Five EWU seniors are named as 2018 football captains

On a team chock full of veterans, seniors Gage Gubrud, Spencer Blackburn, Sam McPherson, Mitch Fettig and Ketner Kupp have been selected as Eastern Washington University football captains for the 2018 season.

The five seniors represent a total of 148 games worth of experience for the Eagles, including 92 starts. They are among the 28 seniors playing under second-year head coach Aaron Best.

Gubrud is a 2014 graduate of McMinnville (Ore.) High School and was a captain in 2017 as well. The other four are products from the state of Washington — Blackburn is a 2014 graduate of Meridian HS in Bellingham, Wash.; McPherson graduated in 2015 from Bothell HS; Fettig graduated in 2014 from Olympia HS; and Kupp graduated from Davis HS in Yakima, Wash., in 2015.

The five co-captains for the 2018 season were selected via a vote by their Eagle teammates. Eastern opens the season Sept. 1 at Roos Field versus Central Washington. Eastern begins practices for the 2018 season in early August.

“We are working our tails off in the off-season and leadership is already ahead of where it was last year just based on the sheer numbers of veterans we have coming back,” Best said this spring.

A second team All-Big Sky selection in 2017 after winning MVP honors as a sophomore, Gubrud is a two-time finalist for the Walter Payton Award presented by STATS to the top offensive player in FCS.

Blackburn, with 22 starts and 24 games played in his career, has been a second team All-Big Sky selection in each of the past two seasons. A year ago, Eastern was fifth in FCS in total offense (476.7 per game).

McPherson earned honorable mention All-Big Sky honors as a junior and has played in 30 career games. He had 477 rushing yards in 2017.

Fettig was a third-team All-Big Sky selection as a junior after earning honorable mention as a sophomore, and has started 33 of the 34 games he’s played. He has 231 tackles, five interceptions and 12 passes broken up in his career.

Kupp has started 13 of the 33 career games he’s played, and has 152 career tackles with 2 1/2 sacks after finishing with 66 stops in eight games as a junior. He is the younger brother of Cooper Kupp, who now plays for the Los Angeles Rams in the NFL.