Dec. 7—When Idaho quarterback Jack Layne runs out of the tunnel tonight in front of thousands of Vandal football fans, he will feel grateful.
“That’s kind of the word, the theme for me for this season,” Layne said. “Just grateful every time I get to step out here, especially in front of these fans. I mean, it’s special.”
Layne will be making just his seventh career start and fifth of the year today after suffering a collarbone injury in Idaho’s season opener and dealing with another injury midseason.
Having led the Vandals (9-3) to victory three times in 2024, Layne will take the field at 6 p.m. today for No. 8 Idaho’s second-round home playoff game against Lehigh (9-3) at the P1FCU Kibbie Dome in Moscow. ESPN+ will broadcast the game.
Several members of the Idaho football team will graduate from the University of Idaho in the morning and then play a football game in the evening.
“December in Moscow, Idaho, is about playoff football,” Vandals coach Jason Eck said. “So excited for our third December home game here in the last two years.”
One more in the Dome
Given Idaho’s No. 8 seed in the FCS playoffs, this second-round playoff game is likely the final Vandal home game in the Kibbie Dome of the year, whether the Vandals win or lose.
A win for the Vandals would most likely send them back to Bozeman to face the undefeated No. 1-seeded Montana State Bobcats. MSU hosts UT Martin today in a matchup they are favored to win by 17.5 points.
Montana State beat Idaho 38-7 on Oct. 12.
It would take an “After Dark” brand of chaos for the Vandals to earn another home playoff game, but before Vandal fans can dream up those scenarios, Idaho must first take care of business today.
“The margin of error is very small,” All-Big Sky wide receiver Jordan Dwyer said. “There’s only 16 teams left in the country, so everybody who’s playing right now is (a) really good football team. So we just got to take every day seriously and focus on getting better.”
After their 2023 season ended with a home playoff loss, the Vandals went undefeated in the Kibbie Dome this season at 5-0. It’s a fact that is on Eck’s mind as he prepares for the game.
“This is another legacy game for our seniors,” Eck said. “We talked about going undefeated at home. … Doesn’t do any good to say we were undefeated at home until we lost in the playoffs.”
Vandals vs. Mountain (Ball)Hawks
About two-thirds of the Vandals’ receiving yards have been generated by two players: Dwyer and redshirt freshman Mark Hamper.
The duo made 15-of-17 total catches two weeks ago in Idaho’s 40-17 win over Idaho State and have combined for nearly 1,700 yards and 13 touchdowns.
The Mountain Hawks fly into Idaho with the 10th-best passing defense in the Football Championship Subdivision.
The Richmond Spiders crawled into last week’s first-round playoff meeting with Lehigh averaging 380 yards of total offense per game. They were greeted by a Mountain Hawks defense that contained them to 345 yards and one touchdown in four trips to the red zone.
Nick Peltekian is Lehigh’s resident Mountain (ball) Hawk with four interceptions.
Jackson Dowd snagged two of his five broken-up passes last week and Andrew Worthy leads the team with eight passes defensed.
Scouting the Mountain Hawks
Lehigh finished first in the Patriot League with a 9-3 overall record and 5-1 conference record. The Mountain Hawks season began with a 42-7 road loss to Army, of the Football Bowl Subdivision, who on Friday won the American Athletic Conference Championship.
After a 38-35 double overtime loss to Bucknell in their conference opener on Sept. 28 and a 15-point loss to Yale the following week, the Mountain Hawks raddled off five straight wins to secure the Patriot League title.
The Mountain Hawks’ playoff journey began with a day-long bus ride to Richmond, Va., where they upset No. 9 Richmond 20-16 in the first round of the FCS playoffs last week.
Lehigh trailed Richmond 16-7 with about 10 minutes left before the Mountain Hawks cashed in on a career day from wide receiver Geoffrey Jamiel, who caught the go-ahead touchdown pass from quarterback Hayden Johnson. Jamiel accounted for 137 of Johnson’s 199 passing yards.
