Nov. 3—A trophy repurposed with a strip of athletic tape will continue to bring more weight to a football game than the game might generate on its own.
Idaho (4-5, 4-2 Big Sky), riding a three-game winning streak and still entertaining hopes of making the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs is at home with Eastern Washington Saturday (2-7, 1-5). The Eagles' main motivation for showing up to continue a death march of a season would probably have been to ruin Idaho's still precarious playoff chances. But now there is also the opportunity to retain possession of the Che-Scow Cup.
Idaho and EWU formerly played for the Governor's Cup, until Idaho left the FCS and the Big Sky for a two-decade venture into FBS football. Idaho had possession of the trophy when the series with EWU was suspended.
After the Vandals returned to the Big Sky and several years later hired Jason Eck as coach, Eck, who freely acknowledges he has never seen a rivalry trophy that wasn't worth pursuing, found the retired Governor's Cup somewhere in deep storage. With a marking pen and a strip of tape, he created the Che-Scow Cup, slapped the tape on the base of the trophy, and the Idaho-EWU rivalry had new significance.
The Vandals beat the Eagles, 44-36 in 2023 and 38-28 in 2024. But in Thomas Ford Jr's first season replacing Eck in 2025, after Eck moved on to New Mexico, the Eagles beat the Vandals, 21-14. The cup will be making the trip from Cheney to Moscow Saturday.
"The Che-Scow Cup is on hand," Ford acknowledged of the rivalry renewal.
As Idaho has righted its season, winning three of its last four games, including victories over No. 1 Montana State and seventh-ranked Montana, following an 0-4 start, the Vandals have focused on winning one game at a time, Ford says. Against EWU, however, "it's easy to say 'it's just another game.' But it's not. It's a rivalry game," Ford admitted.
At his weekly news conference Monday, Ford and offensive coordinator Ian Shoemaker and defensive coordinator Lee Stalker, maintained Idaho will be risking its playoff dreams — and possession of the cup — against an Eagles' team that is better than its record.
"They are not a 2-7 team on tape. They play extremely hard. Their defense plays with great effort and physicality," Ford said.
He expects the Eagles will try to slow down Idaho on offense with an aggressive secondary.
"They try to create confusion, make you get to your third read" on passing plays, Ford said.
For EWU, on offense, it all starts with Nate Bell. The Eagles' quarterback trails only Idaho's Joshua Wood as the Big Sky leader in total offense. Bell has amassed 2,866 yards of total offense, 2,482 passing and 384 rushing, compared to Wood's 2,930 yards, consisting of 2,492 passing and 438 rushing.
Stalker calls Bell "an electric player" with a strong, accurate arm and an ability to run that presents Idaho with a constant threat of run-pass options.
"We will be challenged in that world. We haven't seen it in a few weeks," Stalker said.
For the Vandals, protecting the football will be crucial against the Eagles, as will be forcing turnovers, according to Ford.
"We do not want Nate Bell to have any extra possessions," he said.
Idaho is coming off a dominant 38-14 victory over Portland State, a game in which the Vandals compiled 469 yards of total offense while holding the Vikings to just 294 yards. Idaho completely shut down PSU's run game, giving up only 13 yards. Ford called it Idaho's best game so far for a significantly improving defense.
Against the Vikings, Wood connected with wide receiver Ryan Jezioro for 194 yards and a touchdown on five receptions, and Shoemaker said Jezioro running routes down the sidelines has emerged as an especially thorny problem for defenses that would like to play man-to-man on the short side of the field rather than having to shift help that direction from the wide side.
Jezioro "had a great game for us. Off the charts," Shoemaker said.
But he resisted Ford's acknowledgment that the rivalry game against EWU, with the Che-Scow Cup as the prize, is more than another rung on the ladder for the Vandals who are focused on saving their season after its slow start.
"This is just a week to be 1-0," Shoemaker insisted. "We need to continue that survive and advance mentality."
