ANALYSIS: Final grades for the Vandals as they prep for playoff run

As the Idaho football team makes its final preparations for its most important stretch of the season — a third straight trip to the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs — here’s a last look at how each position group fared during the regular season.

Eighth-seeded Idaho (9-3) will next face Lehigh (9-3) at 6 p.m. Saturday (ESPN+) at the P1FCU Kibbie Dome in Moscow for the second round of the FCS playoffs.

The banged-up Vandals got a much-needed bye in the first round and the Hawks defeated ninth-seeded Richmond 20-16 in their opening-round game.

We’ll get more into that matchup later in the week.

For now, here’s how the Vandal position groups showcased their depth to put together another memorable season:

Quarterback — B

You’d have to go far and wide to find many other teams that ever played four quarterbacks in a season and still came away with nine wins and a top-10 ranking.

Because of injuries, sophomore Jack Layne and freshmen Jack Wagner, Nick Josifek and Rocco Koch all saw the field this season.

All four have performed admirably at times, but Layne, the Week 1 starter, returned from a broken collarbone injury just in time to start three of UI’s final four games.

On the season, Layne is 64-of-103 passing (62.14%) for 915 yards (183 per game) with nine touchdowns and three interceptions.

His juke on a quarterback-keeper touchdown and his flea-flicker pass to Jake Cox in that Week 1 loss to No. 1 Oregon remain some of the craziest plays of the season for Idaho fans.

Despite his limited experience, Layne has shown the poise needed to win games on the big stage, and his backups have stepped in when needed and gotten the job done, too.

Wide receiver/tight ends — B-

After losing its biggest weapons from last year, wide receiver was a position group with some of the biggest question marks going into this season.

Idaho is clearly a run-first team, but two wideouts have shown an ability to consistently make the big-time play: sophomore Jordan Dwyer and freshman Mark Hamper.

Dwyer leads the way with 60 catches for 837 yards and eight touchdowns. Hamper has 42 catches for 853 yards and five touchdowns.

After that, production falls off quite a bit.

Running backs — B+

Another position group that has proven it’s far deeper than anyone would’ve thought.

UI have four running backs who have rushed for at least 300 yards and none who have run for more than 550.

It’s been musical chairs at the position because of injuries, but all that’s done is show just how deep the Vandals are in the backfield.

Junior Nate Thomas has had the biggest season with 543 yards on a 5.3 average along with five touchdowns. The best news for UI is he is also healthy after missing some time in the middle of the season.

Elisha Cummings, Deshaun Buchanan and Art Williams have also filled in nicely, but all are banged up.

Offensive line — A

The fact that the Vandals survived so many injuries at QB and RB and still continued to win is probably the biggest testament to the offensive line.

Led by first-team All-Big Sky offensive tackle Ayden Knapik and second-team lineman Nate Azzopardi, Idaho has dominated in the trenches this season, and even hung with bigger teams, like those No. 1 Ducks.

Maybe head coach Jason Eck being a former stud lineman himself has something to do with UI’s transformation in the trenches in recent seasons.

The Vandals average 380.9 yards of total offense per game.

Defensive line — A+

This might be UI’s best unit.

Senior defensive end Keyshawn James-Newby and sophomore defensive tackle Dallas Afalava are both first-team All-Big Sky honorees, and for good reason.

The Vandals led the Big Sky in sacks this season (31) with James-Newby topping the list individually with 9.5 despite battling a bum shoulder most of the season.

Fellow defensive end Malakai Williams has added 6.5 sacks and Afalava has four.

Linebackers — A-

Sophomore linebacker Jaxton Eck leads the team with 110 tackles, good enough for him to get a first-team all-league nod.

The coach’s son has a high football IQ and always seems to be in the right spots.

Another underclassman, freshman Zach Johnson of Coeur d’Alene (Lake City High), had a breakout season with 76 tackles.

UI’s young linebackers are a big reason why the Vandals took such a big leap on the defensive side of the ball this year.

Defensive backs — B

It feels like UI safety Tommy McCormick has been donning the black and gold for a decade by now.

A fixture in the defensive backfield since he was a freshman, the senior has racked up 54 tackles, three interceptions and four passes defensed this season.

Sophomore cornerback Andrew Marshall joined McCormick as a first-team all-league player.

Special teams — C+

Kicker Cameron Pope is 15-of-20 on field goals and punter LJ Harm averages 41.28 yards per punt.

Respectable but modest numbers.

Outside of Marshall’s 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown Nov. 23 against Idaho State, special teams hasn’t been a flashy unit for the Vandals this season, but it’s not a unit that is hurting the team either

Overall — A

Idaho didn’t let injuries become an excuse this season. Instead, the Vandals continued to exceed expectations and pile up wins along the way.

All that’s left is to see what damage they can do in the FCS playoffs.

Wiebe may be contacted at (208) 848-2277, swiebe@lmtribune.com or on Twitter @StephanSports.