The day the Eastern Washington University football team thought would never come is nearly here. After, to be exact, a 462-day wait.
With its start delayed by five months, the Eastern Washington University football team is scheduled to begin the long-awaited 112th season in school history when it plays a Big Sky Conference game at the University of Idaho on Saturday (Feb. 27) at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow, Idaho.
Kickoff is 3:05 p.m. in a game televised regionally in Eastern Washington by SWX. 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.
Eastern will be playing its first game since Nov. 23, 2019, when EWU beat Portland State 53-46 to end the regular season. But instead of playing Florida last fall on Sept. 5, the Covid-19 pandemic forced the Eagles to wait a full 462 days before playing again. The appreciation for getting to finally compete again is not lost on head coach
Aaron Best.
"The big word is opportunity," he explained. "Our players love the game of football – and not just Saturdays. It's hard when you take away something that they prepare so hard for and yearn for. We are a creature of habit in sports, and football was not there last August. How you react to those situations has been a daily, weekly and monthly challenge with each individual. We had something taken away that we love."
A total of 43 returning letterwinners are back as Best's fourth season at the helm begins. The 2020 schedule was going to be Eastern's best home schedule in school history, but a six-game winter/spring schedule for 2021 was created instead by the Big Sky.
Although having never played in February, practicing and playing in the winter months is nothing new for the Eagle football program. The Eagles have played 31 games in 13 appearances in the NCAA Football Championship subdivision playoffs, including 21 home games.
And EWU is successful in the winter months to boot, including a 15-6 record in those 21 home playoff games. Since 2004, EWU is 39-7 in regular season games in November with a nine-game winning streak, and are 16-9 in the playoffs in November and beyond for a collective 55-16 record (77 percent). Since 2010, EWU is 40-9 in November and beyond for 82 percent – 26-4 in regular season games and 14-5 in the playoffs.
"Fall is football season. As a coach, this is different," said Best. "We've never done this at the collegiate level so the most honest answer is I don't know how it will go. There are parts you can implement from a fall planning perspective, but all that can be thrown out based on positive Covid cases, close contacts, tests, and travel protocols."
Eastern finished 7-5 in 2019, including a 6-2 record in the Big Sky to finish in a third-place tie. However, the Eagles were passed over for a berth in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs despite finishing as the national runner-up in 2018.
None of EWU's five league opponents this winter/spring – including a pair of games with Idaho – had winning records overall or in the league in 2019. They combined for a 20-39 record overall and 12-28 in the Big Sky. However, Idaho knocked off Eastern 35-27 on Sept 21, 2019, representing the only loss in 10 games for Best in his head coaching career versus the five opponents. In school history, EWU is 75-39 versus those five foes, and 16 of those losses and just seven wins are against Idaho.
Idaho was 5-7 overall in 2019 and 3-5 in the league, and was ranked No. 24 in a winter/spring FCS poll announced recently by Athlon Sports (EWU was 12th).
Following the game versus the Vandals, the Eagles will open a three-game home schedule versus Northern Arizona on March 6 at Roos Field in Cheney, Wash., at 1:05 p.m. Pacific time. The Eagles have won their last 14 homes games at "The Inferno," and All-America quarterback
Eric Barriere returns for his senior season a perfect 11-0 as a starter there. The Northern Arizona game will be the first game on the new red Astroturf surface installed at "The Inferno" last summer.
At this time, no spectators will be permitted to attend games, practices or scrimmages due to institutional, regional, and state guidelines in regards to the Covid-19 pandemic. Best said he hopes to have a season free of pandemic-related postponements, and the football program is doing its due diligence to protect the team "bubble." The UC Davis versus Cal Poly game on Feb. 27 has already been postponed to March 20.
The NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs – just 16 teams this year -- are slated to begin on April 24 and conclude on May 16.
"We're going to do it the right way with protocols," added Best. "Our program has done a great job up to this point. Getting the platform to do something they love and keep score doing it will be the cherry on top."
"There are so many things the programs who played last fall ran into, and they didn't have as much data as we have now," he added. "Pushing our season back has allowed us to set our protocols and rely on those who have kind of done it before us. And you have to have some luck along the way. The safety of the players and our program and support staff is the most important piece. It won't go as planned, that's all I do know."
"The mental health of individuals is certainly tested and challenged during these times," he added. "When you are talking 14 months away from the game in pads and meeting as a team in the same room, that is really tough. But we are certainly trying to get some normalcy back to a certain degree."
Game Notes
Several Eagles to Make Debuts at Idaho
Besides the 40 returning letterwinners, non-lettering squad members and several other newcomers, Eastern has a large group of as many as 15 redshirt freshmen on hand competing for playing time this winter/spring season. Eleven of those players saw action in 2019 as part of the new NCAA rule allowing freshman to play in as many as four games and still redshirt. A total of 16 true freshmen played for the Eagles in 2019 (five did not redshirt), and that should be the case especially this year because the winter/spring season does not count towards eligibility of all student-athletes. A total of 24 players who graduated from high school in 2020 and joined the Eagles last fall are on the roster.
In Eastern's preliminary two-deep for the Idaho game, returning letterwinners hold down all but four of the starting positions on offense and defense. The lone non-letterwinner on offense is true freshman offensive guard
Wyatt Hansen, and nickel back
Marlon Jones Jr. is the lone redshirt freshman listed as a starter on defense. The other two non-letterwinners listed as starters on defense are transfers
Jusstis Warren (Washington) and
Ty Graham (Idaho). Warren is a sixth-year senior and played one game in 2019 before being shelved, and Graham redshirted in 2019.
