Eastern Washington restocked its shelves for the future at the offensive line, and with running backs to follow their blocks and a quarterback to throw after announcing their 2016 football recruiting class. Feb. 3 at National Letter of Intent day.
Eagles’ head coach Beau Baldwin announced that 19 players had announced their commitment to play at Eastern in a breakfast event at the Northern Quest Resort and Casino Hotel.
The headliner is quarterback Eric Barriere from La Habra, Calif. High School where he accounted for 130 career touchdowns with 9,304 passing yards and 1,718 rushing yards. He led the Highlanders to a 30-8 record and a perfect league record in three championship seasons.
“There was no question we wanted to sign a quarterback, but we wanted to make sure we signed the right player,” Baldwin said. “We did that with Eric,” who he compared to Vernon Adams.
Eastern also signed three running backs who include California two-time All-State selection Antoine Custer Jr. out of powerhouse and the nation’s No. 1 ranked high school football team, De La Salle. Tamarick Pierce from Oakland, Calif., and Saint Mary’s High School and Jason Talley, an All-State running back from Oregon State 6A champion Jesuit High School . Talley’s brother, Jordan, was a running back and linebacker for Eastern from 2011-14.
With five senior starters and two other seniors lost from EWU’s offensive line this year, the Eagles signed a large class of offensive linemen for the second-straight year. The five signees include All-State selections D.J. Dyer from Kennewick High School, Conner Crist from Tigard (Ore.) High School and Brett Thompson from Olympia (Wash.) High School.
The class features 13 All-State players from five Western states, including five from Washington, three from Oregon, three from California, and one each from Idaho and Arizona.
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