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dthompson@journalnet.com

POCATELLO -- There wasn't much late-game drama for the Idaho State football team last year.

No hail-mary attempts. No game-winning field goals or last-minute defensive stands.

No, the Bengals didn't deal with any of that. But they hope to this year, certainly, and that hope is not lost on the specialists -- all four of whom have never played in a single game at Idaho State -- who will be called on should Idaho State need a clutch kick or punt to help decide a game in the fourth quarter.

The only one of them to even be eligible to play in his time with the Bengals is junior punter Jon Vanderwielen, and he didn't see any game action his freshman or sophomore seasons.

So for him as well as junior kickers Mike Ramos and Jarrett Huk, plus new snapper Chris Kirkegaard, this fall gives them a chance to earn the trust of coaches and teammates, who will likely need them in crucial situations this season.

"It's nice to finally be out there," Vanderwielen said after Sunday's scrimmage. "It's nice to get to show my colors."

Last season, when Branden Jones and Dan Zeidman split the kicking duties and Zeidman handled punts and kickoffs on his own, the Bengals played an unusually anticlimatic season.

For the first time since 1924, none of Idaho State's games was decided by 10 points or less. Every game was either a double-digit loss, or a double-digit victory.

The team's average score differential was 18.8 points per game, the highest since Larry Lewis' first-year average of 22.3 in 1999. That season, the Bengals beat Fort Lewis by 39 points, lost to Portland State two weeks later by the same count and suffered the second-most lopsided loss in the history of their series with the Montana Grizzlies, 73-23, a month later.

Even still, the Bengals played two games that year decided by a touchdown or less.

Treating last year as an anomaly, odds are good that the Bengals will play in at least one close game this campaign. When that happens, it'll be a relatively unproven player with his foot on the pigskin.

Vanderwielen is the only true punter in camp, so the starting job is essentially his. He'll take long snaps from Kirkegaard, a true freshman from Scottsdale, Ariz., whom coaches summoned and offered a scholarship just two weeks ago, after Ryan Head left the team.

Kirkegaard played linebacker and was the team's long snapper at Seguro High School but decided to focus on the latter his junior year.

"I figured I had a better chance to go somewhere as a snapper," said Kirkegaard, who played on two state championship football teams.

At kicker, the situation is murky, one made all the more so by Ramos' injury. Just a couple days before fall camp started, Ramos gashed open the top of his right foot on a nail while floating the river in Lava Hot Springs.

"It had to be my kicking foot, the exact place I make contact with the football," Ramos said.

He expects doctors to clear him sometime this week. But while he's been hurt, the transfer Huk has been booting 50-yard field goals in practice and taking all the reps. Coaches brought in Huk because of his strong leg; he led his league in kickoffs at Chabot (Calif.) College last year.

However, he didn't start kicking until he arrived at Chabot, where he also played soccer and tennis. Idaho State coaches called him a raw talent, and Huk admitted he isn't yet as accurate as he'd like to be.

Ramos said he'd be fine with splitting duties -- with him taking shorter field goals and Huk kicking off and attempting the lengthy field goals -- but said it's ultimately not his decision.

"Hopefully I can just get out there and help the team," Ramos said.

As for kicking any game-winning field goals? Both kickers said they'd rather only be needed for extra points.

"It'd be nice if the offense would go out and do all the scoring," Huk said, "so I don't have to kick many field goals."

Idaho State's average final score differential

Season Diff. (pts.)

2007 18.8

2006 18.4

2005 14.8

2004 11.7

2003 17.6

By Dan Thompson

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