Johnson — a dual-threat QB with 1,229 passing yards, 10 touchdowns, six interceptions and a 70% completion percentage — leads the Mountain Hawks on offense. He has also rushed for 238 yards and four touchdowns.
The first-year signal-caller stepped into the starting role midseason, experienced two early-season losses and righted the ship. Johnson and Lehigh ride a six-game win streak into Moscow.
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Lehigh’s backfield contains a one-two punch of running backs Luke Yoder (943 yards) and Jaden Green (763 yards). The pair have 10 touchdown runs each.
Through the air, Johnson relies on Jamiel (70 receptions for 701 yards, eight TDs) and Mason Humphrey (39 catches for 489 yards, five TDs).
Lehigh has defied the odds and put together an impressive season that continues tonight in Moscow.
“We’re excited about the opportunity to play a good Lehigh football team,” Eck said. “One of the fun things about the playoffs is playing teams that you’re not familiar with and you really have to dig into the tape. I hadn’t seen Lehigh on TV this year, but they’re a really well-coached team. Coach (Kevin) Cahill and his staff have done a tremendous job turning that program around in just a couple of years.”
Building a legacy
Hanging in the Kibbie Dome’s rafters is a banner with each of Idaho’s FCS playoff appearances. There is a notable gap from Idaho’s time in the Football Bowl Subdivision, but the drought was a bit longer than that 20-year timeframe.
Eck arrived in Moscow three years ago and renewed a winning tradition.
The Vandals have made the playoffs in each of Eck’s three years on the Palouse.
“Ever since coach Eck came in, the pride of these teams is great,” Dwyer said. “Winning at home is really big and getting to 10 wins. Only three teams in school history have ever got 10 wins, and we can do that this weekend. So definitely take a lot of pride in that.”
Layne echoed that the Vandals’ three-year playoff streak is a testament to the coaching staff.
“It’s not the goal to (just) make playoffs, we want to win this thing,” Layne said. “We believe we can. That’s been our team word is just believe. And how do you do that? You take it one game at a time, one play at a time, one practice at a time. So that’s kind of where we’re at right now.”
All-Big Sky Conference first-team edge Keyshawn James-Newby said that he does not worry about the legacy that the Vandals have built or the history at stake, instead focusing on each game the same way.
With that approach, the senior from Helena, Mont., has racked up 54 tackles, 9.5 sacks and 10 quarterback hurries.
James-Newby said that this mindset came naturally to him.
“It helps you come into the realization that you’ve done this before,” James-Newby said. “This is something you’ve done, you know, and something you do still to this day, consistently.”
Some members of the Vandal senior class have been a part of each of the Vandals’ three straight FCS playoff-bound seasons.
“The story of this team is still being written,” Eck said. “And we got to do a good job of putting these last few final chapters in the book.”
Extra points
The Vandals return three running backs: With junior running back Nate Thomas questionable to play today after accounting for 171 yards two weeks ago against Idaho State in Pocatello, the Vandals do return three backs who missed some time over the closing weeks of the regular season. Each has accounted for north of 5 yards per carry.
Eck said he expects senior back Elisha Cummings, who has rushed for 476 yards and a touchdown on 88 carries this year, to return along with Art Williams (328 yards, two touchdowns) and the quick Deshaun Buchanan (430 yards, four touchdowns). Buchanan has averaged 8 yards per carry.
Tickets still available: In a video posted on his X (formerly Twitter) account, Eck said that 1,500 student tickets remain as of Friday afternoon. Public/general admission tickets are also still available.
The basics
What: Idaho (9-3) vs. Lehigh (9-3)
Where: P1FCU Kibbie Dome, Moscow
When: 6 p.m. today
TV: ESPN+
Radio: KOZE-AM/FM (950/95.5), KZFN-FM (106.1), KORT-AM (1230), KLER-AM (1300)
Spread: Idaho -14.50 (collegefootballpoll.com)
Taylor can be reached at 208-848-2268, staylor@lmtribune.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @Sam_C_Taylor.
