‘Do your job’: Ben Lomond alum East, a college tackle, shares advice with Scots
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- Ben Lomond’s Jake East (58) battles Union’s Will Gamble (14) in a 3A first-round game Friday, Oct. 20, 2023, in Ogden.
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- Idaho State tackle Jake East (98) competes against Northern Colorado on Sept. 27, 2025, in Greeley, Colo. (Photo supplied, Idaho State Athletics)
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- Idaho State tackle Jake East (98) hugs a coach during a game against UNLV on Aug. 23, 2025, in Las Vegas. (Photo supplied, Idaho State Athletics)
Before the football season, Idaho State defensive tackle Jake East traveled home to his alma mater, Ben Lomond High School, to share some prepared remarks with his former football team.
It had been three years since East last hung up his Scots jersey in 2023, and the program has undergone a prolonged rebuild since that 2023 senior class gave BLHS its first winning record in over two decades. So, when preparing his remarks, East kept his message simple: do your one-eleventh.
Even with a new role on Saturdays, East makes a habit of following Ben Lomond, now led by a new coach, Ty Smith of Mississippi. The Scots opened the season 0-3 with two late stands against North Sevier and Judge Memorial — two losses far more competitive last year’s product.
Moreover, BL hasn’t won a football game in 1,058 days.
“Ty’s a great guy. He’s doing the right thing building the program up from the bottom,” East said.
“I see the improvement in the games. I’m tuned in. I told those guys, just do your job, your one-eleventh. If you do that, no matter how athletic, if you do your job and don’t let anyone do it better than you, then you’ll be a good team. You’ve gotta focus on the little things.”
Like many of the players in the locker room, East wasn’t exactly a football player when he first arrived at BL from Fremont as a sophomore.
With tremendous length at 6-foot-5, East saw himself as a power forward for the basketball team. Former head football coach Lyndon Johnson, who resigned in 2024 but has returned as defensive coordinator this season, and present-day Fremont head coach Nate Tuatagaloa, then his offensive coordinator, had other plans.
Johnson, introduced to East through a driver’s education course, laid the facts out to East about his hoops dreams.
“I told him he needed to play football, and he’d never played football (before),” Johnson said. “He’s a big (6-foot-5) post guy, and I said, ‘If you don’t grow anymore, a 6-5 post guy isn’t going to work very good, but a 6-5 defensive tackle, that’s going to work really well.”
By the end of his junior year, East was hearing from Division I coaches, including Jake Dickert at Washington State. After his senior season, East, tallying 22 tackles-for-loss and 11 sacks for the BL defense, committed to FCS Idaho State.
The 2023 Standard-Examiner All-Area Football Player of the Year appeared in nine games as a freshman in Pocatello and all 12 as a sophomore, with 18 combined tackles and nine assisted stops recorded in 2025.
It’s an outcome that was only possible with the right coaches, East said, and the college tackle can remember just how persistent Tuatagaloa and Johnson were during that first summer slugging the sled.
“(Johnson) brought everyone together,” East said. “He’s a smart guy. And then Nate, I couldn’t thank him enough, man. He was really the building block of that program, having us over for team meals. … That whole senior group was really close.”
Ben Lomond is working on its current unit, which saw tryouts spike beyond 65 players this year.
It’s a start, Johnson said, as students like his son, Cory, a junior, make an effort to show up, put in the work and make their football program a little better one day at a time.
“We’ve got guys that want to be here,” Johnson said. “That’s very important.”
East, a junior at ISU, is studying business management and is interested in coaching after his playing career.
The Bengals, 1-0 following a 38-10 home win over Virginia Military Institute, play their second game at Utah State.
Connect with Standard-Examiner sports reporter Conner Becker via email at cbecker@standard.net, X @ctbecker and Instagram @standardexaminersports.