Eastern enters the 2020-21 season with a total of 20 players returning with 191 games of starting experience, including 10 players on defense with 86 starts and 10 on offense with 105 starts.
Current Starts on Defense (86 starts by 10 players):
Calin Criner 16,
Jack Sendelbach 15,
Chris Ojoh 11,
Mitchell Johnson 11,
Tre Weed 11,
Darreon Moore 7,
Kedrick Johnson 7,
Ira Branch 3,
Darrien Sampson 3,
Caleb Davis 2.
Current Starts on Offense (105 starts by 10 players):
Tristen Taylor 40,
Eric Barriere 23,
Andrew Boston 19,
Johnny Edwards IV 12,
Dylan Ingram 3,
Conner Crist 2,
Talolo Limu Jones 2,
Freddie Roberson 2,
Blake Gobel 1,
Dennis Merritt 1.
Additional Rankings Pegs Eastern No. 12 in Nation
Eastern has been ranked 12th nationally in the winter/spring preseason rankings released Feb. 9 by Athlon Sports, as well as the weekly poll of sportswriters and broadcasters released by Stats Perform on Feb. 22.
Weber State is ranked No. 2 in the nation in the Athlon poll behind North Dakota State, and Idaho is the other Big Sky Conference school in the rankings at No. 24. Weber State is picked No. 4 by Stats Perform. Eastern opens the winter/spring season at Idaho on Feb. 27, and will end the regular season on April 10th versus the Vandals.
Eastern does not play Weber State, but the Eagles are scheduled to play at UC Davis on April 3. The Aggies are listed "On the Cusp" in the Athlon rankings.
The Athlon rankings came a day after Eastern was picked 14th in winter/spring rankings by Hero Sports, which also honored
Eric Barriere as the sole quarterback on its preseason All-America squad. Eastern earned five other top 25 preseason rankings last fall. The Eagles were picked 18th by Stats Perform, and Hero Sports and Street and Smith's also gave the Eagles that ranking. Eastern was No. 20 in the Athlon Sports Preseason Top 25 rankings and were ranked 23rd by College Football America.
EWU 2020-21 EWU Preseason Rankings
(as of Feb. 8, 2021)
FCS Top 25 Preseason Rankings
12th (winter/spring) - Athlon Sports (#1 NDSU, #2 Weber State, #24 Idaho)
14th (winter/spring) - Hero Sports (#1 NDSU, #3 Weber State)
18th (fall) – Stats Perform (#1 NDSU, #4 Weber State, #6 Montana State, #7 Montana, #12 Sacramento State)
18th (fall) - Hero Sports (#1 NDSU, #3 Weber State, #5 Montana State, #7 Montana, #12 Sacramento State)
18th (fall) - Street & Smith's (#1 NDSU, #5 Weber State, #8 Montana State, #9 Montana, #16 Sacramento State)
20th (fall) - Athlon Sports (#1 NDSU, #4 Sacramento State, #6 Weber State, #7 Montana State, #9 Montana)
23rd (fall) - College FB America (#1 NDSU, #6 Montana, #7 Montana State, #8 Weber State, #11 Sac State)
Quarterback Eric Barriere Picked by Hero Sports as Lone QB on Its Preseason All-America squad
Hero Sports honored quarterback
Eric Barriere as one of 29 players selected to the its FCS All-America squad on Feb. 8 as selected by Sam Herder and Brian McLaughlin. The honor comes after a fall season in which he earned four other honors, including those picked by STATS Perform (third team), Hero Sports (second team), Phil Steele Publications (fourth team) and College Sports Journal (one of three quarterbacks on its 60-player preseason All-America squad). In addition, last July 24 the Big Sky Conference office announced Barriere as its choice as the preseason Offensive MVP of the league.
Barriere hails from Inglewood, Calif., and is a 2016 graduate of La Habra HS. He is a communication studies major at EWU and has previously earned third team All-Big Sky honors as both a sophomore (2018) and junior (2019). In 2019, Barriere finished fifth in the voting for the prestigious Walter Payton Award presented by STATS, and earned third team FCS All-America honors from Hero Sports.
With 31 total games of experience, he is 16-7 in 23 career games as a starter, with 6,300 total passing yards and 7,519 yards of offense as an Eagle. Barriere made his EWU debut as a redshirt freshman in 2017, took over as starter as an injury replacement in 2018 and then started all 12 games in 2019. The Eagles have won their last 14 homes games at "The Inferno," and Barriere is 11-0 as a starter there.
EWU 2020-21 EWU Preseason Honors
(as of Feb. 8, 2021)
Senior Co-Captains
QB
Eric Barriere (2nd Year)
, S
Calin Criner (1st Year)
, LB
Ty Graham (1st Year), RB
Tamarick Pierce (1st Year)
, LB
Jack Sendelbach (2nd Year), OT
Tristen Taylor (1st Year)
All-America
QB
Eric Barriere - 1st Team Hero Sports (winter/spring)
QB
Eric Barriere - 2nd Team Hero Sports (fall)
QB
Eric Barriere - 3rd Team STATS (fall)
QB
Eric Barriere - 4th Team Phil Steele Publications (fall)
QB
Eric Barriere - College Sports Journal (fall; one of three quarterbacks on 60-player team)
LB
Chris Ojoh – 3rd Team Hero Sports
All-Big Sky Conference
QB
Eric Barriere – Official Team Selected by League Office (also MVP on offense) & 1st Team Phil Steele Publications
OL
Tristen Taylor – Official Team Selected by League Office & 2nd Team Phil Steele Publications
WR
Andrew Boston – 3rd Team Phil Steele Publications
DL
Mitchell Johnson – 3rd Team Phil Steele Publications
K
Seth Harrison – 3rd Team Phil Steele Publications
After 833 Days Without Playing a Game, Ty Graham to Finally Make Eagle Debut
He grew up around the Eastern football program, and a circuitous route – with some irony mixed in – will have Eagle co-captain
Ty Graham playing his first game this week in an Eagle uniform against Idaho.
