Denim Millward
Sports Editor
It wasn’t quite Christmas day for ISU head football coach Mike Kramer, but it was close.
An upbeat and gregarious Kramer announced the 2015 football recruiting class in a press conference Wednesday, Feb. 4.
Though not all signings were finalized at the time of the conference, a total of 22 new Bengals, 17 of which are defensive recruits, will be donning the orange, black and gray of the ISU Bengals for the upcoming season.
Before speaking at length about each new recruit, Kramer made it clear that how the players carried themselves in the classroom and off the field was as important as how they performed on it.
“The great thing about this class is that, at this point 16 of these guys are above a [3.0 grade point average,]” Kramer said. “We’ve done extensive background checks on all of them, so socially they’re what we want to be.”
Nine of the 22 recruits are from California, while six come from right here in the Gem State. Four come from Kramer’s old stomping grounds of Washington, two come from Utah and the final one comes from Las Vegas.
Among the Idaho recruits was Kody Graves, a 6-foot-1inch, 209-pound linebacker out of Skyview High School in Nampa.
If his last name sounds familiar to you, it should. Graves’ brothers, Tyler and Hagen, played for the Bengals last year.
Tyler, a redshirt junior tight end, and Hagen, a freshman wide receiver, figure to help acclimate their younger brother to playing for Kramer, though they’re both offensive players.
The other Idaho recruits are Chance Salutregui, 6-feet-4-inches and 227-pounds out of Skyview High School; Daniel Heck, 6-feet-2-inches and 270-pounds out of Emmett High School; Tristan Cano, 6-feet-2-inches and 245-pounds out of Rigby High School; Garrett Smith, 6-feet-6-inches and 335-pounds out of Shelley High School; and Matt Peterson, 6-feet-2-inches and 188-pounds out of Blackfoot High School.
Though Kramer’s offseason recruiting strategy was heavily slanted toward shoring up the defense, two prominent offensive recruits were also brought into the fold.
Robert Kvinsland, 6-feet-3-inches and 192-pounds, is a quarterback from Peninsula High School in Gig Harbor, Washington.
A member of the Tacoma News Tribune All-Area Team and the Tacoma Athletic Club Fall Athlete of the Year, Kvinsland gives more depth to a young rotation of quarterbacks, one of whom will be tabbed with the considerable task of replacing Justin Arias.
Kramer indicated it would be highly unlikely for Kvinsland to be named the starter over current Bengal quarterbacks James Delacenserie and Tanner Gueller, but didn’t rule out that possibility entirely.
Kvinsland will be joined by another offensive weapon from the Evergreen State in Chris “Scooby” Reynolds, Jr. A 6-foot-3-inch wide receiver from Foss High School in Lakewood, Reynolds will add depth to an already-dangerous receiving corps that includes 2014 standout Madison Mangum, KW Williams, Broc Malcom and tight end Josh Cook.
Ty Flanagan, a running back out of Mohave High School in Las Vegas, and the aforementioned Garrett Smith, who will play offensive line for Idaho State after returning from an LDS mission in Edmonton, Alberta Canada this summer, round out the offensive recruits.
That the majority of the 2015 recruiting class is made up of defensive linemen and linebackers certainly did not happen by accident or matter of coincidence.
Though their offensive statistics were stellar and led the conference, and in some cases the nation, the Bengals have ample room to improve on the defensive end. The ISU defense surrendered an average of 31.4 points per game in 2014 while yielding an average of 474 yards of total offense per game.
The departure of defensive line stalwarts Austin Graves and David Forester will make it likely that many of the new recruits will be thrust into starting roles immediately, Kramer said in a press conference.
Kramer also announced that tight end Tate Razor, linebacker Spencer Harshman, quarterback Trae Pilster and running back Jakori Ford will receive scholarships in Fall 2015.
Pilster will also be moved out of the quarterback rotation and moved to wide receiver, Kramer announced.
