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Jan. 6—MOSCOW, Idaho — Transfer portal season is about as dynamic as a tornado. However, Idaho's new offensive and defensive coordinators voiced common themes of needing limited but specific help from the portal and expecting to have those needs addressed in a week or so.
Defensive coordinator Lee Stalker and offensive coordinator Ian Shoemaker spoke at the Vandals' weekly press conference Monday.
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The loss of freshman all-America cornerback Caleb Ricks to the portal is "a little bit of a blow,' Stalker acknowledged. But he said the Vandals are already looking at competent replacements in the portal. In addition, he hopes to recruit a number of rush ends who can help immediately.
Shoemaker hopes to add running back and wide receiver depth. "We need a little help in the receivers room, a little more speed and size," but "the offensive line is pretty well set," he says, and perhaps most importantly, quarterback Joshua Wood is returning.
Shoemaker ticked off a roll of Vandals' stars from the past, John Friesz, Doug Nussmeier, Ken Hobart, Matt Linehan and Gevani McCoy and said "it goes to show that is possible, what this place should be," and he said he is eager to develop the next generation of Vandals quarterbacks, beginning with Wood, a redshirt junior who threw for 1,898 yards last season and 14 touchdowns and who ran for 589 yards and another seven touchdowns. He was the Big Sky Conference offensive player of the week after passing for three touchdowns and running for 87 yards and a score in Idaho's 37-30 win against St. Thomas.
Both Stalker and Shoemaker emphasized the need for the Vandals to play fast in the wide-open Big Sky, and both said consistent technique and relatively straightforward reads will allow players on both offense and defense to apply those to multiple schemes.
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Shoemaker said "we want to give them a limited number of ways to look at football, and a million plays in which to make those reads."
His philosophy on offense is to "innovative and explosive," establish the run, then attack the perimeter, then take downfield shots over the top of the defense.
Stalker's countering tenets are to win at the line of scrimmage, stop the run "then take the football away," he said. The Vandals will be multiple and play from three and four-man fronts, he said. But although "we may look multiple," the goal is to "shrink the playbook" and simplify the game, Stalker said, Even in winter workouts Idaho will be working on establishing clarity of verbiage on defensive assignments, said Stalker. The goal is to give players "solutions" to confront what they see from offenses. The overarching goal is to reach December as a playoff team.
Shoemaker comes to Idaho from Division II Grand Valley State. As offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach there the past two seasons, he helped lead the Lakers to an 18-5 record. Prior to that he was the OC and QB coach at Hawaii, and before that held the same position at Eastern Washington, when the Eagles were averaging 537 yards and 40 points per game. In that era, Shoemaker coached QB Eric Barriere to back-to-back seasons as a Walter Payton Award finalist. Barriere won the award as the FBS player of the year in 2021. From 2014-19, Shoemaker compiled a 45-20 record at Division II Central Washington as head coach.
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From his time with the Eagles, Shoemaker said, "I have seen the passion in the Kibbie Dome and fans from the other sideline. It's exciting to be on this side."
Before coming to Idaho, Stalker spent three years as a defensive assistant at Iowa State, when the Cyclones had five All-Big XII defensive players. In 2025, they averaged giving up just 20 points per game, and in 2024 they played to an 11-3 record, the best in school history. Stalker also coached linebackers at Kent State, his alma mater, in 2021-22. In 2019-20 he was defensive coordinator at Division II Valdosta State.
His desire to be a coordinator again helped drive his decision to come to Idaho, he said, along with his comfort level with head coach Thomas Ford Jr.
As the new coordinators step into the whirlwind of managing the portal and looking ahead to 2027 recruiting, Stalker pointed out how fast-moving January is for them.
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"Collectively, Friday, as a staff, was the first time we were together," he said.
Vandals hire Treadwell to coach RBs
Idaho announced the hiring of Spencer Treadwell as new running backs coach on Tuesday.
Treadwell spent last season coaching running backs at Eastern Illinois.
Layne headed to Oregon State
Linebacker Dylan Layne has followed his former defensive coordinator Cort Dennison to Oregon State. Layne played in high school at Lake Oswego.
Layne, whose twin brother Jack played quarterback for Idaho before following former coach Jason Eck to New Mexico, had 88 tackles during his redshirt junior season with the Vandals.
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