A new year brings another new chapter for Idaho football and new faces to fill it with.
With recruiting season fully underway for the Vandals, 15 student-athletes will make their way to Moscow to compete in the Kibbie Dome on Saturdays.
“We signed a lot of guys who will come in and compete for starting positions right away,” Idaho Head Coach Paul Petrino said in a news release last month. “We had some specific needs on defense that we had to address with older guys and I think we did that.”
Of the 15 new Vandals, five are junior college transfers expected to make their presence known on the defensive side of the ball.
The most recent signee is junior college linebacker Robert Miller, who will have two seasons of eligibility with the Vandals.
Miller made a name for himself at Olive Branch High School, where he racked up 118 total tackles before spending his first two seasons at Northwest Mississippi Community College after transferring from Memphis in 2016.
Miller finished his career at NMCC with 94 total tackles as well as being named to the JCGridiron Outside Linebacker Watch List.
Another junior college transfer to keep an eye on will be incoming linebacker Austin Holt.
The 6-foot-3 defender from the College of the Desert in California will try to make an impact in the Big Sky Conference as a linebacker and at defensive end.
In his 19 games at College of the Desert, Holt recorded 84 total tackles and added 8.5 sacks to his resume.
The Vandals were able to snag three great talents from the Pacific Northwest in the early parts of the signing period as well.
One of the more interesting talents of the bunch might be Tanner Brooks from Mt. Spokane High School in Spokane.
Brooks became a First-team All-Greater Spokane League linebacker during his senior season to help lead his team to the 2018 3A State Playoffs. Brooks’ presence will be intriguing after receiving high praise from Petrino himself.
“Tanner Brooks is long and rangy and reminds you of the Elliss brothers,” Petrino said. “We’re looking at him as a linebacker, but he has some two-way potential.”
The Vandals made an addition to the of- fensive line to help build for the future in the coming years.
At 6-foot-5, offensive lineman Noah Gunn will try to bolster the Idaho line during his time as a Vandal.
Gunn was named to the 2017 All-Idaho First Team and helped Coeur d’Alene High School reach the 5A State Title game. Gunn was rated as the sixth best prospect in Idaho by 247Sports for the class of 2018 before spending a year at the Air Force Prep Academy.
Petrino has added more depth at the quarterback position, after a season that left many questions unanswered.
Quarterback Nate Cisco will join Idaho after being a two-year starter for Independence High School in Franklin, Tennessee. The 6-foot-4 quarterback threw for over 2,000 yards and 15 touch- downs his junior year and could be a potential common name on future Vandal football Saturdays.
With a strong pocket presence and a powerful arm to throw down field, Cisco might be the quarterback of the future the Vandals so desperately need.
“It’s always good to get a quarterback,” Petrino said. “We had Nate come to our camp and really liked him. He had a great junior season before some injury issues as a senior, but we’re excited he’s part of this class.”
A target Cisco will likely be throwing to in the future is Kevin McGuire from Culver City High School in Los Angeles, California. McGuire had more than 1,500 all-purpose yards and scored 24 touchdowns in his senior year and set school records in receiving yards and single- season receiving touchdowns. McGuire is Idaho’s highest-rated signee since the 2010 season.
The overall talent coming out of the early signee period is a sign Idaho is moving in the right direction, with established transfers added to the defensive side of the ball and young talent added for the offense.
According to 247Sports, the Vandal’s 2019 signee class ranked first amongst all FCS schools at the end of early signing period.
Chris Deremer can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter @Cderemer_VN