EWU head football coach Aaron Best and his 2109 Eagles football squad will be taking on the University of Washington Huskies in "adverse conditions" at noon on Saturday in Seattle.
For a series that was non-existent prior to 2011, the Eagles and Huskies have sure had their share of drama, according to an Eastern Washington University press release.
The EWU football team opens its 2019 schedule this Saturday at noon when they play the PAC-12 Huskies at Alaska Airlines Field at Husky Stadium in Seattle. Kickoff is at noon.
The Eagles will enter the game ranked fourth in the STATS preseason top 25 poll for the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision, and third in the American Football Coaches Association poll.
The Huskies, meanwhile, were ranked 13th in the Associated Press media poll and 12th by the coaches in the NCAA Bowl Subdivision.
"It gets tiring hitting your own teammates," third-year Eastern head coach Aaron Best said. "We're so ready to start the season and get the season going."
Both schools had monumental 2018 campaigns. Eastern finishing 12-3 as the runner-up in FCS. Washington was 10-4 overall and 7-2 in the Pac-12 North Division. The Huskies beat Utah 10-3 in the league championship game, then fell 28-23 to Ohio State in the Rose Bowl.
The 2019 meeting will have a similar feel to 2015 when the Eagles were ranked second in FCS and the Huskies 25th in FBS. Eastern lost that game 59-52, just a year after the Eagles upset nationally-ranked Oregon State 49-46 on the road in 2013. In 2011, the Eagles fell at Washington by a slim 30-27 score after entering that game as the defending champions in the FCS.
A total of 47 returning letterwinners are on EWU's roster as Best begins his third season at the helm. The Eagles return nine total starters – five on offense and four on defense – with 23 letterwinners back on offense, 24 on defense and a kicker. Best said on Aug. 24 following the team's final scrimmage of preseason practices that "it's going to take the entire season to get to where we need to be."
"We still have to mature as a football team," Best said. "I don't think we are as close as we need to be from a maturation standpoint. A part of that is leaning on coaches, but most of that leans on the upperclassmen who have played a lot of games.
He said the Eagles would be playing in "adverse situations" against the Huskies.
"Hopefully we have taken a step forward to be ready for those adverse situations," Best said, "and to come out of those situations knowing we can make a positive out of a negative."
Despite missing nine players near the end of the season who had begun the season as starters - six on defense and three on offense - the Eagles finished 12-3 overall and 7-1 in the Big Sky Conference to share the league title with Weber State and UC Davis. The Eagles won their last four games of the regular season, then won three home games in the NCAA Football Championship Playoffs before falling to North Dakota State 38-24 in the title game in Frisco.
The Eagles wrapped up their 10th Big Sky Conference title and clinched their 13th berth in the FCS Playoffs with a dominating 74-23 victory over Portland State Nov. 16 at Hillsboro Stadium in Hillsboro, Ore. It was the 12th-straight season the Eagles finished 5-3 or better in the Big Sky, with a 12th-straight winning season and 21st in the last 23 years. Eastern closed the 2017 season with a 7-4 record overall and was 6-2 in the Big Sky Conference in the first season under Best.
But the 2018 veteran-laden team will see significant changes in 2019 - from both a player and coach standpoint. Besides the returning letterwinners, Eastern also has 21 redshirt freshmen competing for repetitions. Nine of those players saw action in 2018 as part of the new NCAA rule allowing freshman to play in as many as four games and still redshirt.
The success of 2018 resulted in four coaches moving on. Four new coaches have been with the Eagles since spring practices began. Replacements include new offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Ian Shoemaker, defensive passing game coordinator/cornerbacks coach Allen Brown, wide receivers coach/recruiting coordinator Pat McCann and safeties coach Bryan Mills, while Eti Ena was promoted to defensive coordinator.
The Eagles will have four full-time starters - DT Dylan Ledbetter, DE Jim Townsend, LB Chris Ojoh, S Dehonta Hayes - returning on defense, plus three others who received starts and significant playing time, including S Tysen Prunty, S Calin Criner, Rover Kedrick Johnson.
Offensively, five starters return in QB Eric Barriere, WR Andrew Boston, C Spencer Blackburn, G Kaleb Levao, and T Chris Schlichting.
This week's game will be televised nationally on the Pac-12 Networks. Fans can also listen to the game on 700-AM ESPN, 105.3-FM, via the web at tunein.com and via mobile phone app, with pre-game coverage starting one hour prior to kickoff.
Reader Comments(0)