On Saturday afternoon, the Idaho State Bengals will line up across from a different-colored jersey for the first time in 2026.

After a long offseason, summer workouts and fall camp, the Bengals open their 2026 campaign against Virginia Military Institute on Saturday, Aug. 29, at 4 p.m. inside the ICCU Dome.

It is the first meeting between the two programs, and it comes with a lot of unknowns.

VMI enters 2026 with a new head coach after a 1-11 season, with Ashley Ingram taking the reins as he looks to turn the Keydets around. Ingram spent 16 years on the Navy staff and two seasons at Division II Carson-Newman before being hired in December.

The Bengals enter with momentum, having closed last season with three straight wins to finish 6-6. Expectations are high heading into year four under Cody Hawkins.

For the second year in a row, Idaho State opens against a team with a new staff, which makes preparation difficult.

“It’s an annual tradition to play a brand new coach,” Hawkins said. “It seems like every single year, we have no idea what’s going on in game one.”

The one thing Hawkins and the Bengals do know is that VMI will come in tough, disciplined and ready to work.

“We know that they’re going to be a tough, disciplined football team,” Hawkins said. “Playing military academies is a really unique experience, and whatever you have in your head about what you think a football game is, kind of gets turned on its head.”

The Keydets will run a triple-option offense, a system Ingram brings from his years at Navy. They will focus on wearing down the Bengals and keeping the ball away from Idaho State’s explosive offense.

“Whatever you think we should look like on either side of the ball, I mean, we’re gonna have to play differently on offense, and differently on defense, knowing you’re going to have fewer possessions,” Hawkins said. “They’re going to have some tricks up their sleeve. It’s going to be a tall task just because it’s totally new.”

VMI averaged 15.9 points and 291 yards per game a year ago, while holding the ball for 28 minutes.

The Keydets are led by junior running back Leo Boehling, who ran 128 times for 537 yards and two touchdowns in 2025. Junior Aslin Shipe, who had 70 yards at 4.0 per carry last season, is also expected to play. The quarterback position is expected to be split between junior JoJo Crump and sophomore Nana Utsey.

That triple option style will challenge the Bengals defense in both ability and discipline.

“You just don’t see it every week. It’s a one-off from everything else you get from everybody else,” ISU defensive coordinator Grant Duff said. “You can’t replicate it very well with our team. The speed and tempo and the deliberate execution that they’re going to play with is something that we have no shot of replicating at a mastery level.”

For Duff, success starts with tackling.

“We have to be elite tacklers,” Duff said. “If we slip, you’re going to see them make some gains and hold onto the ball and chew the clock. And that’s just not a recipe for us to do over and over and over if we want to have success.”

The defense has been asserting itself as a unit to watch this season, and in a group mixing experience and newcomers, it is freshman Trehsyn Fesili who has stolen the headlines.

A native of Honolulu, Fesili has been on campus less than a year and has already won the coaches over. He is expected to start at defensive end.

“I mean that dude, he’s not a true freshman,” Hawkins said. “He is in classification, but gosh, he’s a wonderful talent out of Hawaii. He’s playing as well or better than anybody on defense right now. The kid plays with an unbelievable motor, and his attitude and energy is so infectious. He’s a guy that we want out there as early and as often as possible.”

He joins an experienced front seven that includes seniors Collin Lewis, Grant Hessler and Bronson Childs and junior Jake East, with Meridian High grad Nathan Reynolds and Idaho Falls native Jacob Perez at linebacker behind them.

In the back end, juniors Jackson Daniels and Gabe Tahir and senior safety Troy Wilkey lead the way.

The Bengals defense has the experience, talent and hunger to be one of the best in the conference, and Duff is confident it will show that.

“We have a chance to be very good on defense,” Duff said. “That’s because of their competence in what they’re doing. We don’t ever want to be arrogant or cocky or any of that. But the truth is still the truth, and we got a chance to be really good. So we should be playing like that.”

On offense, the Bengals are explosive in every facet, led in the backfield by fifth-year quarterback Jordan Cooke and running back Dason Brooks.

Cooke capped last season with 3,040 yards and 16 touchdowns, leading a passing attack that averaged 303 yards per game. Brooks led the way on the ground with 1,007 yards and 10 touchdowns, becoming the eighth player in program history to top 1,000 in a season.

Along with talent, the two bring experience the rest of the offense does not have as much of.

The wide receivers had the biggest turnover, and a lot of different players are expected to make plays. Seniors Julian “Juice” Mason, Eli Aragon-Cruz and Chedon James have led the room and are expected to be the key contributors, but as with much of the roster, the depth is a strength — Hawkins said he is confident in eight receivers who could play game in and game out.

One of those is sophomore Simeon Brown.

“He is a worker. He’s a great kid, and probably has a brighter future than anybody that we have recruited here,” Hawkins said.

At 6-foot-3 and 204 pounds, Brown has been a standout in camp for his catch radius, route running and physicality, giving the Bengals a different look at receiver.

Brown is not the only one making an impression. Senior Robert Freeman IV, a Utah State transfer, has been flexed between running back and receiver, and his explosiveness gives Idaho State a one-two punch alongside Brooks.

“He is electric with the ball in his hands,” Hawkins said. “The thing that he probably does better than anybody on our football team is when the ball is in his hands, he is a hard sucker to tackle. We got one guy who can run you over and one guy who can make you miss in a phone booth. I think that’s a pretty good combination.”

The numbers favor Idaho State, but with the expectations and the standard Hawkins is trying to set, Saturday is the first test of how real the Bengals are.

“My big message is that you can’t look at this like you’re playing another team,” Hawkins said. “This game lives in a vacuum, and you got to play to win this football game.”