Idaho’s opener means more for Oregonians Jack Layne and Mark Hamper: ‘I have been dreaming about a moment like this’

MOSCOW, Idaho – For nine players on Idaho’s team, this is personal.

Guys from Oregon, who grew up in the shade cast by the dominant Ducks before finding their way to the Vandals, will get to see Idaho line up against the third-ranked team in the country Saturday at Autzen Stadium in Eugene.

True, only three or four of them are likely to get into the game. But for Idaho’s starting quarterback, Jack Layne, a redshirt sophomore from Lake Oswego, and for one of his go-to receivers, Mark Hamper, a redshirt freshman from West Linn, playing the Ducks is not only an opportunity to test themselves against the best of the best, but a chance to live out childhood dreams.

“I have been dreaming about a moment like this my whole life,” Hamper said.

“I am super excited,” Layne said. “So far, I have 34 tickets lined up, so family and guys I grew up with are going to be there.”

That includes his father, Matt, an Oregon alum.

Layne and Hamper attended Oregon games growing up.

“When I think of college football games, this is what I think of,” Layne said. “The crowd is going to be loud, supportive and hostile.”

At practice in the Kibbie Dome this week, to simulate the anticipated atmosphere at Autzen Stadium, Idaho had recorded marching band music cranked up to high decibels.

“We are doing our best,” Layne said. “It is better than nothing, but it is going to be twice as loud there.”

“Those 70,000 people get it booming,” Hamper said.

Unlike Layne, Hamper does not have family ties to Oregon.

“My dad (Kris) graduated from the University of Washington,” he said. “I never liked the Ducks.”

Oregon offered Hamper a preferred walk-on spot, but when he was recruited in high school he said Idaho stuck out.

“This is always the place I wanted to be.”

Idaho coach Jason Eck lauds Layne’s impressive grasp of football. Against the Ducks, however, Layne expects his biggest challenge will not be discerning defenses but making plays against experienced, elite athletes.

“They are fairly vanilla, from what I have seen on film,” Layne said. “But they know their leverages. They know their rules well on defense, and they know where their help is. My biggest goal is to have a plan. My receivers can’t make a play if I don’t give them a chance, We have to use the whole football field.”

Based on their practices this week, the Vandals will not be shy about going deep if they see single coverage.

“They like to play a lot of man,” Hamper said.

The majority of the Vandals’ practice reps were short and intermediate passes, running plays and gadget offerings that Eck was circumspect about trying against the Ducks.

“You have got to have it ready,” Eck said.

Hamper said Idaho’s short, underneath passing game is designed to create “natural rubs. Take a 3-yard pass and go off for 20 yards.”

The Vandals also practiced a play in which Layne and second-team quarterback Jack Wagner, a redshirt freshman and another Oregon Vandal, from Tualatin, were in the backfield together.

“I hope we expand that package a little more,” Layne said. “Me and ‘Wags’ are close. He is way faster than me. Hopefully, going forward, I would love having him back there.”

Idaho is a 44½-point underdog , but Hamper is eager to rise to the challenge of facing a Big 10 team in the running to win a national championship.

“Playing at home, against Oregon, I couldn’t have drawn it up any better myself,” he said.