MOSCOW, ID. — Ian Shoemaker is back in the Big Sky, this time leading the Idaho Vandals’ offense.
Shoemaker spent two seasons as Eastern Washington’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach before stops at Hawaii and Grand Valley State. Now, he’s back in the Pacific Northwest and beginning a new chapter in Moscow.
“Obviously, you look at the proximity to where I grew up and my family grew up in, you know, our wife and her family and, you know, kind of Quinn being closer to grandparents, cousins and things like that,” Shoemaker said.
But family wasn’t the only reason Shoemaker wanted the Idaho job.
“It’s a great football program. I love the town,” he said. “We always thought of Moscow as a pretty awesome place where you could raise kids and, you know, live and things like that.”
Shoemaker also saw the potential of the Idaho program long before taking the job.
“When I was at Eastern Washington, I was at Central Washington, you know, looking over here and going, man, this place could be really great,” Shoemaker said. “This could be a great spot to coach football.”
One of the biggest reasons he was excited about the current Idaho offense was the quarterback already in place.
“The first thing, obviously, is that there’s a quarterback in place that does help a little bit,” Shoemaker said.
That quarterback is Joshua Wood, someone Shoemaker has known for years.
“I’ve been very fortunate to coach really good quarterbacks over my career, and Josh is one of those guys,” Shoemaker said. “We’re excited to get a chance to work with him.”
Shoemaker also sees plenty to like elsewhere on the roster, including an experienced offensive line and a young receiver group.
But the foundation of his offense starts with running the football.
“I think first off is establishing the run,” Shoemaker said. “I think if you can run the ball and be successful and be physical inside running the ball, that makes things a lot easier.”
That physicality is designed to create opportunities for the passing game.
“We want to force defenses to commit people to the line of scrimmage so that those play-actions and RPO windows open up,” Shoemaker said.
And when it comes to explosive plays, Shoemaker isn’t interested in forcing them.
“I don’t think you can force those,” he said. “I think you’ve got to manufacture those through good scheme.”
Shoemaker wants to play with tempo and use a deep group of receivers.
“If we’re going to play with tempo and we’re going to play fairly wide open, then I need six to seven guys ready to go out at receiver and catch the ball,” he said.
And he has a specific type of player in mind.
“I need guys that are willing blockers, but also, you know, Frisbee-catching dogs,” Shoemaker said. “Guys that can go get it when the ball’s in the air.”
For Shoemaker, the identity of his offense goes beyond yards and points.
“I think first is physicality in the run game, shocking effort,” he said. “We talk about playing super hard, putting great things on film.”
He also wants efficiency from Wood and the rest of the offense.
“Being efficient at the quarterback position, distributing the ball to all groups,” Shoemaker said. “The tight ends have to be important to us. Receivers and running backs.”
That new system has required plenty of work.
Shoemaker estimates the Idaho playbook contains between 250 and 275 pages of information, calls and concepts.
“We’ve been able to go through that again and again, kind of a bell-shaped curve installation schedule six different times,” he said.
The players have learned the information, been tested on it and practiced it before returning to it again.
“It is one of those things from a language standpoint, it’s very difficult,” Shoemaker said. “It is different than what they’ve done last year.”
Still, Shoemaker has been impressed by how quickly his players have bought in.
One example came during spring practice, when some of Idaho’s veteran players took over and led a practice without coaches.
“Watching that in the spring, those guys taking a full practice on their own, without any coaches even being there and doing those player-led practices — I haven’t seen that at any stop,” Shoemaker said.
Now, Shoemaker wants all that preparation to translate onto the field.
When asked what he wants people to say about Idaho’s offense at the end of the 2026 season, his answer was simple.
“They played their tails off,” Shoemaker said. “That’s the first and foremost thing.”
“We’re very physical. And then, like I said, we’re efficient in their situations,” he added. “Do those things first, and yards and scoring follow.”
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