Idaho Vandals prepare for unpredictable Lamar Cardinals

Andrew Quinn
Published 6:54 PM PDT August 28, 2023
Updated: 6:54 PM PDT August 28, 2023
MOSCOW, Idaho — The college football slate in the northwest kicks off Thursday night when the Idaho Vandals travel to Beaumont, Texas to play the Lamar Cardinals.
After a long fall camp, the Vandals are excited to play a different opponent.
"When you have a good day on defense (in camp) you wonder is your defense really that good or is your offense taking a step back, this is when you find out. I'm excited to see these guys play, I think we are ready to play and hopefully we see these guys make a lot of improvements on how they played last year," Idaho head coach Jason Eck said.
The Vandals' All-Big Sky wide receivers wore non contact jerseys much of fall camp, but they too are itching for the chance to go full speed.
"This is what we live and breathe for. This is the opportunity where I call my parents every night now and say 'hey, I can't wait, let's go!' This is what makes this sport so fun and it is time to go get paid and reap the rewards of our hard work," Idaho wide receiver Hayden Hatten said.
Lamar has almost an entirely new coaching staff this season and they have yet to name a starting quarterback for Thursday's opener. Despite this, the Vandals are focused on what they can control.
"You do not really know what they are going to go to in certain situations, but at the end of the day it's football so you can only do so much. We can adjust on the fly and just cover like we are supposed to," Idaho defensive back Marcus Harris said.
As the Vandals face so much unpredictability, Coach Eck has created a game plan which can work against multiple different schemes.
"We need to be ready for everything and need to be able to adjust depending on how much man or zone they play. That was a big part of our game plan. We wanted to make sure we had stuff that had answers for a lot of things and not a play that is only good against one thing because we do not know what they are going to do," Eck said.
The emphasis heading into week one of the season is playing clean football and not committing unforced errors.
"We want to make sure the Vandals don't beat the Vandals," Eck said.
The Vandals and Cardinals will kick it off at 5:00 PM local time on Thursday night. The game can be seen on ESPN plus.