More expected of Vandals after Day 1 of fall camp

Jul. 30—MOSCOW — The Vandals began Day 1 of their long journey into the 2026 football season with fall camp Wednesday.

It was a practice full of shell drills, some seven-on-seven and a small amount of 11-on-11 on the outdoor practice field.

But afterward, Idaho coach Thomas Ford Jr. sternly addressed his team, clarifying that to achieve what the Vandals want this season, the team will simply have to put in more work.

"Like I said, 'Was today's practice bad?' 'No,' but I didn't think it was good enough for where we want to get to," Ford said in a post-practice news conference. "If we want to take this program to where we want to get back to, we have to do a little bit better job consistently with the way we practice, and not so much what we're doing, but just the way we're doing it."

Working out the 'kinks'

To be completely frank, Day 1 of fall camp will not show exactly what a team will look like.

Overreactions to certain moments or issues can be easy to come by, but shouldn't be cause for concern.

Senior quarterback Joshua Wood said Day 1 was an opportunity to find the "little kinks" in the offense with first-year Vandals' offensive coordinator Ian Shoemaker and fix them up.

"It felt great," Wood said about working in the offense. "We felt there were a couple of explosive plays that had happened today. We're in Day 1 install, so a lot of Day 1 stuff that we're trying to get down and get the fine-tune things down."

Explosive plays — as Wood explained at the Big Sky Football Kickoff Weekend on Monday — will be a focus for the offense this season.

One of which included a nearly 40-yard touchdown to junior receiver Marquawn McCraney during an 11-on-11 portion.

Wood explained that the first day of installing the new offense is helpful in creating a good baseline in what to work off of.

"Day 1 is really what your base offense is," the quarterback said. "So just being able to get all that down and create some explosive plays, especially with not having the pads on and having spiders on. So being able to have explosive plays in the run game and then also in the pass game as well, and being able to just execute overall in general has been great."

Ford had a similar sentiment and said that there will be a focus on attention to detail.

"I think offensively, just cleaning up the small things, pre-snap things specifically, and we got to make sure that when we're open, we got to finish plays," Ford said. "Had a couple guys down the field open today; either we did not get it to (them), or they did not secure it. So we just need to do a much better job on the execution, especially offensively. Defensively, I thought we still need to continue to work on communication."

Going into Year 2 as a HC and players with more experience

On Monday, Ford said that he feels that this 2026 Vandals team feels more prepared because many of the players will be going into the season with hundreds of snaps to some with over a thousand snaps.

He reiterated that after Wednesday's practice.

"I think just seeing the amount of experience, especially on defense," Ford said. "I think just looking from last year, and you fast forward it to now, our secondary is light years ahead of where they were a year ago. I think the communication portion of defense is much improved from a year ago, but again, a lot of that comes with experience. Guys that have been in those situations, been in those practices, and so it was really nice to see that."

From Ford's perspective, he said the amount of organization and groundwork put in has given him a vastly different feeling than the beginning of last year.

"I feel like this year's preparation was not such a crash course," the second-year head coach said. "When you get a job in January, and you're hiring 17 coaches, and you're trying to get 30 or 40 guys out of the transfer portal, a lot of it is like drinking through a fire hose, and so I think this year just felt a lot more slowed down. Felt like we're much more prepared.

"Practice (is) really practice instead of 'Oh, what did we forget? What did we miss?' We didn't miss anything. So I think the preparation has just been so much better, and it makes it a lot easier for me, especially in practice."

A fresh face earns the 'Battle Axe'

Freshman linebacker Geovoney Burks earned the "Battle Axe" award for the best individual performance at the practice.

Burks said he arrived in Moscow just six weeks ago.

"It's crazy; the first two weeks, I say it was pretty hard to adjust," Burks said. "New playbook, new environment, but it's just I feel like I've been building week-by-week, each day, just getting better, and I'm blessed. I'm blessed to be here today."

To build on that, he said he plans to keep his "foot on the pedal" and attempt to get better each day.

He said to celebrate the award, his plan was to immediately call his family.

"I'm calling my mom, my sister, and my brother, and my grandma — all four of them," Burks said. "I'm making a group FaceTime call for all of them. Let them know."

Junt can be reached at 208-848-2258, [email protected] or on X @TrevorJunt

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