Idaho State’s Hawkins has Bengals eyeing a Big Sky breakthrough

Cody Hawkins has Idaho State at the point where a Big Sky team stops being a curiosity and starts becoming a problem. The Bengals moved from 3-8 in 2023 to 5-7 in 2024 and then to 6-6 overall, 5-3 in league play in 2025, with the conference’s top total offense and a defense that finally gave the program enough support to matter. The real question now is not whether Idaho State can throw the ball, but whether it can keep turning that identity into wins that change the race.

The old Idaho State blueprint still matters

Idaho State has a name for its best passing memory, and it still carries weight in Pocatello. The 1981 team was marketed as the “Throwin’ Idahoans,” a nickname tied to backup quarterback Dirk Koetter, and the offense came from Dave Kragthorpe’s BYU-influenced playbook. That team went 9-1 in the regular season, won the Big Sky at 6-1, and finished by taking the Division I-AA national championship, with Mike Machurek at quarterback and future NFL head coaches Koetter and Marvin Lewis on the roster.

That history matters because Hawkins is chasing something similar in shape, if not in era. Idaho State’s current identity is built around the pass game too, but the standard has shifted from style points to actual leverage in the standings. A program can live on highlights for a while; it can only become dangerous when those highlights start showing up in November with trophies and tiebreakers attached.

Hawkins inherited a rebuild that needed more than optimism

When Hawkins arrived in the winter of 2022, Idaho State was not just looking for better results. The roster had been hit by transfer attrition, the program had struggled to win, and it needed an identity reset as much as a coaching voice. Hawkins’ first job was to make the Bengals believe they could become something other than a punch line in the league’s middle tier.

The results have followed a clear line. In 2023, Idaho State went 3-8 but still led the FCS in passing offense. In 2024, the Bengals climbed to 5-7. By 2025, they had reached 6-6 overall and 5-3 in the Big Sky, a finish that put them squarely in the conversation rather than on the margins of it. The numbers are not cosmetic: Idaho State finished with 396 points, averaged 33.0 points per game in Big Sky play, and finished first in the conference in total offense with 5,513 yards and 459.4 yards per game.

The signature wins changed the temperature

The Bengals’ most convincing argument came when the schedule got harder. On Nov. 1, 2025, Idaho State went to UC Davis and beat the No. 6 Aggies 38-36, the program’s first Top-10 win since 2021 and Hawkins’ first road win over a ranked opponent. Dason Brooks carried that game with 219 rushing yards and two touchdowns, a reminder that the offense was not only a pass-heavy machine but also capable of punishing a defense when the moment demanded it.

Two weeks later, Idaho State followed that with a 31-3 rout of Weber State on Nov. 15, 2025. The Bengals held the Wildcats to 227 total yards, scored on their first possession, and never let the game loosen. The win gave Idaho State back-to-back victories over Weber State for the first time since 1984 and kept the Train Bell Trophy in Pocatello. That same late-season surge also included a 37-16 win at Idaho to claim the Battle for the Potato State Trophy, and it finished with Idaho State on a four-game winning streak, its best conference finish since 2018.

What has to improve for this to become a true breakthrough

The next step is not more entertainment. Idaho State has already proved it can score and it has already proved it can steal games from ranked opponents. The threshold now is balance: a run game that can keep the Bengals from living and dying on the pass, protection that preserves the quarterback, cleaner turnover margins, and the discipline to avoid wasting explosive offense with self-inflicted mistakes.

The blocking numbers show how real the protection has become. Idaho State allowed only three sacks in 2025, the fewest in the Big Sky and the best mark in the nation. The Bengals also finished with the nation’s top net punting unit, which matters in a league where field position can decide whether a hot offense gets enough possessions to bury someone or gets dragged into a one-score fight. On defense, Idaho State allowed its fewest points since 2002, giving up 327 points, or 27.3 per game, enough stability to make the offense’s volume count.

That combination is what separates a one-year feel-good story from a team that can pressure the top of the league. A real Big Sky breakthrough means finishing above .500 in conference play, winning the games that matter against the league’s best, and doing it often enough that the schedule no longer feels like a test of whether the Bengals can survive. Idaho State already answered part of that question against UC Davis and Weber State; the next version has to answer it again, on the road and against the teams that usually decide the league race.

The extension says the school sees the same thing

Idaho State made its own bet on the trajectory. The school first announced a five-year extension for Hawkins through the 2030 season on July 17, 2025, then announced on June 9, 2026, that he had agreed to a new extension through 2031. The later deal did not include a raise, only a longer commitment, which tells you how the university is reading the arc: the value is in continuity, not a reset.

Athletics Director Pauline Thiros put it plainly, saying Hawkins has been central to reigniting belief in Idaho State Football. That is the core of this moment in Pocatello. Hawkins has not just revived a passing game, he has pushed the Bengals toward something more consequential, a team with enough offense, enough proof wins and enough institutional backing to threaten the order in a league that does not hand out breakthroughs easily.

Idaho State is no longer interesting because it can throw. It is interesting because the Bengals have turned that old identity into a case for real contention.