They knew it was bound to happen eventually. Three-hundred and thirty miles of separation can throw a wrench into holiday planning and complicate communication, but it doesn’t mean a whole lot for high school football playoff matchups.

Two weeks ago, Tom and Jeb Harrison peeked at the 3A bracket and saw the possibility of a matchup decades in the making. If Tom’s Weiser Wolverines got past Buhl and Jeb’s Snake River squad beat McCall-Donnelley, father and son would meet in the state quarterfinals.

Both Weiser and Snake River rolled to first-round victories last week, setting up a much-anticipated clash between the father and son who share one of the most famous last names in Idaho high school football.

“Hey, do you want us to let you win,” Jeb asked his dad.

“No,” Tom replied. “Do you want me to let you win?”

Jeb chuckled. “Yeah,” he said.

Regardless of their desires, the pair share the belief that Friday’s game won’t come down to either of them.

“I think everyone else cares about it a lot more than we do,” Jeb Harrison said. “Someone asked me the other day like, ‘How does it feel to know you’re playing your dad,’ and I go, ‘I’m pretty sure he’s not playing so I’m not concerned about it.’”

“We knew it was going to come eventually, and it’s still going to come down to who blocks and tackles,” Tom added. “As far as I know, me and Jeb can’t do that for them.”

Now in his fourth different head coaching job, Tom is still at it, trying to add to his illustrious resume from the other side of the state.

No football coach in the history of the Gem State owns more state titles than Tom Harrison. The 62-year old won an early trophy at Raft River and a 2006 championship while the head man at Pocatello, but he’ll be known for his time at Snake River, which now plays all of its home games at Harrison Field.

Under Tom’s tenure from 1995 to 2002, the Panthers won seven state titles in a run that included a state-record 54-game winning streak. Jeb, a hard-nosed linebacker and offensive lineman who eventually went to Idaho State, was a part of three of those Snake River championship teams and later joined his father’s coaching staff at Pocatello.

“Me and my dad were on the headsets with each other for like 10 years. We could both feel out each other’s thoughts,” Jeb said. “(I learned) he’s a genius on the offensive side of the football. I’ll have these ideas pop into my head and then I’ll be like, ‘He did that five years ago,’ … Everything I’m picking up he already thought of. Hopefully he’s forgotten it because he’s old.”

There was never any concerted effort to groom Jeb into being a head coach, his dad admitted, but knowledge can transfer like osmosis through time. Football has always been a focal point in their father-son bond. It always kept them close, always kept them talking.

A few times a week, Tom will venture to the one corner of his rural eastern Idaho home that offers solid cell service and phone his son. More than two decades since the coach-player dynamic ended and seven years after their time as coworkers came to a halt, the pair – now technically competitors – take time each week to catch up on each other’s seasons and, thus, each other’s lives.

“It’s been an awesome experience to share that with him,” Tom said. “From my perspective, it’s really been a heartwarming thing and you wish nothing but the best for your next of kin.”

Perhaps Friday’s Weiser/Snake River game could only get better if it was being played on Harrison Field in Blackfoot. But maybe that would be too much. Jeb has already coached 27 games on the field named after his dad and the spectacle of it has worn off a bit.

“Call it cool or call it pressure,” Jeb said of Harrison Field. “I’d say there’s definitely both … When I think of the Harrison Field, I don’t think of Tom Harrison, I think of Snake River. Snake River itself. Snake River football. The thousand kids who have passed through here. I was part of that. Dad was a major cog in the whole deal.”

And for the last half-decade, it’s been Jeb at the helm – the son trying to enhance the legacy of a program built up by his dad.

When hired in 2016, Jeb provided some perspective on trying to fill his dad’s shoes: “Some people say things like, ‘How’s it going to be living in the shadow of Tom Harrison?’” he told The Journal back then. “I say, ‘Well thank you for the shade,’ because I got to learn a lot. I’m excited to go back to Harrison Field.”

Read that quote this week, the current Panther head coach said, “Yeah, I agree with that 1,000%.”

The motivation for Jeb is not being his dad. It is not winning 10 state titles or having a 54-game winning streak or getting into a million record books. Those things probably aren’t in the cards. Jeb knows that. He’s also aware that comparison is the thief of joy and trying to match his dad’s trophy case would suck out all the positives of coaching.

“Winning is secondary,” Jeb said. “I’m in it for the relationships with the kids. That’s where the best moments are. Like in 10 years the kid gives you a hug or you go to his wedding.”

“I hope that Jeb enjoys that,” his dad added. “I’ll support him with whatever he decides (to do) and if he continues in this profession, he’ll do real well and I think he’s done real well … I hope I set a good example for him.”