4 surprise football teams to keep an eye on during 2022 Idaho high school state playoffs

Everyone likes an underdog story - and three of these programs certainly weren't on the playoff radar at the start of the 2022 fall season while a fourth had a difficult time living up to preseason expectations

It happens every year - without fail.

There are teams that advance to the Idaho high school state playoffs that don't come close to meeting preseason projections.

This year’s IHSAA playoffs are no exception. So here are four of the biggest surprise teams to keep an eye out for starting Friday:

BUHL (3A)

Photo courtesy of Buhl athletics

Record: 8-1.

First-round opponent: vs. No. 13 McCall-Donnelly (4-3), 6 p.m. Friday.

Number of winning seasons over the last decade: One.

State championships: Three (1976-78).

Allyn Reynolds thought he was done coaching.

The Buhl coach had spent 34 years at Twin Falls upon stepping down in 2018. But when Buhl athletic director Stacy Wilson called him in the spring of 2021 after the original hire had backed out, it got him thinking.

“The first thing he said was, ‘I think I know your answer, but I’m gonna ask,’” Reynolds said with a laugh.

It was worth asking, though. Reynolds had been living in Buhl this whole time. He was even there during his entire tenure at Twin Falls.

“I just slept here,” Reynolds said. “It was my home, but I really didn’t know Buhl anymore.

To his surprise and Reynolds’, the answer was 'Yes.'

Just a year and a half later, Reynolds, who won two state titles for the Indians as a player, has them in the midst of their best season since 2009.

Buhl hadn't been to the playoffs since 2014 and hadn’t posted a winning season since 2010. It’s now already done both.

“The thing is now, they believe they can win, now we gotta go out and expect to win,” Reynolds said. “We’re still not there. They still slide back into, ‘Is this just a fluke?’ I don’t believe it’s a fluke. They’re good kids.”

The turnaround for Buhl began by winning a wild “Kansas City” playoff tiebreaker that snapped the postseason drought last year. Fourteen seniors, including nine all-league players, returned from that team this season.

“I told the coaching staff in our first meeting, ‘This year is going to be a lot harder than last year because there were no expectations last year,’” Reynolds said. “If we would have won one game, we would have been doing a great job.”

The Indians lived up to the newfound expectations by only dropping their first game, which just so happened to be against reigning champion, Weiser. But since that 24-0 defeat on Aug. 26, they’ve won eight in a row, including seven by double figures. Buhl has an average margin of victory of nearly 23 points and the defense is only giving up 10 points per game.

Reynolds also credits senior running back Jace Bower (1,930, 8 TDs) and the offensive line of Kaleb Homan, Spencer Gorrell, Kaden Hunsaker, Trace Nielsen and Hector Miramontes for the resurgence.

“Twin Falls was a great run for me and I loved teaching and coaching there, but you never had in Twin Falls a person on the street, walk up and comment about the football team or ask you how you did,” Reynolds said. “There was always something kind of missing in Twin and I think it was this. I’m coaching for a community that honestly gave me a lot of good things growing up as a kid there. I’m getting that feeling again, and hell I’m 63 years old and I feel like I’m 16 again.”

POCATELLO (4A)

Photo by Kyle Riley/For The Idaho State Journal

Record: 4-4.

First-round opponent: vs. No. 9 Lakeland (7-2) at 7 p.m. Friday.

Number of winning seasons over the last decade: Three.

State championships: Five (1989-90, 92, 94, 2006).

Expectations were high for the Thunder inside and out.

They were ranked in the top five in the Class 4A preseason poll, including third in SBLive ID and ninth in the overall power rankings.

And why shouldn’t they?

Pocatello was coming off a season where it made the state semifinals for the first time in a decade, and 13 players were back from that team.

The Thunder lived up to the hype at first with a 2-1 start. But then injuries mounted, including losing starting quarterback Dre Contreras for the season with a broken leg. All-state defensive back Krue Hales was also forced to miss two games due to being ejected from a game for what officials deemed a punch.

“It was a carousel,” Pocatello coach Dave Spillett said. “We were bouncing O-linemen around, D-linemen around. It was a long list of bodies that we were rotating and not having over that span.”

It all resulted in the first three-game slide for Pocatello since 2019 and being dropped from the rankings entirely. But even at 2-4, the confidence never waivered. That’s because the losses to Highland (14-7), Hillcrest (27-21) and Shelley (24-21) all came down to the final possessions of the game.

“If you just look at the record alone, you’re thinking, ‘Man, these guys must be struggling,’” Spillett said. “But in that three-game span, we’re probably seven plays away from being a one-loss team. So we didn’t look at that record and think, ‘Oh, boy, we need to hit the panic button. We were doing a lot of things really well with some guys who were learning on the fly.”

The Thunder responded by winning their final two regular season games to clinch back-to-back 4A High Country Conference titles. Quarterback Hunter May has really stepped up to fill the void left by Contreras and workhorse tailback Ryken Echohawk is approaching 1,000 yards with 993 and 10 touchdowns.