With his father, John Graham, on the EWU coaching staff as defensive coordinator for eight years, Graham eventually graduated from Cheney, Wash., High School in 2016. He subsequently joined the University of Idaho program and played three seasons for the Vandals, but elected to transfer to EWU for the 2019 season.
He had to redshirt that year, then, the 2020 season was delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Thus, when he takes the field to make his EWU debut this week – ironically against his former team – it will have been 833 full days since his last collegiate game. Ironically, that came on Nov. 17, 2018, in a 63-10 loss at Florida when he had six tackles and a forced fumble. Eastern was scheduled to open the 2020 season at Florida before that game was wiped out because of the pandemic.
While playing from 2016-18 for the Vandals, Graham had 133 tackles at Idaho, including 13 for losses. He had 2 1/2 sacks, an interception, two passes broken up and a forced fumble in 27 career games. As a junior in 2018 he had 65 tackles, including 12 in 38-14 loss at EWU at Roos Field on Oct. 27, 2018. He had 28 tackles as a sophomore and 40 as a true freshman in 2016.
Now working toward his master's degree in business administration, Graham has already received his marketing degree from EWU with a minor in sports management. He had a 3.53 grade point average through spring quarter 2020 and previously won Big Sky All-Academic honors while a Vandal.
John Graham spent a short time as Idaho's linebackers coach when Ty was on the roster there. Ty's older brother, Andrew, played football at Montana Tech and Central Washington. His grandfather, Dan Graham, spent 11 years as head coach at nearby Reardan (Wash.) High School.
69 Percent of EWU's Roster Are From Washington in 2020-21
The Eagles currently have 93 players on its 2020-21 roster, and 64 of them – 69 percent – are from the state of Washington. Eastern's coaching staff is Washington-based as well, with eight of the team's 10 full-time coaches (80 percent) hailing from the Evergreen State. Head coach
Aaron Best is a 1996 graduate of Curtis High School in Tacoma, Wash.
Eastern Announces Addition of Two New Coaches
Including a reunion of brothers, two new coaches with extensive coaching experience in the Big Sky Conference and beyond have joined the Eastern football program and were officially announced by head coach
Aaron Best on Feb. 8.
Joining the Eagles as linebackers coach is
Justin Ena, whose brother,
Eti Ena, is EWU's defensive coordinator and defensive ends coach. The other hiring announced is
Jeff Copp, who will coach EWU defensive tackles. They have a combined 33 years of coaching experience, and both are 2001 graduates of colleges in the West – Ena from BYU and Copp from Boise State.
With 13 years of collegiate coaching experience after a successful college and pro career as a player, Ena reunites with his brother
Eti Ena, who is EWU's defensive coordinator and defensive ends coach. He comes to Eastern with experience at EWU's fellow Big Sky Conference members Weber State (2014) and Southern Utah (2008-13). In all, he has coached four All-America linebackers during his coaching tenure after playing at BYU and in the NFL for Philadelphia and Tennessee.
Copp spent the past four seasons at FIU (Florida International University), most recently as co-defensive coordinator. He is a native of Idaho Falls, Idaho, and played college football at Boise State. His 20 years of coaching experience includes stints at Big Sky Conference members Northern Arizona (2016), UC Davis (2009-15) and Idaho State (2004). As a player and coach he's been on teams which have won three league titles and advanced to six bowl games.
More on
Justin Ena may be found at:
https://goeags.com/sports/football/roster/coaches/justin-ena/380
More on
Jeff Copp may be found at:
https://goeags.com/sports/football/roster/coaches/jeff-copp/381
Offseason Also Sees Return to EWU of Zach Bruce as Safeties Coach
After a nearly year-long wait to coach in his first game, the Eagles have one of their own –
Zach Bruce -- to coach a position he played. The former Eagle and 2012 graduate of Spokane's University High School was hired last March to coach EWU safeties.
Bruce served as an assistant coach at Mead High School in Spokane in 2017-18. He, along with several other former Eagles, was a founding member of the Pro Vision Academy in Spokane. He also spent time in 2018-20 as defensive backs coach and speed and conditioning coach in Helsinki, Finland, where his wife, Delaney, was playing professional basketball.
Bruce received his bachelor's degree in history from Eastern in January of 2018. He had a 3.39 accumulative grade point average, including a 3.64 GPA in his major. He had a minor in coaching and a secondary minor in social studies education.
"It's awesome to get
Zach Bruce back in the Eagle logo," said Eastern head coach
Aaron Best. "He brings energy, knowledge, and understanding of our scheme to the safety positon as a member of our coaching staff. He also has great personal connectivity to our current and future student-athletes."
After redshirting in 2012, Bruce played in 50 games for the Eagles from 2013-17, including 24 as a starter. He earned first team All-Big Sky Conference honors as a senior when he served as team co-captain. He also earned honorable mention All-Big Sky in 2014, and in 2015 and 2016 he was selected to the Big Sky Conference All-Academic team.
