Alaska's Ed Hall goes from walk-on to bowl-game starter for Idaho

MOSCOW, Idaho — Ed Hall is a walk-on-turned-starter from Alaska whose dad starred on a reality TV show. Kaden Elliss is a turnover-producing force whose dad played in the NFL. Tony Lashley, whose position coach says he has a Ray Lewis-like mindset, is Idaho's leading tackler.

Then there's Ty Graham, whose dad coaches at Eastern Washington and who "a lot of people around here thought we shouldn't have signed," Idaho coach Paul Petrino said. "And they were wrong, obviously."

These four formed the Vandals' starting linebacker group the last three regular-season games, and it's worth remembering their names for a couple of reasons.

First, they're three sophomores and one true freshman (Graham) who are part of promising young core of Idaho's defense.

More immediately, each of them will play a critical role on Thursday trying to slow down Colorado State's powerful-of-late offense in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl at Boise State's Albertsons Stadium.

The Vandals, 8-4 and winners of four straight, have allowed 21.6 points per game in winning five of their last six behind a particularly productive linebacking unit.

Lashley leads the Vandals with 99 tackles, 10 for negative yardage. Hall is fourth with 65 tackles. Elliss is tops on the team with three forced fumbles and the co-leader with five interceptions. Graham had an interception and sack against South Alabama on Nov. 26, and followed that with seven tackles in the regular-season finale against Georgia State.

"The maturity that they've started to play with, that's just going to get better and better," Idaho linebackers coach Eric Brown said. "And (with the) unity that we can have in the group, the future is very bright at that position."

Hall is an unlikely story. A few years ago his father, Carey, starred on the History Channel's "Ice Road Truckers," a series that chronicles long-haul truck drivers who drive across treacherous routes in Alaska and Canada. Carey was working as a trucker in Alaska when he decided to bring his family up from Georgia in 2006.

Ed was 10 when he moved to Chugiak. He attended Eagle River High, where he was a multisport star. In his senior year, he was a second-team all-state football pick at running back, a state champion in shot put and discus and the third-place finisher at 195 pounds at the state wrestling championships.

He became intrigued about Idaho once a friend walked on to the football team in 2013 and he discovered Idaho's respected mechanical engineering program.

He went to Moscow and decided to walk on too. An undersized linebacker — 6 feet, 212 pounds — he earned a scholarship, then locked down a starting spot this fall.

In addition to playing football and managing the heavy academic load that comes with majoring in mechanical engineering, Hall throws discus for the track team in the spring.

"It's fun," Hall said. "Just got to be able to balance it all."

Josh Wright covers Idaho football for the Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington. Read his full story about Idaho's linebackers here.