Eastern Washington limps back home, winless after two games, to face the 11th-ranked and Big Sky Conference title co-favorite, Montana State (1-0) in a 1 p.m. kickoff Saturday at Roos Field.
While the two are conference rivals, because of some scheduling quirks, this game does not count in league standings. But it’s critical for Eastern who tries to rebound after losses at Pac-12 Oregon (61-42) in week one and 38-35 to Northern Iowa, a Football Championship Subdivision team from the Missouri Valley Conference last Saturday.
The No. 14 ranked Eagles will face a Bobcat team that employs an offense that is quite familiar to them, with quarterback Dakota Prukop, having faced mobile QBs in former Eagle, Vernon Adams at Oregon and Aaron Bailey at NIU.
EWU head coach Beau Baldwin talked Monday night at the coaches’ show about what Prukop brings to the Bobcats.
“When you have a guy like that, especially such a great dual threat — he can run, he can move, he can extend plays, he can add a QB element to the run game, too,” Baldwin said.
MSU easily handled Division II Fort Lewis, 45-14 on Sept. 3 and Baldwin hinted the week between games for MSU can cut both ways.
“There’s some freshness to them,” Baldwin said. “I know one thing, coach (Rob) Ash I guarantee didn’t want to start playing game-one and turn around and have a bye.”
Baldwin feels, however, his Eastern team can counter that with the edge of having been battle-tested.
“We’ve seen the speed of the game,” Baldwin said.
The game, another sellout, will likely serve to pump up Eastern, which plays the first of five Roos Field games.
Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].
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