POCATELLO — If experience is key, Idaho State’s quarterbacks are as strong as they’ve been in years.
Led by fifth-year senior and projected third-year starter Tanner Gueller, the Bengals’ signal callers are buoyed by minimal player turnover and a core of four players who have been in the program at least one year.
Gueller, Gunnar Amos, Michael Goggin and Drew Cash embarked on their second fall camp together this week. They comprise ISU’s first QB quartet this decade to carry over from one season to the next. The group lost Robert Kvinsland (transfer) and Anthony Posada (left program) from last year’s corps, but the thinned-out depth chart has allowed each player more reps through three days of fall camp.
The lone first-year Bengal quarterback is transfer Matt Struck, who was awaiting NCAA clearance and practiced for the first time Saturday. Struck spent the past two seasons at Riverside City College in California.
“All four of the guys that I have in my room right now, you could tell that they worked their tails off this summer,” first-year offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Mike Ferriter said after Friday’s practice at the ICCU Practice Field. “We talked after spring ball. We talked about the things that they’ve got to work on and improve on, and every single one of them did that. I felt like I came into the beginning of fall camp with a better group than I ended spring ball with, which was really nice for me to have.”
Fall camp marks Ferriter’s second monthlong practice session with ISU’s quarterbacks. He was hired this offseason to replace Matt Troxel — who is now an offensive quality control analyst at Oregon State — and instilled his wrinkles and expectations into the group during spring practices.
Ferriter, like Troxel, played wide receiver for ISU head coach Rob Phenicie at the University of Montana. Plus, Troxel and Ferriter have remained close friends over the years, making the transition fairly seamless, Gueller said. That is despite Ferriter being Gueller’s — and Amos’ — fourth position coach in college.
“Ferriter’s a smart guy,” Gueller said. “He knows what was done last year, and then he kind of built off that. He saw what was there and ways to make that better or some changes to make. … It felt smooth from day one.”
Gueller hopes to lead ISU’s offense beyond its achievements from last season, when the unit ranked 20th in the 123-team FCS in total offense and scored 28.1 points per game. He’ll be ISU’s first redshirt senior quarterback to take a snap since Justin Arias in 2014 — when the Bengals’ offense nearly carried the team to the FCS playoffs.
Gueller enters the 2018 season 3,121 yards and 17 touchdowns away from ISU’s all-time records.
“He’s absolutely where he should be (for a fifth-year senior),” Ferriter said of Gueller. “Tanner’s a very intelligent young man. … Every once in a while, I’ll screw up and say something, and he’ll say, ‘Do you mean this and that?’
“He’s a very football-intelligent person. He knows what he’s doing. He’s got a great grasp of this.”
Gueller’s backup is Amos, a redshirt junior who started fall camp a week late last season after transferring from the University of Idaho. He had to learn quickly and was forced into action against UC Davis when Gueller got injured.
Now, Amos is in his second fall camp and had spring ball, plus summer workouts, to acclimate. His career totals of 29 pass attempts and 87 yards passing in 13 appearances give ISU its most experienced No. 2 since Gueller threw for 855 yards as Michael Sanders’ off-and-on backup in 2015.
“It’s been a lot better,” Amos said. “When I first got here with Trox, we kind of had to just get it in as fast as we could so I could be ready to play. Now with the spring, having a full install and then fall camp with another full install, I feel a lot more comfortable with where I’m going with the ball, protections and everything like that.”
Neither Goggin, a redshirt sophomore, nor Cash, a redshirt freshman, have taken a snap in a college game. Struck completed 10 of 20 passes for 73 yards, with one touchdown and one interception in five games last season at RCC. The 6-foot-3, 210-pound right-hander took a recruiting visit to Oregon State in 2016, according to his recruiting profile on multiple sites.
According to MaxPreps, Struck completed 176 of 312 passes (56.4 percent) for 2,717 yards, 19 touchdowns and nine interceptions as a senior at Oregon’s Crater High School. Struck added 11 rushing scores to lead his team to the state semifinals.
“I feel good about (our depth),” Ferriter said. “Hopefully, you don’t ever have to get into your depth, but I’ve been around places where you have to get into your third, fourth guys. … If we have to, I feel good about any of those four guys right now being able to go into a game and control that game and finish it off for us.”