In his career, he had 227 total tackles with 11 passes broken up, five interceptions and a pair of forced fumbles. He had a high of 14 tackles twice, and intercepted two passes versus Portland State in 2014. A former walk-on, he redshirted in 2012 before having tackle totals of 17, 42, 53 and 115 in his four seasons.
As a senior, he was ninth in the league and 62nd nationally with an average of 8.2 tackles per game (team-leading 115 total to rank 13th in school history). He had three interceptions in a four-game span during his senior season, including a third-quarter interception in EWU's 41-17 win and second-half shutout over Montana State on Oct. 22.
Eastern teams were 41-13 in the four seasons he played, a winning percentage of .759. Eastern won 28 of 32 Big Sky Conference games for a .875 percentage. Eastern won the Big Sky Conference title and advanced to the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs in 2013, 2014 and 2016.
Bruce is married to Delaney Hodgins, who is the all-time leading scorer in EWU women's basketball history. She scored 2,120 points from 2015-18, including a school record 692 points in 2018. While he was in Finland, Bruce wrote a book about football called "Dumb Jocks" which takes a deep look into the understanding of defensive football. It describes defensive coverages and gives insight to how NFL defenses run those coverages, as well as includes full season breakdowns of five of the best safeties in the NFL.
Practices Began for Eagles on Jan. 29
Inch-by-inch, EWU began preparations for an abbreviated 2020-21 season after an "off-season" which seemingly lasted forever. The Eagles officially began practices on Jan. 29, and Eastern head coach
Aaron Best said at the time he expects a "fluid" situation as the Eagles move along during the Covid-19 pandemic.
"Fluid might be a very big understatement," he said. "The FBS (NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision) ran through a lot of these hurdles, challenges, bumps, turbulence – whatever you want to call them – this past fall. Our feet haven't been firmly on the ground but we have had direction in terms of protocols. But this is certainly a time we've never seen before and hope to never again."
Because of the pandemic, the Eagles hadn't practiced as a full team since the conclusion of the 2019 campaign, which ended on Nov. 23, 2019, with a 7-5 overall mark and 6-2 Big Sky record. Moving forward, EWU will be subject to continued adherence to mandated testing protocols and regulations to be able to practice and play.
"The phrase we'll use with our team the next six months for sure is
mental agility," said Best. "That's what we'll stress – we've never been here before. We're learning in the moment and will use some mental agility along the way."
Portland State, Montana and Montana State all opted out from the Big Sky's six-game spring schedule, leaving league administrators to re-vamp the winter/spring schedule. Northern Colorado also decided not to play a full six-game schedule, and Sacramento State had previously opted out of winter/spring competition last fall when the schedules were originally announced on Nov. 4.
Streak of At Least One Road Win Extended to 51 Seasons
A 50-year streak was extended to 51 when Eastern Washington won its road game at Idaho State on Nov. 9, 2019, in Pocatello, Idaho. That streak now includes all 36 seasons Eastern has been a member of the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA). The last time Eastern was winless on the road was 1969 when the then-Savages were 0-4 away from home and finished 4-5 on the season. In fact, since then, Eastern has had at least two road wins in all but six seasons (1974, 1975, 1976, 1988, 1989, 1994), a current streak of 26-straight seasons with at least a pair. Eastern extended that from 25 to 26 against Cal Poly on Nov. 16.
Eagles Trade Hot & Humid for Indoors
The game Nov. 9, 2019, versus Idaho State was Eastern's 60th game inside a dome, where the temperatures are always at about 72 degrees and wind or humidity are not factors. After the 48-5 win, Eastern is 31-29 all-time in domes, including a 15-4 record at Idaho State's Holt Arena. Eastern lost earlier in 2019 at Idaho, where EWU is now 4-9 at the Kibbie Dome. Eastern is also 10-7 at NAU's Walkup Skydome, 2-0 at North Dakota, 0-1 at North Dakota State, 0-1 at South Dakota, 0-6 at Northern Iowa and 0-1 at the Houston Astrodome.
Playing in a dome is a far cry from what Eastern faced Sept. 14 in Jacksonville, Ala., where the game was delayed by 30 minutes to 3:35 p.m. because of lightning in the area. At kickoff it was 90 degrees with 67 percent humidity. That was the eighth-hottest game in recorded EWU history (since 1980), ranking behind the 106 at Arizona State (8/31/02 at 6 p.m.), 97 at Sacramento State (9/26/09 at 6 p.m.), 94 at Southwest Texas State (9/7/95 at 6 p.m. in San Marcos, Texas), 93 at Spokane's Albi Stadium versus Portland State (9/3/88 at 7 p.m.), 93 at Sacramento State (9/26/15 at 6 p.m.), 92 at Eastern Illinois (9/14/91 at 6:30 p.m.) and 91 at Nicholls State (9/2/04 at 6:30 p.m. at Thibodeaux, La.). On two other occasions the temperature has hit 90 degrees at kickoff.
The temperature for the Nicholls State game in 2004 also came with considerable humidity, and a pre-game rain shower soaked Eastern's footballs prior to the 37-14 loss. Eastern also faced severe weather at Sam Houston State on Sept. 28, 2013, when a thunder, lightning and rain storm stopped the game for 78 minutes. With a temperature of 84 degrees and 81 percent humidity, Eastern fell 49-34. There was also a similar one-hour weather delay when Eastern played at Southwest Texas State in San Marcos, Texas, on a 94-degree day on Sept. 7, 1995. Eastern won that game 34-16.
