Lucas Gebhart
Sports Editor
The 2015 season did not go as planned for head coach Mike Kramer and company. After a successful 2014 season in which the Bengals nearly grabbed a spot in the FCS playoffs with an 8-4 record, ISU won just two games last season.
Quarterback, Michael Sanders, a junior college transfer, did not fit well in Kramer’s offense and decided to transfer after just one semester in Pocatello.
“Last year, we competed pretty darn well and had leads against teams in this conference who were pretty darn good,” Kramer said.
ISU’s only home win was a 55-0 rout of Black Hills State in the home opener but then went on to lose their next four contests, including an 88-8 loss to UNLV and gave up 499 rushing yards the following week in a road loss to Cal Polly.
Despite this, the most heartbreaking loss came to Montana, where ISU had a chance to win the game if Zach Johnson could knock a 40-yard field goal attempt through the uprights. Johnson never got a chance to attempt the field goal. It was a wild snap, and pandemonium ensued as both teams raced for the ball. Unfortunately, Montana won the race, returning the snap for a game-winning touchdown.
“Had the ending of the Montana game gone the way we wanted, it would have given us great momentum for the last three ball games. But it didn’t go that way,” Kramer said. “Now we have a chance in 2016 to right the ship.”
Injuries plagued the Bengals in 2015, as key defensive players were lost for significant amounts of time. Taison Manu, a Highland High School alum and Mario Jenkins both missed the 2015 season.
“Nobody has depth in this conference,” Kramer said. “You can take three or four guys and push them off the field for a few weeks but you can’t lose them for the whole season. You lose a key guy there and a key guy here and your entire season can be gone. That is the way it worked for us losing Mario Jenkins who was the freshman of the year in 2014 and Taison Manu who has been a three-year starter. Hopefully both of those guys will return to their previous form.”
According to Kramer, Jenkins is a guy who is an NFL caliber player who is entering his junior season.
“He can run, he can go sideways, he really plays hard and he make hits,” Kramer said on the linebacker. “We have done a good job of protecting him and Taison to get them back on the field in 2016.”
As with every team across the nation in college football, teams are faced with year to year turnover. Rosters look much different due to players graduating or transferring. ISU is no exception.
Along with Sanders, ISU also lost star wide receiver Madison Mangum, running back Xavier Finney, three starting offensive lineman and standout defensive lineman, Tyler Kuder, who is currently with the Green Bay Packers, signed just hours after the NFL Draft concluded.
“We lost some great character people in Xavier Finney, Madison Mangum and three offensive linemen who played a lot of snaps for us,” Kramer said. “I feel like those guys have paved the way for the ones on the team now where it will carry on. We lost a lot of really good seniors.”
Offensively, the Bengals will look a lot different as well.
A restructured offensive line, new wide receivers and a new quarterback is what new offensive coordinator, Matt Troxel will have to work with. Troxel spent last season coaching the offensive line.
Redshirt Sophomore, Tanner Gueller, will take over the offense fulltime in 2016 at quarterback. Gueller is no stranger to the gridiron as he appeared in 10 games last season.
“Hopefully with Gueller at quarterback we will be able to have more experience and savviness to us,” Kramer said. “That is a position that is key throughout the conference. As the quarterback goes you go. Now we are much better and time will tell.”
KW Williams has emerged as Gueller’s favorite target. But Gueller will also have Josh Cook at tight end as a third down safety blanket and redzone threat. A reliable running back in Jakori Ford, who runs with an attitude in the backfield will ease the pass rush on the young quarterback.
“The one thing we added to KW Williams and Josh Cook is Jakori Ford,” Kramer said on his senior running back. “He is a senior who is a game-breaker. He can strike lightening on every single play”.
Between Josh Cook, KW Williams, Jakori Ford and Tanner Gueller, Kramer feels like they have enough weapons on the inside.
“But, we are really unproven on the outside. From the inside looking out, if we play well at quarterback and at running back I think we will be just fine on offense,” he said.
Special teams were, to put it nicely, awful last season and must be improved to have success in 2016. Any field goal over 35 yards wasn’t a given, kickoffs were routinely returned by opposing teams and the rugby style punts hardly ever changed the field position.
“Last year we couldn’t kickoff,” Kramer said. “The average starting field position was the 42-yard line and we couldn’t return kicks as the average starting field position was the 17-yard line. We were the worst punt return team in the conference.”
Defensively, the Bengals will have a young but still experienced secondary.
“Last year we took the redshirt of Jayson Miller he just played outstanding. He will return at the free safety spot,” Kramer said. “With Nikko Hayes, by the end of the spring was also playing outstanding at safety. We have three really good safeties.”
Manu’s return will help the younger defensive backs adapt to the system and that is all too crucial in a pass-happy Big Sky Conference.
ISU did however go through spring ball with only one scholarship corner.
The linebacking core will be the strength of the defense, led by Jenkins who is now a redshirt Junior.
ISU will open the 2016 season against Simon Fraser University, a college located in British Columbia, Canada before hitting the road to take on two Pac-12 schools in Colorado and Oregon State.
