Head Coach Jason Eck enters his third season at the helm of Vandal football after guiding the Vandals to back-to-back FCS playoff appearances in the first two seasons. He led the Vandals to a 16-9 record, two trips to the FCS playoffs and a dominant win over FBS Nevada.
Under Eck, Idaho is 5-1 in all three “rivalry” games, splitting with Montana for the Little Brown Stein, while dominating Eastern Washington for the Che-Scow Cup and Idaho State for the Potato State Trophy.
In two years, Vandal players earned 31 All- Big Sky honors and seven have earned All-American honors. In 2022, Gevani McCoy was honored as the Big Sky Conference Freshman of the Year and earned the Jerry Rice Award given annually to the FCS Freshman of the Year as selected by a national panel. Four Vandals earned opportunities in NFL camps ahead of the 2024 season.
The Vandal offense jumped from 25.36 points per game in 2021 to 35.92 in year one under Eck and the Vandal staff while the defense held opponents to 25.42 points per game, compared to 31.55 in the previous season.
Eck and his staff put together a 2023 and 2024 recruiting classes that ranked in the top-10 among FCS schools (247Sports).
Eck was named the 36th head coach in Idaho Vandal History on Dec. 18, 2021.
The 2019 America Football Coaches' Association FCS Assistant Coach of the Year spent six seasons at South Dakota State, where he helped lead SDSU to three semifinal appearances in four seasons and a national championship game appearance during the spring 2021 season. Eck has over two decades of experience as a college coach and returns to Moscow where he began his full-time coaching career.
In three years as the offensive coordinator at SDSU, Eck's teams have averaged 32.5 points per game, including 37.5 this season. The 2021 Jackrabbits are eighth in scoring offense, seventh in team passing efficiency and eighth in rushing offense with the FCS' leading rusher Pierre Strong leading the way.
In the 2021 spring season, Freshman quarterback Mark Gronowski was the runner-up for the Jerry Rice Award as the FCS freshman of the year before being injured on the first series of the National Championship game. The Jackrabbits fell 23-21 despite missing Gronowski.
The 2021 spring team showed off Eck's experience as an offensive line coach. The Jackrabbits were seventh in the FCS in rushing and fourth in the FCS for tackles for loss allowed despite playing some of the most physical defenses in the country in the MVFC. Sophomore offensive tackle Garret Greenfield was a near-consensus All-America selection. Sophomore guard Mason McCormick also received All-America recognition.
Eck served as the offensive line coach for the Jackrabbits from 2016-18. During his first season with the Jackrabbits, SDSU featured one of the most prolific offenses in the MVFC and the Football Championship Subdivision, posting averages of 33.2 points and 437.5 yards of total offense per game. In league contests, SDSU ranked second out of 10 teams in allowing only 11 total sacks and ranked first in five different offensive categories.
Before his time at SDSU, Eck was the offensive line coach and run-game coordinator at Montana State in 2015. The Bobcats were 18th in the FCS for rushing offense and 23rd in the FCS for sacks allowed. MSU was third in the FCS for scoring offense during his one season in Bozeman.
He was the Offensive Coordinator for the record-setting offense at Minnesota State, Mankato during back-to-back Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference championships in 2013 and 2014. He served as the offensive line coach in 2013 and added offensive coordinator duties in 2014 as the Mavericks advanced to the NCAA Division II championship game. The 2014 season saw Mankato finish 14th in Division II in rushing offense.
He also has served coaching stints at Winona State (2007-08), Ball State (2009-10), Hampton (2011) and Western Illinois (2012).
His first time as a Vandal came in 2004 when he coached the Vandal offensive line for three seasons. Eck spent two seasons under head coach Nick Holt and one under head coach Dennis Erickson.
A 1999 graduate of Wisconsin, Eck played on the Badgers' 1998 Big Ten championship team which went on to win the Rose Bowl. He began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Wisconsin under head coach Barry Alvarez and later moved on to Colorado.
Eck is a member of the Andy Talley Bone Marrow Foundation Coaches Council and helped register over 1,000 people to the national bone marrow registry in his first two drives on the Idaho campus.
Eck and his wife Kimberly have five children Quentin, a junior business major at Idaho, Jaxton, a freshman on the Vandal football team, Palmer, Maverick and Lola. Kimberly is a member of the American Football Coaches Wives Association and was formerly a board member.
Eck File
Coaching Experience
2019-2021 – South Dakota State - Offensive Coordinator
2016-2019 – South Dakota State - Offensive Line Coach
2015 – Montana State - Offensive Line/Run Game Coordinator
2014 – Minnesota State, Mankato – Offensive Coordinator
2013 – Minnesota State, Mankato – Offensive Line
2012 – Western Illinois – Offensive Line
2011 – Hampton – Offensive Line
2009-10 – Ball State – Offensive Line
2007-08 – Winona State – Offensive Line
2004-06 – Idaho – Offensive Line
2003-04 – Colorado – Offensive GA
2000-02 – Wisconsin – Offensive GA
Education
MBA - Wisconsin 2001
B.A. Psychology – Wisconsin 1999
Playing Experience
Wisconsin 1995-98
What They are Saying
College Football Hall of Fame Coach Dennis Erickson
"Jason is an outstanding coach and has done a great job at every place he's been. He brings experience and the right personality where the players will love him and play hard for him. He's a great guy and brings an awesome family back to Moscow. He will do a great job for the Vandals!"
College Football Hall of Fame Coach Barry Alvarez
"Jason played for me and later coached with me as a graduate assistant. His father was a coach and he's always been a student of the game. I've followed his career closely, and he's been successful everywhere he's been. He's innovative, he's creative, and he's a great teacher. This is a fantastic hire for the University of Idaho."
