When Idaho offensive line coach Kris Cinkovich walked into the offensive linemen meeting room about three years ago, it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
But senior guard Dallas Sandberg, who just played his last game for the Vandals Saturday in a 38-31 win against Texas State at the Kibbie Dome, started bringing some personality to the room as he grew into a bigger leadership role last season.
“He knows at the appropriate time when he can loosen our guys up,” Cinkovich said. “To me, you spend so much time with your position group, there’s got to be some personality involved and I think Dallas has really extracted that out of our meeting room.”
Cinkovich said Sandberg walked upstairs every day from the kicking game meeting to the offensive line room and said, ‘what’s up fellas?’ in an enthusiastic, upbeat voice.
Idaho coach Paul Petrino said Sandberg helps players on the field and academically by helping them organize their school work.
“He’s almost like the grandfather or father of the group,” Petrino said. “He kind of takes them all in. He talks to him. He really helps them in everything.”
Sandberg has not always been the life of the Idaho offensive line room.
“He was really quiet, he hardly ever talked,” Petrino said. “It started happening last year probably in the middle of the year and then in the offseason he really, really took that role on and then he’s even taken it 100 times more through this year. It’s neat. It’s neat when you see those guys grow up and change their personality and become better leaders.”
Sandberg said he thinks he slid into that leadership role on the offensive line after Mike Marboe left last season. Marboe anchored the Idaho offensive line as a center for four years.
“There really wasn’t a true leader on the O-line, somebody who just stood up and was vocal and I’ve never been a vocal leader until this past year and that’s something I’ve had to learn myself and really overcome,” Sandberg said. “I’ve never really liked to be too vocal. I just like to go out and do things and lead by example. But to be a true leader you got to be vocal and I think that’s one thing I’ve definitely worked on and gotten better at this last year.”
The 6-foot-5-inch, 305-pound guard is in his sixth year at the university. He earned his criminal justice degree in 2014 and his psychology degree last spring.
The Prescott Valley, Arizona, native graduated from Bradshaw Mountain High School in 2010 and grayshirted in the fall of that year. He then redshirted in the fall of 2011.
He played in his first Vandal game in 2012, starting 11 games that season and playing in all 12 at left guard.
When Sandberg earned game reps in 2012, he said he recognized that the speed of the game was faster in college than it was in high school and the mental aspect was more advanced than he was accustomed to.
“You got to concentrate on your technique, your job, you got to know what your backers are doing,” Sandberg said. “You got to know what the guy next to you is doing. In high school, it’s kind of more ‘line up and go,’ especially being a guy like my size … and you can pretty much go and dominate anybody just because of pure size.”
The year 2012 was the start of a tough stretch for the Vandal football team. Idaho won one game each of the past three seasons. Idaho finished this season 4-8 overall and 3-5 in the Sun Belt Conference.
“I think we’ve been moving in the right direction the last three years,” Sandberg said. “It just hasn’t shown as much into this last season.”
Sandberg said discipline has been the key to the turnaround this season.
“That’s one thing that Petrino has tried to come in and really instill,” Sandberg said. “That’s one thing we lacked when he came in. Discipline was a huge thing and last three years. We’ve just kind of been getting rid of the guys that didn’t really buy into the program.”
2013 was a rough year for the Vandals and for Sandberg as an individual.
Sandberg played in four games that season before missing the rest of the season with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in his groin.
He said he had three big holes in his leg and spent a week in the hospital.
“It was extremely tough seeing my team on the road, especially going to like Florida State and Ole Miss and whatnot and playing and me not being there,” Sandberg said. “It was pretty hard.”
With his career as a Vandal football player behind him, Sandberg said he will miss his teammates and coaches.
He said he visited the offensive line meeting room frequently to hang out, watch T.V. and game film and speak with coaches.
He also said he will miss the Moscow community. Safeway, where Sandberg shops, has many Vandal fans.
“I go in there almost every day and they’re like, ‘go Vandals,’ talking about the next game and whatnot and keeping up to date on the team, the program and how we’re doing, and the whole community itself is pretty awesome around here,” Sandberg said.
Sandberg said he is still focused on football. He hopes to continue playing professionally.
“For the next eight months at least, I’ll be very focused on football and then hopefully that eight months continues,” Sandberg said. “If not, then I got a couple things set up.”
Sandberg said his dad works as a supervisor in the oil fields in North Dakota. He said working there for a couple years will probably be his first option if professional football does not work out.
Sandberg said he eventually wants to coach and work with younger players. Later down the road he said he may want to become a cop.
Whatever he decides to do in the future, Petrino said his leadership will continue.
“Dallas will be leading a company someday,” Petrino said. “He’ll be leading something. I guarantee you that. He’ll be a leader in life, that’s for sure.”
Garrett Cabeza can be reached at [email protected]