More About the Eagles in 2020-21
A third team All-American as a junior,
Eric Barriere is one of four returning starters on an offensive squad which led the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision in total offense in 2019. The Eagles also have six returning starters on defense, plus all three of their specialists.
A total of 43 returning letterwinners will be on hand when
Aaron Best finally gets to begin his fourth season at the helm. The breakdown is 20 letterwinners back from the offense, 20 on defense, a kicker, a punter and a long snapper. Eastern lost eight returning players since the summer when the pandemic took its toll on the 2020 schedule, which was going to be Eastern's best home schedule in school history. The adjusted, abbreviated schedule will not count against the eligibility for all student-athletes.
Eastern has 14 seniors on its squad, that coming after losing in excess of 20 in each of the past two seasons. Eastern had only 14 seniors in 2017 and 12 in 2016.
Three of the returning players include All-Big Sky offensive tackle
Tristen Taylor, linebacker
Jack Sendelbach and running back
Dennis Merritt, who were granted a sixth year by the NCAA to complete four years of eligibility because of seasons lost because of injuries. Also receiving a sixth year was University of Washington transfer
Jusstis Warren, who played in just one game in 2019. Conceivably, all four of those players could return in the fall of 2021 as well.
Taylor had started 28-of-28 games as an Eagle until a season-ending knee injury kept him out of the lineup on Sept. 22, 2018, versus Cal Poly. He has now started all 40 games he played in his career, and was a second team All-Big Sky selection in 2019 after earning honorable mention in both 2016 and 2017.
Cheney native and Idaho transfer
Ty Graham redshirted in 2019 and will play in 2020-21, as well as previous letter winners
Chris Ojoh (linebacker) and
Tamarick Pierce (running back). Ojoh and Pierce retained their redshirt status in 2019 by playing in four games apiece in 2019.
Consistency has been a cornerstone of EWU Football, and the Eagles have cemented a 16-year run of winning the league title and/or advancing to the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs at least every other year. Eastern has achieved that feat ever since its last back-back-empty seasons in 2002 and 2003.
In 2018, Eastern secured its 10th Big Sky title and 13th appearance in the FCS Playoffs in what is now 36 years as a member of the FCS (formerly I-AA). Since 2010 when EWU won the NCAA Division I title, the Eagles have won league titles six times (2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2018) and advanced to the playoffs all six of those seasons.
From 2004 to 2009 Eastern advanced to the playoffs four times (2004, 2005, 2007, 2009), and won the league title twice (2004, 2005). Eastern has three other playoff berths in school history (1985, 1992, 1997) and two other titles (1992, 1997), and has only had two multi-year stretches in which they accomplished neither. Those were both six-year stretches from between 1986-1991 and 1998-2003.
The Eagles have been impressive – if not dominant – in the league in the last 13 years (2007-2019), winning 80 percent of their games (83-21) and six titles. In that span, Eastern has had no league finish below 5-3 and five of them have included 7-1 or 8-0 records.
More About the 2020-21 Winter/Spring Schedule
The original winter/spring schedule was released on Nov. 4, and Sacramento State was the only team to announce then that the Hornets would skip the spring season and prepare for the fall 2021 campaign. But since Jan. 15, Montana, Montana State, Portland State and Northern Colorado have announced they were playing a reduced schedule, leaving the league with eight teams to play the full six games.
Essentially, league administrators came up with a schedule that replaced EWU's home game with the Grizzlies with the NAU contest, and EWU road games versus PSU and MSU with games at Idaho State and Idaho.
Open dates in the schedule are set for March 20 and April 17 in case games need to be re-scheduled because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The 16-team NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs are scheduled to begin April 24 and culminate with the championship game on May 16. Teams are required to play four games to qualify.
The game with Cal Poly will mark the return to EWU of new Mustang head coach Beau Baldwin, who spent 13 previous seasons as a coach at EWU. He was an assistant from 2003-06, and head coach from 2008-16.
Eastern was 3-1 in the 2019 season versus opponents on this spring's schedule, including a league-opening 35-27 loss at Idaho on Sept. 21, 2019. Later, on consecutive weeks, Eastern defeated NAU (66-38), ISU (48-5) and Cal Poly (42-41). The Eagles haven't played UC Davis since a 34-29 victory in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs in 2018, giving EWU a perfect 8-0 mark all-time against the Aggies.
On Aug. 7 in response to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the Big Sky Conference announced that all league schools – including Eastern – would move their 2020 schedule to winter/spring 2021. The NCAA had previously announced that the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs would not have its playoffs in the fall, and eventually announced their move to 2021.
The 2020 schedule was going to be Eastern's best in school history, featuring home games versus Montana, Montana State, Idaho and two-time defending Big Sky Conference champion Weber State. The Eagles were scheduled to open Big Sky Conference play at Southern Utah on Sept. 26, followed by its conference home opener versus Montana on Oct. 3. The schedule also included non-conference home games versus Western Illinois and Northern Arizona, and a trip to play at Florida.
New Iconic Red Turf at "The Inferno" is Ready for its debut on March 6
The red glow that was missing in Cheney, Wash., in May and June finally returned in July of 2020 with the replacement of EWU's original iconic red turf.
Workers began that month the three-week process of installing the second generation of red turf at Eastern Washington University's Roos Field. The original red turf at "The Inferno" was installed in 2010, and taken out in May of 2020 in preparation for its replacement.
The basic design of the new turf is the same as before with "Eastern" in one end zone. But "Eagles" replaced "Washington" in the other.
