Apr. 4—MOSCOW, Idaho — Brothers playing on the University of Idaho football team is nothing new.
Twins playing together as Vandals happened as recently as 2023, when Idaho’s all-time leading receiver and All-American Hayden Hatten and his brother Hogan, now the Detroit Lions’ long snapper, led Idaho to the quarterfinals of the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs.
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But if it has ever happened, it has been a long time since twins came from different schools to reunite for a senior season at Idaho.
Idaho coach Thomas Ford Jr. said enticing Javen and Jamarion Augustus from the transfer portal involved presenting a compelling argument to their mother, Laquanda Augustus.
“We sold them on the idea they had one year left,” Ford said. “Their mom could go to one place to see both of them, and we wanted both.”
The brothers agree this is pretty much how it went down.
“I was in the portal. We didn’t think we would play at the same school anymore,” Javen said. “Then Idaho offered me, and they offered my brother about two minutes later. We get to play one last year of college football together.”
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And mom gets to see it. She has not yet been to Idaho. But she plans to visit Moscow this summer.
What the Vandals get, at this point, looks like a pair of starting defensive ends. After Idaho finished its third spring workout Saturday, Ford said of the Augustus twins, “If we had to play tomorrow, they would start.”
As bookends on a four-front defense, Javen (6-4, 230 pounds) and Jamarion (6-3, 235) stood out as the Vandals went 11-on-11 for the final 20 minutes of practice Saturday.
“They have very similar games,” Ford said. “They are not just pass-rush guys. They are really solid in the run game.”
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Jamarion, slightly bigger, is not opposed to taking on offensive linemen straight up. On Saturday, he had his work cut out for him. He was matched up frequently with 6-4, 285-pound tackle Howard Stedford, who won the daily practice award.
“He is still a young guy. He is learning to play, but he has good hands,” Jamarion said of Stedford.
Javen relied on quickness and technique to get an opponent committed to a direction, then suddenly cut in or outside of where the blocker set up to meet him. Both brothers play with great leverage, getting below blockers.
“They are bendy,” Ford said.
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For linemen, they are lightning quick. Javen ran an 11.4-second 100 meters in high school, and Jamarion was a 52-second 400-meter runner. The brothers helped lead Montgomery Catholic High School, in Alabama, to a runner-up finish in the 2020 state championships and the fourth round of the playoffs the following year. Afterward, they went their separate ways before playing a year at Highland Community College in Kansas.
“They were highly recruited. But they were recruited as individuals,” Ford said.
Jamarion went to FCS North Alabama of the United Athletic Conference for two years, then to Highland CC before transferring to Northern Iowa. Javen played two years at Coastal Carolina of the Football Bowl Subdivision Sun Belt Conference before a coaching change at the program prompted him to seek a change.
Both brothers say they were looking for a challenge, and they have found it at Idaho.
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“UNI was a good school. But here we are pushed a lot more,” Jamarion said.
The Big Sky Conference “is way more physical than I thought it would be,” Javen said
He added, “This is the hardest I have ever trained in my life.”
“These guys bought into our strength and conditioning program,” Ford said.
“Of all my schools, this is my favorite,” Javen said.
Idaho edge rushers coach Avery Roberts “is like a big brother or uncle,” Javen said. “I am in his office every day, talking.”
Neither brother is much for making grand, season-long goals. They agree they are more focused on winning day-to-day. But concluding their careers together as Vandals has been a gift.
They live together, and “Oh, my God. I love it,” Jamarion said. “I don’t have to call him anymore.”
