Hawkins names Bengals’ starting QB; new defensive coordinator talks about his philosophy

Jordan Cooke runs a read option during a recent Idaho State Bengals football practice. Cooke has been named the starting quarterback for ISU’s Week 0 matchup with UNLV. | Kalama Hines, EastIdahoSports.com POCATELLO — The Idaho State Bengals held their latest scrimmage Saturday at the ICCU Dome. After the scrimmage, head coach Cody Hawkins made his decision public as to who will start under center in Las Vegas. Entering camp, junior Jordan Cooke and freshman Jackson Sharman were the favorites to get the nod. Hawkins made it official two weeks before the Bengals’ Week 0 opener at UNLV, according to KPVI’s Kade Calvin. “Jordan’s going to be the guy,” he said. “I’ve told everybody that everybody is going to play in the first game, but it’s not so much a ‘Hey, let’s see what happens in the first game.’ Jordan has been really well — and Sharm played well, but I think Jordan’s ability to put points on the board in the scrimmages is, kind of, what stuck out.” ISU has had a series of scrimmages, some of which, Hawkins said, was about letting the first team offense and defense go “good-on-good” and “throw(ing) spaghetti at the wall and see what those guys would do.” Apparently, it was Cooke’s noodles that stuck. More recently though, the scout teams have been mixing up looks, allowing the first-teamers to see different schemes and approaches — “All the different stuff that we saw last year that gave us fits,” Hawkins said. The goal was to use the scrimmages to find answers to those questions. A new DC, a new defensive philosophy One answer that the Bengals head into the 2025 season hoping to have found is under the defensive headset. After finishing the 2024 season at or near the bottom of the Big Sky Conference in many defensive categories, ISU brought in longtime Weber State assistant coach Grant Duff to coordinate the defense. After Saturday’s scrimmage, Duff explained his defensive approach as one of aggression. “Violence, in football, is always an answer,” he said. “If you just run through that guy, knock him over, usually good things happen.” Duff has been pleased with how the defensive unit has responded to that mindset, saying that there have been some “big collisions” during scrimmages and that more often times than not, the defensive players “were the hammer and not the nail.” He went on to say that with his physical philosophy, Duff is about playing aggressively — potentially meaning more blitzes, and possibly creating windows for the offense as the defense takes a chance at forcing a turnover or a big loss. “When you lose a ballgame … you feel like you let the world down if you’re leaving something in your back pocket,” he said. Hawkins, Duff and the Bengals will travel to Sin City on Aug. 23, for a showdown with the Rebels of the Mountain West Conference.The post Hawkins names Bengals’ starting QB; new defensive coordinator talks about his philosophy appeared first on East Idaho News.
Source: eastidahonews.com