POCATELLO — Sometimes all it takes is belief in yourself and the guts to take a risk.

For senior linebacker Jacob Perez, he had the guts — and now he’s reaping the rewards.

From the time he was little, Perez always had a ball in his hands — football, basketball, baseball, he loved them all. For the Idaho Falls native, whenever he got the ball in his hands and played, he felt at home. But what set football apart was the physical contact.

“I always just loved the competitive nature of all the sports,” Perez said. “What really separated football was honestly just the physicality of it — being able to take out all your frustrations of life and being able to go hit somebody. That’s really why football has always stuck out to me.”

Perez attended Bonneville High School and played three sports, starting on varsity as a freshman for the Bees. He played all four years there, then found himself at a crossroads: he wanted to keep playing football, but he had no college offers.

That changed when Idaho State head coach Cody Hawkins and then-defensive coordinator Josh Runda offered him a chance to play for the Bengals — but not on scholarship.

“I needed a reality check coming out of high school,” Perez said. “Most of the guys here were usually one of the better players on their high school team. Coming in as a walk-on, having to start from zero, it was a good reality check that I needed — that I wasn’t as good as I thought I was.”

Perez bet on himself and took the walk-on spot.

“It was last minute,” Perez said. “He offered me a preferred walk-on spot, and I didn’t really have anywhere else to go at the Division I level, so I was excited about it, and I just came here. I was ready to work, but I wasn’t ready as a player yet to truly play. So I got better my first year, and I started to develop.”

During the recruiting process, Perez’s high school coach told Hawkins he would never play for him. Hawkins didn’t listen, trusting his own instincts to bring Perez in as a Bengal.

“For a high school coach to undersell JP the way he got undersold to us, and to show up and do nothing but just be a great dude — he works and improves every day. He’s a great leader. He’s an example of what you want a man to be. He’s all the things you want in a young man. We’re so lucky he’s a Bengal,” Hawkins said.

Once he arrived in Pocatello, Perez had the usual daily grind of football and class — enough to keep most people busy. But Perez also worked a job three to four days a week to help get him through his first year of college.

His work ethic and development on the field as a linebacker eventually earned him a scholarship — a huge relief for him and his wife, Ashlyn, who both sacrificed and worked hard to make his dream come true.

“Through both of our hard work, I was able to earn a scholarship,” he said. “I was grateful and super happy that I could make it feel like both of our work wasn’t necessarily for no reason. I was more so glad that I could help her and my family out.”

From there, it looked like Perez was on the come-up — until he suffered a major injury his sophomore season and missed the entire year. Two seasons in, and he still hadn’t seen the field.

Then the Bengals hired Grant Duff as defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, and everything changed.

“The prototypical-size linebacker is dying a little bit in football — you’re trying to get guys that can run, because all these spread offenses are using every blade of grass on the field,” Duff said. “You have to have guys that can cover. Twenty, 25 years ago, he’s a hot commodity. A little bit of the situation, out of his control, kept his recruiting down, and he ended up walking on here.”

Entering his junior season, Perez began to grow both as a person and a player, and under Duff, the environment and defense gave him a much better chance to make his mark.

“I was able to just grow through good coaching and through the other players on the team,” Perez said. “It’s different. Where I was that walk-on, now I’m one of the guys they’re counting on to make plays each Saturday, and it’s been awesome for me.”

In his first season seeing real action as a Bengal in 2025, he appeared in 10 games and recorded 23 tackles, three tackles for loss, and one sack — a turning point heading into his senior season.

Through three games in 2026, Perez has been all over the field. After waiting his turn, his work has paid off: he’s started all three games, compiling 24 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, 0.5 sacks, and a blocked punt, becoming one of the keys to unlocking the Bengals’ defense.

He was just waiting for his signature moment. It came in Logan, Utah.

In the second quarter, with the Bengals leading 13-7 over the Aggies, Utah State quarterback McCae Hillstead dropped back to pass, looking for a receiver in the middle of the field. Perez read his eyes, stepped in front of the pass, and intercepted it, breaking into the open field for a 28-yard return down to inside the 5-yard line.

It was a moment Perez had dreamed about and worked hard for.

“I’ve always had confidence in myself, and it was more for me just a matter of when it was going to happen,” Perez said. “Our defense this year on all three levels is really good, and so for me making those plays, I just had to do my one-eleventh. The reason I was able to make those plays is because of all the other 10 guys on the team.”

For Perez, it was never about the tackles or the accolades. He wants something he hasn’t experienced much in football: winning.

“I’m willing to do whatever it takes for this team to win,” he said. “I just want to win. I’ve honestly never been a part of a winning team in football since elementary school. The biggest thing is, let’s just go win the Big Sky. Let’s go, and let’s see what we can do after that.”

Every time Perez steps onto the field in his No. 44 jersey, it represents the kid from Idaho Falls who loved to play the game and hit people — the kid who grew up under-recruited and worked every day to get to where he is now.

He may be a prototypical linebacker’s size, but there’s nothing else prototypical about Jacob Perez.

“He took a chance on himself, chips all in, and said, ‘I’m going to be me,’” Duff said. “In a world full of underachievers and a world of people afraid to fail, he is an anomaly. I love him to death for that, because he’s an inspiration to all of us. It’s not where you start; it’s where you end. And he’s the epitome of someone who didn’t give up.”