In just his second year on the job – and 22nd as an Eagle -- Aaron Best has joined the club.
 
Becoming the fifth different Eastern Washington University football head coach to win the honor, Best has been selected as the Big Sky Conference co-Coach of the Year as selected by his peers in the league. The honor was announced on Wednesday (Nov. 21) and he shares the honor with UC Davis head coach Dan Hawkins.
 
Best guided Eastern to a 9-2 record overall and 7-1 mark in the Big Sky to share the league title with UC Davis and Weber State. In two years at the helm, Best has compiled a 16-6 record overall and 13-3 mark in the league.
 
"This has everything to do with the people we are surrounded with daily, and the resources available to us," said Best. "I can't be happier for our 10 assistants and the people behind the scenes who are able to make the days happy and productive. You are only as good as your staff members and your supporting cast."
 
Beau Baldwin, Paul Wulff, Mike Kramer and Dick Zornes are the four coaches who came before him, and all were honored at least once. He played for Kramer, who won in 1997, and then served as an assistant coach under Paul Wulff (2001, 2004, 2005) and Beau Baldwin (2012, 2013).
 
"I'm happy and thrilled for Aaron," said Baldwin, who left EWU two years ago to become offensive coordinator at Cal. "He's very deserving, and it's amazing what he's done after the change that occurred from 2016 to 2017 with the coaching staff. He still was able to do a great job in 2017 and back that up this year. It says a lot about his leadership and the guys 100 percent buying in."
 
"To be mentioned in the same breath as Coach B, Coach Wulff, Coach Kramer and Coach Zornes, there are very few words to be able to describe that," Best said. "I've never envisioned this. Obviously, you want your team to have success, and this is a coaching staff award that comes as a result."
 
Wulff also won the honor in his second year at the helm, while Kramer won in his fourth. Best's conference winning percentage of .813 is currently slightly better than Baldwin (.806), who won his first coach of the year honor in his fifth season at the helm. Zornes, who coached 15 seasons from 1979-93, won his honor in EWU's sixth year in the league after joining the Big Sky in 1987. Zornes and Best are both graduates of Eastern as well.
 
"The award means a ton, but team awards and individual player awards kind of trump anything above the coach of the year award," Best added. "It's humbling to be recognized by your peers in anything, but especially as intense as college football head coaching is. I've only found that out in two years."
 
Best has guided Eastern to a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Football Championships, and the Eagles will host either Nicholls State or San Diego on Dec. 1 at 2 p.m. at Roos Field. It's his first playoff appearance as head coach, but 10th overall. He was a player in 1997, then coached in 2004, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016 and now 2018.
 
"We are very proud of Coach Best for his leadership of our football program," praised EWU Director of Athletics Lynn Hickey. "He is a person of impact with his students, on our campus as a whole, and within the entire Cheney/Spokane community. He is an outstanding coach with a tireless work ethic -- but most importantly is a really good person who stands by his values.  He has guided his staff and team through a lot of adversity this year due to injuries, but has inspired them to move forward and leave no doubt that they were champions.  This is a very well-deserved honor for coach personally, but also for the excellent staff he has surrounded himself with."
 
What the Eagles accomplished this season was not lost on Kramer himself, a former veteran coach in the Big Sky and now retired. Eastern lost All-America quarterback Gage Gubrud at mid-season, but have won their last four games by a dominating 219-70 advantage on the scoreboard.
 
"Aaron and his staff weathered the loss of one of the iconic players in Big Sky history," said Kramer, who was also head coach at Montana State and Idaho State. "That is leadership. They never wavered and the best is still ahead of them in 2018."
 
"It's a sign of a very senior-laden team, and guys who don't flinch because they've experienced a ton of rocks on the windshield along their journey," explained Best. "It's great to connect and integrate former Eagles with our current Eagles, and coach Kramer talked to our team last summer. We are all connected in some way and know how special this place is, and he told the team three words that I'll never forget: 'Take the Candy.' He's had some very special teams along the way, and he felt like a couple of those teams didn't take the candy in terms of understanding how privileged they are, how well-equipped they are and how talented they are. Our team did that this year -- they took the candy and now it's time to take more candy."
 
Best has been a part of 22 playoff games (14-8), with 19 as a coach (12-7) and one as a player (2-1). He has been involved in 18 of those games on the road (12-6), just three on the road (1-2) and was offensive coordinator and offensive line coach in 2010 when the Eagles won the NCAA Division I title with a 20-19 victory over Delaware on a neutral field in Frisco, Texas.
 
 Best himself is a product from the state of Washington, and that has long been a trademark of the Eagle program as "Washington's Team." The Eagles have 105 players in their program, and 82 of them – 78 percent – are from the state of Washington. Eastern's coaching staff is Washington-based as well, with eight of the team's 11 full-time coaches (73 percent) hailing from the Evergreen State. Best is a 1996 graduate of Curtis High School in Tacoma, Wash., and shares the same alma mater with Brian Strandley (1990) and Jay Dumas (1992).
 
Best made his head coaching debut versus Texas Tech on Sept. 2, 2017 in Lubbock, Texas. It came versus the same team Baldwin made his EWU head coaching debut against back on Aug. 30, 2008, in a 49-24 Red Raider victory. Interestingly, Baldwin also graduated from Curtis, six years earlier than Best in 1990. Best was making his debut as Baldwin's offensive line coach in that 2008 game.
 