The project was completed in August, just as preseason practices were expected to move from the grass EWU practice fields to the stadium in preparation for the 2020 season. But the Covid-19 pandemic delayed the start of the season, so instead of making its debut versus Western Illinois on Sept. 12, 2020, the turf will debut versus Northern Arizona on March 6, 2021.
AstroTurf received the bid to replace the iconic red field. The nearly $1 million project was part of a $5 million pledge provided by local businessman Jack Gillingham toward the Roos Field Renovation Project.
How the 2020-21 FCS Football Season Will Work
The coronavirus pandemic has thrown a wrinkle into 2020-21 NCAA sports scheduling, and FCS football is no exception. Based on original correspondence from the NCAA last fall, below is the latest information on the state of this year's FCS season and the plans to host a revised championship in the spring.
The Basics . . .
The fall championship, usually culminating in an early January title game, is still planned to be played — albeit in the spring this year. The championship is currently scheduled for April 18-May 16, with 16 teams making the playoff field as opposed to the usual 24. In this 16-team bracket, 11 teams will automatically qualify via conference championships. The remaining five will be at-large selections. Schools that opted to play games in the fall will have their results considered in the selection process for the spring championship field.
Conference-by-Conference Spring Season Information (as of Feb. 10, 2021) . . .
*Big Sky: Eight teams will play six conference games each, starting Feb. 27. The five schools opting out include Sacramento State, Montana, Montana State, Portland State and Northern Colorado.
*Big South: Five teams will play four conference games each, starting March 13. Two teams played at least one game in the fall, and league schools are also allowed to play up to four non-conference games in the spring.
*CAA: 11 teams will play six conference games each, starting March 6.
*MEAC: The conference previously announced a start date of Feb. 20. However, Bethune-Cookman and Florida A&M have since announced they will not be playing.
Ivy League: No spring season.
MVFC: 11 teams will play eight conference games each, starting Feb. 19. Three teams played at least one game in the fall.
*NEC: Eight teams will play four conference games each, starting March 7. The No. 1 and No. 2 teams will play for the NEC title.
*OVC: Eight teams will play seven conference games each, starting Feb. 21. Four teams played at least one game in the fall.
*Patriot League: Six teams in two divisions will play four games each starting March 13. Two games will be against teams within divisions, and two outside the divisions. The divisional winners will play for the title on the weekend of April 10.
*Pioneer League: Eight teams will play a six-game schedule starting March 13. Four teams played at least one game in the fall.
*SoCon: Nine teams will play nine conference games each, starting Feb. 20. Three teams played at least one game in the fall.
*Southland: Seven teams will play six conference games each, starting Feb. 20. Four teams played at least one game in the fall.
*SWAC: Nine teams will play six conference games each, starting Feb. 21. The schedule also includes one non-conference open date for each team.
*League receives automatic berth in FCS Playoffs.
The last regular season games of the spring schedule, including conference championships, must come no later than April 17. Once regular season play concludes, the 16-team playoff bracket will be revealed on Sunday, April 18. The four rounds will be conducted each of the next four weekends, ending with the national championship game on Sunday, May 16 at 11 a.m. Pacific time. The national championship game will be played in Frisco, Texas, as originally planned. Toyota Stadium in Frisco has been host to the title game since 2010 and will remain the annual host through at least 2024.
How does automatic qualification into this year's championship work?
Eleven conference champions will earn automatic berths into this year's playoff field, one more than the usual 10. This includes the addition of the MEAC champion, as the conference has opted into the FCS championship following the cancelation of the 2020 Celebration Bowl. Under normal circumstances, the Celebration Bowl pits together the conference champions from the SWAC and MEAC.
In addition to the MEAC, here are the other conferences who will receive automatic qualification into the 2020-21 field: Big Sky, Big South, Colonial Athletic Association, Missouri Valley Football Conference, Northeast Conference, Ohio Valley Conference, Patriot League, Pioneer Football League, Southern Conference and Southland Conference. Each conference must have at least three schools participating in football in order to be eligible for automatic qualification.
This leaves five spots for at-large selections in the 16-team playoff field.
How will the rest of the FCS playoff field be determined?
The FCS Championship committee has determined that at-large candidates must play a minimum of four games this season to be considered for selection.
After that, it will be difficult to choose in a season that allows scarce opportunities for non-conference play and inconsistent scheduling models from conference to conference. The committee has noted that quality wins will be a factor, particularly in non-conference and FBS play.
How will the committee look at teams who played in the fall?
Some schools decided to play a few non-conference games in the fall before beginning league play in February or March. Other programs have opted to solely play a non-conference slate in the fall. All fall results will be considered in the spring when the championship field is announced.
On the Horizon for EWU
Eastern home football games on March 6, March 27 and April 10 will all kick-off at 1:05 p.m. Pacific time and be broadcast regionally on SWX. Eastern begins its winter/spring 2020-21 Big Sky Conference schedule on Feb. 27 at Idaho, and that game will begin at 3:05 p.m. Pacific time and will also be televised by SWX. Eastern then hosts Northern Arizona on March 6 at Roos Field at 1:05 p.m. in the first game on the new red Astroturf surface installed at "The Inferno" last summer. Eastern will also host Cal Poly on March 27 and Idaho on April 10, also at 1:05 p.m. Pacific time.
At this time, no spectators will be permitted to attend home football games due to institutional, regional, and state guidelines in regards to the Covid-19 pandemic. Although the region has been moved into phase 2 of the Healthy Washington—Roadmap to Recovery plan, capacity limitations are expected to be filled exclusively by competitors and event staff.
