Young Idaho RB Deshaun Buchanan was ready for his breakout performance: ‘It is just preparation’

MOSCOW, Idaho – An origin story doesn’t happen every day.

Idaho and Eastern Washington fans who attended the Vandals’ 38-28 home victory against the Eagles on Oct. 26 were witness to one.

Idaho’s redshirt freshman running back Deshaun Buchanan finished with a team-leading 116 yards in eight carries with two touchdowns – one of them set up by a 72-yard run that is Idaho’s longest of the season.

Buchanan and another redshirt freshman, Art Williams, filled in for Vandals starters Elisha Cummings and Nate Thomas. Cummings injured a foot in the first half, and Thomas missed the game with a shoulder injury.

“It is just preparation, knowing your opportunities are going to come. Injuries happen, and you have got to be ready,” Buchanan said of his breakout performance.

With an impressive burst of speed, agile cuts and the strength and determination to drag would-be tacklers, Buchanan served notice this was more than an aberration.

Thomas was back at practice this week, and he and Buchanan are the likely backfield mainstays when the Vandals face Portland State on Saturday in Hillsboro, Oregon.

Idaho is catching an improving 2-6 Vikings team coming off a 58-38 win over Sacramento State a week ago, and a 27-26 near miss against fourth-ranked UC Davis on Oct. 5.

“I expect them to play hard, to play their tails off,” Buchanan said of Portland State. “They have some big, athletic linebackers.”

Despite impressive high school statistics – including 199 rushing yards and three touchdowns in leading Basha High School, of Chandler, to a state championship among Arizona’s largest schools – Buchanan said he was “underrecruited” in high school. He and Idaho coach Jason Eck said Buchanan was not ready for prime time when he arrived in Moscow.

“He is a guy who has matured a lot,” Eck said. “We thought he had a lot of talent when we recruited him,” noting that Buchanan was playing high-caliber enough high school football that one of his games was televised nationally.

But Buchanan served a season on the scout team as a freshman. Listed at 5-foot-11 and 190 pounds, Buchanan said spending a year training under Idaho strength and conditioning coach Caleb Heim prepared his body for competition and added he benefitted from Eck’s “discipline” when he first became a Vandal.

He took advantage of the opportunities presented him, though.

“I love it here,” he said of Moscow. “It’s a lot different than Arizona.

“Last winter was my first time in snow,” he said. “That was rough. I had to get a coat for the first time.”

Buchanan is a communications major.

“I just want to get better at talking to people,” he said. “Without those classes, I probably couldn’t be doing this interview.”

Buchanan also said he has benefited from being around Cummings, a redshirt junior, and Thomas, a graduate transfer from South Dakota.

“Me and Eli were on the scout team together last year,” he said.

Cummings worked to regain academic eligibility, and Buchanan absorbed the determination Cummings brought to that.

“(Thomas) is a real smart guy,” Buchanan said. “He will drop some knowledge on me.”

While he was their student, Buchanan is not their twin.

“I am the opposite of them,” he said. “I am laid back.”

Buchanan is quick to credit teammates for his performance against EWU.

“The offensive line was opening up holes,” he said. “Most of my good runs, I had to make one guy miss … receivers blocking downfield is a recipe for big runs.”

Sharing credit is admirable, but it understates what Buchanan did against the Eagles.

With Idaho leading 17-13 early in the third quarter, the defense made a goal-line stand at the 2-yard line.

When the offense got the ball, Buchanan ignited a scoring drive with a long run up the middle, dragging a tackler along the way.

From the Eagles’ 17-yard line, Buchanan gained 5 yards on a pass reception and 11 yards on a run before going the final yard for a touchdown that widened Idaho’s lead to 24-13.

After the Eagles cut the deficit to 31-21, Buchanan was the workhorse on a 53-yard scoring drive, carrying five straight times to the end zone.

“I loved the way we ran the ball in the second half,” Eck said.

Idaho (6-3) is rated ninth nationally and is vying for the FCS playoffs, a first-round bye and a home game.

“That’s special,” Buchanan said. “I came from a good high school program, playing with all the chips on the table. That’s important.”

He sees a reflection of it with the Vandals.

“We are building a winning culture,” he said. “We are like a family now, tight knit, not just on the field, but everywhere.”

And for Buchanan, as things have come together on and off the field, this could be the start of something big.