"The thing I like the most about coach Best is that he is authentically going to do it his way," added Baldwin. He's not going to do it like anyone else before him. It's what he believes in and it's rubbing through. The team sees that and respects that. The team and staff have bought into his vision and that's why they are in the position they are now at 9-2 and a No. 3 seed nationally. It's all been earned, and I couldn't be happier with the job he's done since the moment he stepped in. I can't wait to watch the rest of the season unfold."

 

Big Sky Coach of the Year

2018 - Aaron Best
2013 - Beau Baldwin
2012 - Beau Baldwin
2005 - Paul Wulff
2004 - Paul Wulff
2001 - Paul Wulff
1997 - Mike Kramer
1992 - Dick Zornes
 
 

More on Aaron Best . . .

 
Aaron Best himself claims to bleed Eagle red. The 22-year veteran of the Eastern Washington University football program was named as EWU's 21st head football coach on Jan. 21, 2017, and guided Eastern to a 7-4 overall record and 6-2 Big Sky finish. His debut season was even better than those of previous Eagle head coaches Beau Baldwin (6-5/5-3), Paul Wulff (6-5/5-3) and Mike Kramer (4-7/2-5). 
 
• Before taking over as head coach, Best spent 20 previous seasons since the fall of 1996 as a player and coach at Eastern. The previous nine seasons were spent as Eastern's offensive line coach under former head coach Beau Baldwin.
 
• Best is only the fifth head coach since 1979 for the Eagles, and the third since then who played collegiately as an offensive lineman. Dick Zornes, who is also an Eastern graduate, coached at EWU from 1979-93 before former Idaho offensive lineman Mike Kramer took over from 1994-99. Washington State offensive lineman Paul Wulff took over from 2000-2007 until Baldwin, a Central Washington graduate, took the reins in 2008.
 
* Besides coaching the offensive line as a full-time assistant for 14 of his 17 seasons on the coaching staff, Best has also served in various coordinator positions, most recently as the team's running game coordinator and as the program's long-time academic coordinator. He was a student assistant coach in 2000 and a graduate assistant in 2001, then became the school's primary offensive line coach from 2002-2006, and again from 2008-16.
 
• With Best on the coaching staff, Eastern has had 14 different offensive linemen earn All-America accolades, with those players combining to win first team All-Big Sky Conference honors on 15 occasions. He played alongside four other All-Americans at EWU who all earned first team All-Big Sky honors, in addition to himself earning both honors when he played for the Eagles from 1996-1999. In all, in Best's 22 seasons as an Eagle, EWU players have won 26 first team All-BSC honors, 26 second team accolades, 19 on the third team and 36 honorable mentions (through 2018).
 
• Among the offensive linemen he coached was Michael Roos, who went on to a 10-year career with the Tennessee Titans in the National Football League. Roos became the highest NFL draft choice in school history when he was chosen in the second round – 41st overall – by the Tennessee Titans in 2005. A season-ending knee injury in 2014 led to his retirement from the NFL after 10 seasons. He credited Best in his retirement statement on Instagram on Feb. 26, 2015.
"I was very lucky to have the best offensive line coach possible in Aaron Best. He taught all of us the meaning of hard work and perseverance."
 
• In the last 15 seasons (2004-18) – 14 with Best on the coaching staff -- EWU has ranked in the top 10 in passing 12 times, in total offense on 11 occasions and scoring six times. In 2017, Eastern was eighth in FCS in passing (320.5 per game) and fifth in total offense (476.7), and was also 14th in scoring (34.5) and 11th in third down conversions (46.1 percent). In 2018, Eastern is currently second in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision in total offense at 553.2 yards per game, ninth in rushing offense (274.1), 16th in passing (279.1) and fourth in scoring (45.2).
 
• Best helped coordinate an offense in 2016 which set seven Big Sky Conference records and two additional EWU marks for a total of nine school records. Eastern finished the year ranked second in FCS in total offense with an average of 529.6 yards per game and was the FCS leader in passing offense (401.0 yards per game). Eastern was also third in scoring offense (42.4). Eastern's offense excelled after Best helped develop an offensive line that lost all five starters from EWU's 2015 squad plus two other seniors. In the last eight games of the 2016 season, the starting lineup consisted of two redshirt freshmen and a trio of sophomores. Eastern finished 12-2 overall and was a perfect 8-0 in the Big Sky Conference.
 
• Best started 22-straight games at center for Eastern in 1998 and 1999, earning honorable mention All-Big Sky honors as a junior and first team honors as a senior. He also earned honorable mention All-America honors his final season. An outstanding student with a 3.3 grade point average, as a senior he was selected to the CoSIDA Academic All-District VIII team and was selected to the FCS Athletic Directors Academic All-Star Team. Twice he was selected to the Big Sky All-Academic team. He received his bachelor's degree in social science from EWU in 2001. He was Eastern's long-snapper for four seasons and was a backup lineman in 1997 when Eastern led the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision in total offense (505.6 yards per game). That team finished 12-2 and advanced to the FCS "Final Four." The Eagles were 31-16 in the four seasons Best played for EWU, and Eastern had a 1,000-yard rusher each year. In all, the Eagles have had a 1,000-yard rusher in 12 of the 22 seasons Best has been at EWU.
• Best graduated in 1996 from Curtis High School in Tacoma, Wash., where he had a 3.75 grade point average. He was co-captain his senior season as Curtis won the State AAA championship.
 
• Best was born Jan. 27, 1978, in Tacoma, Wash. He and the former Kim Walker were married on July 15, 2007, in Everett, Wash. They have three children – one son, Tank (10), and two daughters, Tenli (8) and Texis (4).