fall camp, since day one, he has made every play.
“He is awesome, amazing. I couldn’t ask for nothing better.”
Their time as coach and player is compressed into the next five months, and Decoud said wistfully, “if I had Deuce for two years, I would think he could go to the NFL.”
“Coach Decoud is awesome. He pushes us to be better players,” said Blenman. “For me, it works. I am hard on myself . Even if I have a good game, I want to be better.”
Idaho (2-2) is looking ahead to opening the Big Sky Conference season at Montana Saturday after absorbing a close 31-28 loss to San Jose State from the Football Bowl Subdivision Mountain West Conference a week ago.
Idaho also put a 13-10 scare into WSU in the season -opening game.
Blenman, however, is not interested in moral victories.
“I will not allow people to pat us on the back because we played close,” he said.
That is not as dour as it sounds.
Decoud’s demanding coaching seems to come with a countering dose of sunshine – which matches Blenman’s own natural ebullience. If you need to find either one of them at a party, look for the guy in the center of the biggest crowd of people.
“He is a very personable guy, straight up, honest,” Blenman says of his coach. Even at the last stop on his well-traveled college journey Blenman does not see football as a job.
“I am so blessed to play this game. I never want to take that for granted,” he said.
While the NFL is Blenman’s next goal, he has the default position of a marketing degree, backed up by being named to the 2024 Big Sky Conference All-Academic Team.
Then there is also the prospect of coaching.
“I have been to three different colleges with four or five different coaches,” says Blenman. “I have a bunch of connections.”
In the immediate future, though, Blenman and the Vandals are chasing a Big Sky title and a deep run in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs, where Idaho reached the quarter finals the past two seasons.
Decoud also has a personal goal for Blenman.
“Deuce is a smart player,” Decoud said. “He is good at listening, following directions and taking them from the classroom to the field.
“But we do have to get him an interception. They tend to come in bunches. … I expect Deuce to make a pick (against Montana). He has the instincts to make plays.”