So it’s an entirely new outlook and season for them now.

“We don’t need to be undefeated to make a run in the playoffs,” Spillett said. “I’m really proud of the way that our guys have been battle-tested and they’ve only gotten better and better every week.”

MIDDLETON (5A)

Photo by Julian Jenkins

Record: 6-3.

First-round opponent: at No. 2 Lewiston (7-2) at 7 p.m. Friday.

Number of winning seasons over the last decade: Nine.

State championships: None.

Bill Brock has seen a lot change during his now 23-year tenure with the Vikings.

The longtime Middleton head football coach has taken them from a small 3A program to on the cusp of being a power in Idaho’s largest classification and best conference (5A Southern Idaho Conference).

It’s hard to believe when you think about the fact that the program only had around 25 kids when Brock took over in 2000.

Despite going 5-6 last season at 4A - their first losing season in six years - the Vikings transition up to where the big boys play, has been pretty seamless in 2022 despite being picked 9th out of 13 teams in the coaches’ preseason poll.

They have both a top-10 offense (28.8 points per game) and defense (22.1 ppg) .Two of their three losses are to the top-2 overall teams in the state in Meridian and Rocky Mountain, respectively.

“As soon as it was a for sure thing, we told the kids it can go one of two ways,” said Brock about going up to 5A. “We can complain about it or we can just accept it, live with it and rise up to it. So I think our kids have done a really good job from that perspective. I think they like the fact that we’re a 5A school now.”

The Vikings would have hosted their first-ever 5A playoff games, but suffered an unexpected loss to Kuna in the cross-division, winner-to-state game last week. They were up 14-0, but fell 22-21 on a last-second touchdown and two-point conversion.

But with wins over Nampa and perennial contender Capital, Middleton’s resume was still strong enough to earn an at-large bid.

“That was a tough one,” Brock said. “But our guys are ready to get back to work. I think right now, we have a chip firmly planted on our shoulder and we’ll see if that serves us well.”

Senior Tate Johansen is the leading wideout in the state with 62 receptions for 806 yards and eight touchdowns. Senior quarterback Dekker Hagler, who has an offer from Idaho State, has thrown for nearly 1,600 yards and 18 touchdowns.

NAMPA (5A)

Photo by Julian Jenkins

Record: 7-2.

First-round opponent: vs. No. 5 Mountain View (5-4) at 7 p.m. Friday.

Number of winning seasons over the last decade: Five.

State championships: One (1984).

The Bulldogs might be the biggest surprise on this list.

They lost their coach just a few months before the season, went 9-27 during their last stint at 5A (2014-17) and were picked 12th out of 13 teams in the 5A Southern Idaho Conference preseason coaches’ poll.

But here Nampa sits with a vote in the state media poll, No. 7 in SBLive ID's 5A rankings and 10th in the Power 10.

“We’re past that,” said Nampa coach Jon Choate about being overlooked this season. “I don’t think anybody really knew what to expect.

“We had zero expectations to be honest with you.”

While Choate had left to be an assistant coach with the College of Idaho, he was still in the building. His day job remained as the physical education and weightlifting teacher at Nampa High. Most of the original staff during his previous tenure from 2012-16 when he went 11-27 with those last few years being at 5A, were still there too.

He was still hesitant to take the job. But it ultimately came down to one thing for him: the kids.

“Realistically, what it came down to was not having to look the guys in the eye that I taught in the weight room on a day-to-day basis, knowing that I could have stepped in and filled that role,” Choate said.

They responded to him by officially marking their arrival with a 37-21 win over Borah, which was ranked No. 11 in our preseason top-15 countdown. But the real statement came two weeks ago on the road against Mountain View. Nampa had lost its only four meetings against the Mavericks by a combined score of 237-25. It had also stubbed its toe in a high-profile showdown against Eagle in a 45-14 loss on Sept. 23.

But the Bulldogs ended up forcing four turnovers and piling up 297 yards against Mountain View in a 23-14 win.

“The Eagle game, the lights were a little too bright for us at that point,” Choate said. “But the next opportunity came against a big 5A football program with a big football atmosphere, and we found a way to win.”

The seven wins are more than Nampa had in each of its last two seasons at 4A.

The Bulldogs’ success can be attributed to their prolific run game that leads the state at 310 yards per game. Senior Daniel Carrillo is responsible for most of that being the classification’s leading rusher at 1,658 yards and 23 touchdowns. They also have a future Division I player in tight end/defensive end Payton Gunter, who is committed to the University of Idaho.

Nampa now hopes for its first 5A playoff win in 27 years.

“I think we’ve been outmatched a bunch this year, but our coaches have done a tremendous job and our players continue to surprise me and everybody else in this valley,” Choate said. “Those guys have dug in and they’ve worked hard and they deserve everything they’re getting right now.”