Eastern will also play road games at Idaho State (March 13 at 3:05 p.m. Pacific time) and UC Davis (April 3 at 1:05 p.m. Pacific) as part of the abbreviated winter/spring schedule. The NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs – just 16 teams this year -- are slated to begin on April 24 and conclude on May 16.
SWX, a sister station of KHQ in Spokane, is available over-air on channels 6.2 in Spokane/Cheney/Coeur d'Alene/Sandpoint/Lewiston, 23.3 in Yakima and 25.3 in the Tri-Cities. The station is also available via Comcast 306/112 in Spokane; Davis Cable 37/310 in Cheney; Spectrum 1245 in Coeur d'Alene & Pullman/Moscow; Charter 183 in Tri-Cities/Yakima; Cable One 36 in Lewiston; Northland Cable 317 in Moses Lake; and Northland Cable 115 in Sandpoint. New SWX/KHQ Sports Director Dennis Patchin will call the play-by-play for Eagle games.
Eastern home games will also be available via PlutoTV on channel 1053, as well as via
https://bigskyconf.com/watchbigsky. Eastern games are also aired live on radio on 700-AM ESPN, 105.3-FM, via the web at tunein.com and via mobile phone app, with pre-game coverage starting a half-hour prior to tipoff. Larry Weir serves as the play-by-play broadcaster and Paul Sorensen is the analyst. Live statistics from all Eastern home games are available via
http://ewustats.com.
Player Notes
Eagles Name Six Co-Captains for 2020-21 Season
Six Eastern football players were selected by their teammates as co-captains for the 2020-21 season, including quarterback
Eric Barriere and linebacker
Jack Sendelbach who will return for their second seasons as captains. They are joined by fellow seniors
Tamarick Pierce (running back),
Calin Criner (safety),
Tristen Taylor (offensive tackle) and
Ty Graham (linebacker).
Including Taylor and Graham, the six co-captains represent 211 total games worth of collegiate experience, including exactly 100 total starts. Sendelbach and Taylor are both sixth-year seniors who graduated from high school in 2015, while the other four were 2016 graduates and have all redshirted previously.
The six players represent three different states, including Washington, Idaho and California. Sendelbach is a 2015 graduate of Bishop Blanchet High School in Seattle, Wash., and Graham is a 2016 graduate of Cheney (Wash.) HS. Criner graduated in 2016 from Rocky Mountain HS and is from Boise, Idaho, and the other three are from California. Pierce is from Oakland and graduated from Saint Mary's HS in 2016; Barriere hails from Inglewood and is a 2016 graduate of La Habra HS; and Taylor is from Stockton and graduated in 2015 from Stagg HS.
Barriere is a returning All-American who has earned preseason All-America honors as he enters his senior season in 2020-21. He is 16-7 in 23 career games as a starter, with 6,300 total passing yards and 7,519 yards of offense as an Eagle. He is a communication studies major.
Sendelbach enters the 2020-21 season with 159 tackles in his 36-game career (15 as a starter), and has had eight performances in double figures. He has earned Big Sky Conference All-Academic honors three times as an Eagle, and has already received his bachelor's degree in marketing. He is now in a graduate program for sports and recreation administration.
Pierce will enter his senior season in 2020-21 with a 6.3 career average per rush which currently ranks fourth in school history. Pierce has rushed for 1,014 yards and 18 touchdowns in 39 games as an Eagle with 13 catches for 107 yards and another score. He redshirted the 2019 season as he continued to rehabilitate a 2018 injury. A psychology major, Pierce has earned Big Sky All-Academic honors three times in his career thus far.
Criner is majoring in communication studies and leadership at Eastern, and has also previously earned Big Sky All-Academic honors. He has seven interceptions, 183 tackles, 10 passes broken up, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery in his 38-game career (16 as a starter). Criner will continue the legacy of wearing the No. 4 jersey for the Eagle Football team, a tribute that has existed for more than 10 years.
Taylor is a psychology major and has earned All-Big Sky Conference honors three times previously at EWU. He was a second team choice in 2019 and received honorable mention in 2016 and 2017. He redshirted in 2015 and was lost to a knee injury after three games in 2018. He's started all 40 games he's played as an Eagle.
Graham is a hometown product and 2016 graduate of Cheney (Wash.) High School. He's been at EWU since winter of 2019, but had to redshirt in 2019 as a transfer from the University of Idaho. While playing from 2016-18 for the Vandals, Graham had 133 tackles at Idaho, including 13 for a loss. He had 2 1/2 sacks, an interception, two passes broken up and a forced fumble in 27 career games. Now working toward his master's degree in business administration, Graham has already received his marketing degree from EWU with a minor in sports management. His father, John Graham, is EWU's former defensive coordinator.
Four Current Eagles Have Completed Coursework Toward Degrees
Four players have already completed requirements toward their bachelor's degree. Linebacker
Jack Sendelbach graduated following spring quarter of 2019 in marketing, and is now in a graduate program for sport and recreation administration. Linebacker
Ty Graham is now working toward his master's degree in business administration after having already received his marketing degree from EWU with a minor in sports management. Defensive lineman
Jusstis Warren, who like Sendelbach is a sixth-year senior, has also received his bachelor's degree and is now a graduate student in communications studies. Cornerback
Darreon Moore has received his management degree and is now working on his MBA like Graham.
Since 2001, Eastern has annually averaged more than 20 selections to the Big Sky All-Academic team. Eastern has had a league-most 423 selections from 2001-2019 (the school with the next-best total has 300), and Eastern has won a total of 622 Big Sky All-Academic honors since joining the league in 1987. A total of 26 were honored in 2019, and a program-best 34 were recognized in the 2016 season.
