For all the changes Idaho football made during the offseason, there is only one way to find out whether those changes worked.
Play a game.
The Vandals will get that opportunity Friday night when they open the 2026 season against Big Sky Conference member Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, California. This matchup will serve as the first test of a program entering its second season under coach Thomas Ford Jr. and its first regular-season game with new offensive and defensive coordinators.
Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Mustang Memorial Field. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN. It also marks the first home game for new Mustangs coach Tim Skipper.
For Idaho, Friday represents the beginning of a season in which the Vandals hope the lessons from a 4-8 campaign translate into better results. For Cal Poly, it is the beginning of a new era.
That makes the opener something both teams are eager to await.
Idaho has spent the offseason installing new systems under offensive coordinator Ian Shoemaker and defensive coordinator Lee Stalker. Cal Poly has a new head coach in Skipper and new coordinators on both sides of the ball. Skipper hired Anthony Soto as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach after Soto spent the previous two seasons running Mercer’s offense. Sammy Lawanson takes over as defensive coordinator and safeties coach.
That uncertainty has been part of Idaho’s preparation.
“We don’t know what we’re going to see,” Shoemaker said. “So we have to be ready for all those things.”
The Vandals enter the opener with one of the most important pieces of their offense already established. Senior, Joshua Wood will make his second consecutive season-opening start at quarterback after an encouraging but uneven first season in Moscow.
Wood completed 58.5% of his passes for 1,898 yards, 14 touchdowns and five interceptions in 10 games last season. He was even more dangerous as a runner, carrying 86 times for 589 yards and seven touchdowns. His 2,487 total yards made him one of the focal points of Idaho’s offense.
That will be one of the first things to watch against Cal Poly.
Wood’s ability to make plays outside the structure of the offense was one of Idaho’s biggest advantages last season. But Shoemaker’s offense is designed to give him more opportunities before a play breaks down.
Shoemaker wants Idaho to establish the run, particularly between the tackles, and use that physicality to create opportunities in the passing game.
“Being able to be physical first,” Shoemaker said. “Then, I want to be able to use RPO and play action to bolster our passing game.”
The Vandals have plenty of experience to support that approach.
Four of their five starting offensive linemen from last season return, including senior center Layton Vining, who was named one of Idaho’s four captains.
The running-back room has been rebuilt with transfers such as Juniors, Damonte Bias and Ferrari Miller joining returning players such as fifth year student Hayden Kincheloe in the backfield. Ford referred to the group as a “three-headed monster”.
Bias rushed for 835 yards and averaged 7.1 yards per carry at El Camino College last season, while Miller ran for 1,123 yards and eight touchdowns at Diablo Valley College.
Idaho also returns four receivers who combined for over 1,000 receiving yards and eight touchdowns last season. The Vandals’ offensive depth should give Wood more options than he had a year ago.
But Cal Poly’s defense presents a significant early challenge. If Idaho wants to establish the physical identity Shoemaker has described, it will have to deal with a Cal Poly defense led by two of the best linebackers in the Big Sky.
Senior Mikey D’Amato and fifth year student Kenny Olson both earned first-team All-Big Sky honors last season and both were named to the 2026 preseason All-Big Sky team.
D’Amato led the conference and tied for fourth nationally with 137 tackles in 2025. He also recorded 8.5 tackles for loss, six sacks and an interception. Olson finished second in the Big Sky with 117 tackles, adding six tackles for loss and two sacks.
D’Amato was also named a first-team FCS preseason All-American and is on the watch list for the Buck Buchanan Award, which honors the top defensive player in the FCS.
That gives Cal Poly an experienced centerpiece to counter an Idaho offense that wants to run the football.
The Mustangs finished 4-8 last season, but Friday’s team will look different under Skipper. Cal Poly has added 39 new players to the program, while Skipper has assembled an entirely new coaching staff.
Skipper brings 25 years of coaching experience to the job. He spent the end of last season as UCLA’s interim head coach and won three games against Big Ten opponents, including Penn State, Michigan State and Maryland. Before that, he had served as an interim head coach and assistant head coach at Fresno State and held other coaching positions at Central Michigan, UNLV and Florida.
The coaching change makes Cal Poly more difficult to predict.
Idaho’s defense has a similar challenge on the other side of the ball.
Stalker is installing a defense that emphasizes communication and recognition before the snap.
The Vandals want their defenders to identify formations, communicate adjustments and play fast once the ball is snapped. That will be particularly important in the opener because Idaho has not seen Skipper’s team play a regular-season game.
“You can never demand enough communication,” Stalker said. “Obviously, pre-snap is the critical part.”
The most experienced piece of that defense is fifth year student, linebacker Cruz Hepburn, Idaho’s leading returning tackler after recording 71 tackles last season.
Stalker said one of the strengths of the group is its depth, particularly in the secondary and along the defensive line. He believes Idaho can rotate players without a significant drop-off and keep the defense fresh into the fourth quarter.
“We’ve created guys in positions to push and elevate each other,” Stalker said.
Cal Poly’s offense will be led by quarterback Bo Kelly, a redshirt senior who has been with the program for several seasons. Kelly appeared in eight games last year and passed for 706 yards and seven touchdowns. He also has history against Idaho, including a 268-yard, two-touchdown performance against the Vandals in 2024.
Kelly will now operate in Soto’s new offense.
Soto arrived at Cal Poly after two seasons as Mercer’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. His Mercer offenses averaged more than 34 points and 442 yards per game during his tenure, including a 2025 season in which the Bears ranked third nationally in total offense among FCS teams.
That adds another layer to Friday’s matchup. Idaho’s defense is learning Stalker’s system. Cal Poly’s offense is learning Soto’s.
Neither team will have regular-season film to study.
Idaho has won all five previous meetings against Cal Poly since the Vandals moved to the FCS level. The most recent meeting came in 2024, when Idaho won 34-29 in Moscow.
History, however, is not likely to matter much to the players taking the field Friday.
Cal Poly will have the benefit of playing its first game under Skipper at home, in front of a national television audience, while celebrating one of the most significant moments not only for Skipper but in the program’s history as well.
The Mustangs will open the new John Madden Football Center as part of the festivities, and Cal Poly will retire the No. 74 jersey of Hall of Fame coach and former Mustang John Madden during halftime. Madden played offensive and defensive line for Cal Poly in 1957 and 1958 and graduated from the school in 1959.
Ford has spent the offseason emphasizing situational awareness after a 4-8 season in which the Vandals lost four games by one possession. That is why Ford has emphasized the importance of understanding the situation, not simply executing a play.
“We’ve really focused on situational football, understanding down, distance, field position, time and score,” Ford said.
The opener will provide an early test of whether that emphasis has translated from practice to the field.
Idaho has more experience than it did a year ago. It also has new coordinators, a deeper transfer class and an offense and defense that have yet to play a meaningful game together. Cal Poly has many of the same questions. Friday night will begin answering them.
For Idaho, the first question is simple: Can the Vandals establish the physical, disciplined identity they have spent the offseason building before Cal Poly’s new-look program has a chance to settle in?
The answer will come under the lights in San Luis Obispo, where Idaho’s next chapter begins.