At long last, Idaho State has a starting quarterback.

The Bengals’ Week 1 starter will be Tyler Vander Waal, according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation, ending a quarterback battle with sophomore Hunter Hays that stretched from April to August.

Idaho State's season-opener is Aug. 27 at UNLV.

Since first-year ISU coach Charlie Ragle took over in the winter and the team kicked off spring ball, he stressed one thing: The starting job may have been Vander Waal’s last season before he suffered a season-ending shoulder injury, but it was anyone’s this year. In the spring, that meant competition included Vander Waal, Hays and Sagan Gronauer (both of whom filled in for Vander Waal last season) plus the team’s group of newcomers at the position.

Then, as fall camp opened, it became clear the battle would center around Vander Waal and Hays. Both took first-team reps in practices and scrimmages, which backed what Ragle and offensive coordinator Taylor Mazzone repeated: Neither had an advantage. Both looked good, both competed well. They needed more time to name a starter.

In effect, the competition ended on Wednesday, when ISU held its final scrimmage of fall camp. That represented Vander Waal and Hays’ final chance to separate themselves on the field. Immediately afterward, Ragle and Mazzone echoed each other, indicating they would review the practice film and name a starter sometime afterward.

They may have needed more time than they thought, but the competition for the starting job has now ended.

It’s hardly uncommon for new coaches to hold these quarterback battles, especially when they take over teams coming off forgettable seasons like Idaho State’s one-win campaign last year, but the fact that Vander Waal’s job was up for grabs registered as something of a surprise.

In 2021, he earned Big Sky Newcomer of the Year and second-team all-conference honors. A Wyoming transfer, Vander Waal made his share of mistakes in the Bengals’ six-game spring slate — he completed just 54% of his passes and threw 12 touchdowns to 10 interceptions — but you didn’t need to be a rocket scientist to see that he had a cannon for an arm, plus natural talent that figured to help ISU erase the past few years’ failures.

In the fall, Vander Waal was looking forward to building on the abbreviated season, but in Week 3 against Sacramento State, he went down with a Grade 3 AC joint separation — the most severe of its kind. In the weeks that followed, Vander Waal lobbied doctors and coaches to return to play, but when the pain became unmanageable, he understood he had played his last down of the season.

In his absence, Hays and Gronauer stepped in. Hays played the most snaps of the two, completing 55% of his passes for 1,091 yards, six touchdowns and seven interceptions. Gronauer got reps too, hitting on 55% of his passes for three touchdowns and three picks, but the consensus was Hays looked like the more capable replacement.

The bigger problem was ISU’s season was a lost cause. The Bengals finished with just one win, upsetting UC Davis in Pocatello, and ahead of their final game of the season, previous head coach Rob Phenicie was fired. At the time, Idaho State faced a seriously uncertain future. The Bengals still do, but at least now they have a starting quarterback.