Editor’s note: Idaho State Journal sports is looking at the history of ISU football and trying to project where the Bengals are headed in 2015. Today, a look at Idaho State’s offense and the upcoming quarterback battle.

FIND PART 1 OF THE SERIES HERE

AND PART 2 THAT FOCUSED ON DEFENSE HERE

At the Big Sky Summer Kickoff last July, Idaho State coach Mike Kramer provided a clear road map for the Bengals in 2014.

Kramer believed senior quarterback Justin Arias was as good as anyone in the Big Sky Conference. His wide receivers were young, yes, but they were talented and would do fine. His offensive line was deep and talented, and he had full faith junior running back Xavier Finney was ready for a prime time role.

Kramer thought his offense needed to score anywhere from 43-45 touchdowns for the Bengals to be successful.

He was off, way off — at least about the touchdowns.

Arias was as good as Kramer said, the receivers were better, the offensive line and Finney were spectacular and the Bengals scored 64 touchdowns in 2014.

Idaho State had averaged 29 touchdowns a season the three previous years.

Finney, Arias and receivers Madison Mangum and KW Williams were the running highlight tape, but it was the offensive line who Kramer praised again and again for the offense’s success. That group, composed of a senior, three juniors and a sophomore, was the end result of offensive line coach Matt Troxel, who was promoted to assistant head coach for the offense in the offseason.

As good as Idaho State’s offensive front was, they should be a bigger, stronger, more cohesive unit with four returning starters this season.

They may need to be better. Because even though the Bengals have Finney and all of their receivers and tight ends back for another run in 2015, they don’t have a quarterback. Arias, ISU’s second-leading passer all time, is gone and there’s a gaping hole in his absence.

LOOMING QUARTERBACK BATTLE

The Bengals have two starting quarterback options. The first is freshman Tanner Gueller, who redshirted last year and spent the entire spring working with ISU’s first-team offense. Option No. 2 is junior college transfer Michael Sanders.

Gueller has run Idaho State’s offense for one entire season but hasn’t thrown a pass in a real game since his senior year in high school.

Sanders, a junior, won’t practice full time with the Bengals until the start of fall camp in August. But he has starting experience in college after throwing for 3,535 yards and 35 touchdowns while leading Scottsdale Community College to an 8-3 record last year.

Kramer has definitively stated he won’t name a starter until about a week before the Bengals open the season at home against Black Hill State.

Whatever quarterback Kramer and new offensive coordinator Sheldon Cross go with, he’ll be under heavy pressure to deliver.

All the parts for an explosive, dynamic offense are in place. Sanders or Gueller just have to get behind the wheel of a humming engine and keep it on the road.

Kramer might have provided a clue during the spring as to who stood a better chance at winning the starting job.

“Very rarely can a freshman or a redshirt freshman carry a team to a national championship, and that’s our goal,” Kramer said. “Our goal is to win the Big Sky Conference championship, get in the playoffs and win the national championship. That hasn’t been done by very many redshirt freshmen. So the numbers are against him. What’s good for him is that if he could sit for a couple years and watch, by the time he’s ready to play, he’ll be just like Justin was. Justin sat for two years and became one of the best players in the United States.”

At the same time, though, Gueller’s age won’t hold him back. Kramer and the Bengals are going to start the guy who they think gives them the best shot to navigate a schedule that includes six road games and dates at home against Big Sky heavy hitters Eastern Washington, Montana and Montana State.

This is a pivotal season for the Bengals. They unexpectedly arrived on the national scene and nearly broke into the FCS playoffs last year. If Gueller or Sanders can play well enough, the ascension is only beginning.