May 1—MOSCOW, Idaho — The first play was the best play.
Idaho concluded spring football with an offense versus defense format Friday, and on the initial play from scrimmage, Vandals newcomer Damonte Bias took a handoff from starting quarterback Joshua Wood, sprinted to the right corner and took off down the sideline for 44 yards.
Bias is a junior college transfer from El Camino College, not overly large at 180 pounds but exceedingly fast. He struggled early making the jump from JC to Big Sky Conference football, according to Idaho coach Thomas Ford Jr. But "once that kid got his groove, you could see why we brought him here," Ford said.
While another standout running back transfer, Ferrari Miller, watched the action from the sidelines with an ankle injury that Ford said there was no reason to aggravate by having Miller play, Bias got to start with the first-team offense. The starters played the second-team defense, and the first-team defenders took on the second-team offense, plus other reserves.
Although the first-team offense prevailed 21-3, Ford pronounced the spring's final workout a success.
"Our guys handled the spring game very well," he said. "We got about 80 snaps. We got a lot of young players reps and were getting them some film. We made it out healthy, and we scored some points and made some stops.
"We kept it pretty basic tonight, doing as much as we can with our base schemes. That's what we wanted to see anyway."
The No. 1 offense capped the 72-yard, five-play opening drive when Wood found wide receiver Noah West-Baranco with an 11-yard touchdown pass. The first team scored again just before the half when Wood moved the team 60 yards in seven plays. Redshirt senior running back Hayden Kincheloe accounted for the final 13 yards on four straight carries. He showed a lively turn of foot, skipping left to go from the 9-yard line to the 1. After being stopped for a 2-yard loss, he applied his 235 pounds to scattering the defense like bowling pins.
"It was awesome to see him finish his spring career," Ford said.
Redshirt sophomore quarterback Holden Bea led the backup offense on a third-quarter scoring drive that Cameron Pope finished with a 52-yard field goal. Redshirt freshman Sawyer Teeney, who played for both the first and second team, finished the scoring when he quarterbacked a collection of mostly first-teamers on a 67-yard drive that ended with Teeney threading a 9-yard scoring pass to a tightly covered Tony Harste at the back of the end zone.
While the second-team defense had its hands full with the starting offense, the first-team defense drew praise from Ford.
"The defense gave a great effort. They were playing fast. They understood their responsibilities," Ford said.
Aligned mostly in a 3-5-3, which is a new defensive concept for the Vandals brought to Idaho by new defensive coordinator Lee Stalker, the defense applied consistent pass-rush pressure, and while there were no turnovers in the spring game, throughout spring practice Ford said "our secondary was much more active this spring.
"Safeties might be the deepest position group on our team."
