Mike Davis held the mic in one hand and reached down with the other. During this post-practice interview Thursday afternoon, Davis was receiving a gift from Finley and Bowen Hawkins, the 3- and 1-year-old children of Idaho State head coach Cody Hawkins, which was a ziploc bag with a s’more and a handwritten note inside.

We couldn’t love the Bengals any s’more. Happy Easter. Love, Finley and Bowen.

“Thank you guys,” Davis said. “That’s gonna be my dinner for tonight.”

If Idaho State’s offensive line is going to make meaningful improvements this fall, Davis and his fellow offensive linemen will probably need to eat a little more than s’mores for dinner.

That much goes without saying — “We’ll have barbecues and stuff like that,” Davis said — but on a more serious note, the reality is the Bengals’ offensive line needs some real attention. Last season, ISU surrendered 32 sacks, most in the Big Sky Conference. The year before that, the Bengals yielded 39, again tops in the conference. Idaho State’s offense suffered as a result, unable to give its quarterbacks time in the pocket — and that’s only when those guys have been healthy enough to play.

If there’s any good news in there for ISU, it’s this: The club really likes new offensive line coach Mark Weber, an industry veteran who has coached at about a million different places. His most recent stop was Washington State, where he worked for nearly two seasons before getting fired — along with head coach Nick Rolovich and three other assistants — for refusing to comply with a state mandate to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Weber was also a graduate assistant on ISU’s 1981 national championship team, a gig he parlayed into 11 more jobs across what has now become a 40-year career.

Can he turn around the Bengals’ offensive line in a meaningful way? The calendar still reads April, so right now, there’s no real way to know. What we can glean is this: ISU’s offensive linemen have taken a liking to Weber, whose list of philosophies includes one above all.

“Finish,” Davis said. “The one thing that our offensive line is gonna do this year, because of Coach Weber, is finish. We’re gonna finish blocks, we’re gonna finish plays. We’re gonna be hustling downfield on passes. Finish — that’s his thing.”

Who will be doing the finishing, though, is the question. The 6-foot-4 Davis is transitioning from tight end to offensive line, a position he has never played before. Other offensive linemen on the roster include Syr Riley and Owen Stewart, two guys who shuffled in and out of last year’s lineup, plus Jacob Angel, whose injury trouble limited him to four games last fall. Rising sophomore Joseph Toiolo filled in as a backup center.

What we’re getting at is this: ISU returns little experience on the offensive line. Gone are starters Terron Carey, John Perko, Avery Demmons and Tyler Clemons, all of whom either graduated or transferred. Riley and Stewart did start some games, but neither were fixtures on the line.

Where does that leave Idaho State? The short answer: With a bunch of new guys. Hawkins and Weber both said they felt impressed by “everyone,” avoiding naming names since it’s so early, but Davis took time to shout out a few guys.

• Vicente Hughes, a transfer from Diablo Valley Community College in California. “He’s a really physical guy, and he’s also really smart,” Davis said.

• Alex Ramirez, a transfer from Modesto Community College, also in California. “Super smart. He’s a great leader,” Davis said.

• Jaedon Garcia, a sophomore who appeared in one game last season. “He’s been working his butt off the whole time,” Davis said.

• Angel, a 6-foot-7 senior.

“He’s physical as hell,” Davis said. “This is a really good group of physical guys. Our second stringers are just as good. They’re just as fast. They all want to play just as bad as us. This is a really solid group.”

If there’s one intriguing prospect who Davis didn’t mention, though, it’s Talin Togiai. A Rigby native, the 6-foot-4 Togiai earned a scholarship to play his freshman season at BYU, but he entered the transfer portal after last year. ISU swooped in and scooped him up, giving him a chance to move closer to home.

“I’m excited about him,” Weber said. “He’s young. He’s raw. He’s big. He’s powerful. And he’s doing some good things. He’s a little bit behind because of how late he got here, but he’s really catching on and doing some good things. I’ve been impressed with some things he’s just done physically. He’s a big, powerful kid — and he’s just a puppy.”

Weber and the Bengals will hope Togiai — and the rest of their offensive linemen — can deliver on their promising starts thus far. For ISU, no position group has struggled more in the last two seasons, a unit mired in injuries and inconsistency, which has thwarted the rest of the team’s offensive operation.

The offensive-minded Hawkins does seem adamant about turning things around on that side of the ball, though, even if that means taking some lumps. He wants to be fun. He wants to be innovative. He also understands where that starts.

“We’re gonna turn this place into O-line U,” Hawkins said. “We’re gonna make sure the whole line gets special treatment. They get to eat first, ride up front on the bus, sit in the exit rows on the planes. I mean, we’re gonna do everything we can to make sure that we make life great for offensive linemen, because you cannot escape the fact that you have to demand more from those guys 365 days a year. It’s a tough job. It’s a thankless job. They gotta work hard all the time.”