Facing the graduation of all four 2019 starters in the secondary, ISU opted to go for experience, bringing in five transfers at defensive back in the offseason.

That was far more than at any other position, but the Bengals’ coaches thought it was their best option to put together a defensive backfield that could compete right away, especially in the pass-happy, big-scoring Big Sky Conference.

As the season approaches, it’s not clear that the experiment has worked. Only one of the five transfers is expected to begin the season in the starting lineup.

Instead of relying on the transfers, the lineup has come together from a bunch of players with different backgrounds and routes to ISU.

At cornerback, Jayden Dawson is the lone JUCO transfer out of four to earn a starting spot going into the year.

The 5-foot-10, 180-pound sophomore from Riverside, California, played one season at College of Idaho and one season at Mt. San Jacinto College before winding up at ISU.

The fast-twitch corner was expected to win a job when he came in, and easily separated himself at the position.

“Personally, I feel like I’m a smart player, I’m a smart person, and that can translate to the football field as well,” Dawson said. “Football’s football, and just being able to transition from JC to here, I feel like it was very easy for me, very easy.”

Opposite Dawson is true freshman Josh Alford. Coaches have been talking about the 5-foot-10, 175-pound corner since he signed with Idaho State last year, and he’s met every expectation and then some by starting right away.

Alford played for St. John Bosco HS in Long Beach, California, one of the best high school football programs in the country.

“Getting Josh Alford was a blessing to begin with,” cornerbacks coach Kam Yancy said. “He was a tough recruit. All his teammates were Power 5, big-time recruits. When he got here, I had no doubt he was going to be in the competition. Once he got here ... he was doing things better than I ever anticipated in the first place.”

Cam Davis, another JUCO cornerback transfer, is also in the mix for reps, along with two players who were in the program last year, senior Colton Belnap and redshirt freshman Jihad Brown. Belnap went to Pocatello High School.

“The youth, it can be a good thing, it can be a bad thing, but for me, it’s been a blessing,” Yancy said. “Just being able to teach them and raise them from the ground up has been an opportunity for me. We’re all going to go through it for the first time together, all the young guys and all the new guys.”

Teddrick McGhee, who grad-transferred to the Bengals from FBS school Texas-San Antonio, wasn’t listed on the season-opening depth chart.

At safety, ISU is going with two players who were in the program last year. Manase Time, a 6-0, 207-pound senior from Long Beach, transferred in from Hawaii before the 2019 season and played in 11 games, mostly on special teams and backing up Adkin Aguirre and Christian McFarland.

He recorded 24 tackles over the season and forced a fumble in his first start against Idaho, when he filled in for Aguirre after a targeting suspension.

“I came with the mindset of trying to start right away, but playing behind Adkin, I tried to learn everything he did on the field, because he’d been here for a long time,” Time said. “I just came in with the mindset of trying to give everything on the field and trying to get my name out there.”

If Time is the hard-hitting, gap-filling boundary safety in ISU’s system, redshirt freshman Quantraill Morris-Walker is the perfect fit for the rangy field safety spot.

Morris-Walker was in Alford’s position in 2019, getting plenty of preseason buzz as a freshman to watch. Without quite as much opportunity as Alford had this year, he instead kept his redshirt, playing in just three games.

This season, he’s realized that potential, narrowly beating JUCO transfer Jacob Jones for the starting spot.

“Quantraill, he’s just long,” safeties coach J.B. Hall said. “He’s an athlete that has long levers, he can run, do all of those things and he’s really smart.”

With the starting field safety listed as Morris-Walker or Jones on the opening two-deep, Jones, a junior from Fullerton College, is still likely to get plenty of snaps, and that starting spot might be in flux throughout the season.

Junior Zach Wright, from Kimberly, and freshman Ty Metcalfe, a returning missionary from Utah, are also in the mix at safety.

“We’re going to play probably five guys at those two spots,” Hall said. “We’re going to try to rotate them. It’s a little different from the experience and the guys we had in 2019, but we’re going to keep some fresh legs out on the field.”