Walter Payton Award Finalist Eric Barriere Finishes Second in FCS in Total Offense in 2019
Junior quarterback and Walter Payton Award candidate
Eric Barriere finished his junior season ranked second in total offense with an average of 355.8 yards per game (E.J. Perry of Brown was at 367.8). Barriere was third in passing (309.3, with Northern Arizona's Case Cookus at 342.8) and was sixth with 31 touchdown passes and fifth in points responsible for (20.2 per game with 31 TDs passing, eight rushing and a two-point conversion).
He closed his junior season with 239 passes without an interception, setting the school's single season record for interceptions-to-attempts ratio. He had only four picks in 438 attempts, a miniscule average of .009 per attempt compared to the previous record of .010 set by Erik Meyer in 2005 (five interceptions in 410 attempts). His last interception came on his 14th attempt at Sacramento State on Oct. 5, 2019.
Barriere finished with the seventh-most passing yards in school history with 3,712, and his 31 touchdown passes is eighth. Including 558 rushing yards, his 4,270 yards of total offense was third-most all-time at EWU.
Barriere has had 13 performances of at least 300 yards of total offense and eight with at least 300 yards passing in his 31 games as an Eagle (16-7 as a starter, including 11-0 at home). He has had seven with at least 400 yards of total offense and three with at least 400 passing. He has completed 59.7 percent of his passes (463-of-775), good for 6,300 yards, 56 touchdowns and 14 interceptions, and has rushed 236 times for 1,219 yards and 17 more TDs. He had a passing efficiency rating of 146.9 as a sophomore, 151.6 in 2019 and a 148.3 mark in his career to currently rank fifth in school history. His touchdown passes rank sixth, his total of 7,519 yards of offense already rank sixth all-time at EWU and his passing yardage is seventh. He is just 13 yards behind the career rushing record for a quarterback of 1,232 yards set by Vernon Adams Jr. (2012-14).
He ended the 2019 season with 260 yards and three touchdowns passing, and another 23 yards and a score on the ground in EWU's 53-46 win over Portland State on Nov. 23. He had pass completions of 46 and 50 yards, giving him 28 plays in his career of at least 40 yards. One game earlier, he had a career-best 164-yard rushing performance at Cal Poly, finishing with one TD rushing and one passing. He also had 176 yards through the air to give him his 340 yards of total offense.
In Eastern's first two games in November, Barriere had a total of 935 yards of total offense to earn him two-straight ROOT Sports Offensive Player of the Week honors as announced by the Big Sky Conference office. He was honored twice in 2019 and three times in his career.
His latest honor came after his 467-yard performance in a 48-5 win at Idaho State on Nov. 9, and he also received honorable mention as the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Offensive Player of the Week (STATS). Barriere passed for 406 – his eighth of his career of at least 300 and third with 400 -- and rushed for 61 versus the Bengals. With a total of 467 yards of total offense, he now has seven performances with at least 400 yards of total offense. He had three passes of at least 58 yards versus Idaho State (58, 59, 80), and the 80-yarder against ISU was the longest of his career.
One week before the ISU game, he was rewarded for totaling 488 yards in EWU's 66-38 win over Northern Arizona on Nov. 2 by earning his player of the week honors from the Big Sky and also received honorable mention as the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Offensive Player of the Week (STATS) and Performer of the Week (College Football Performance Awards). He had 367 yards through the air and 101 on the ground for 468 yards of total offense versus the Lumberjacks. He had a trio of touchdown passes, and finished 30-of-46 with no interceptions for an impressive 183.5 passing efficiency rating. He had a 75-yard touchdown pass to
Talolo Limu-Jones on EWU's first offensive play of the game, and also caught a 20-yard pass from wide receiver
Johnny Edwards IV.
In his previous home game on Oct. 12, he completed 28-of-43 passes for 445 yards and five touchdown passes for EWU in a 54-21 victory over Northern Colorado in which EWU led 40-0 at halftime. Coupled with his 41 yards rushing, his 486 yards were the second-most of his career.
Barriere had 309 yards passing with two touchdowns and 103 rushing and a TD versus Sacramento State on Oct. 5. He accounted for 412 of EWU's 497 yards of total offense, including a 92-yard touchdown run after he was flushed out of the pocket by Sacramento State. That equaled the fourth-longest run in school history, ranking only behind runs of 96 by Taiwan Jones (2009 versus Idaho State), 95 by John Ditz (1954 versus Lewis & Clark) and 94 by
Sam McPherson (2018 versus Northern Arizona). It was the longest run by a quarterback, with the previous long set by Barriere versus Southern Utah in 2018 when he had an 85-yard TD run (he also had a 66-yard scoring run at Portland State in 2018). The Eagles had four runs of at least 81 yards in 2018.
He accounted for all four of EWU's touchdowns with two rushing and two passing against Idaho on Sept. 21. He had just 74 passing yards at halftime, but finished 28-of-46 for 365 yards, with another 20 on the ground. His rushing TDs (2), pass attempts (46), and total plays of offense (57, including 11 rushing) were all career highs. He had at the time the second-most yards in total offense of his career with 424, ranking only behind the 556 he had versus Lindenwood on Sept. 7.
He had perhaps his fastest start as an Eagle on Sept. 14 at Jacksonville State, completing 11-of-12 passes for 156 yards in the opening quarter to help EWU to a 28-7 lead. However, EWU failed to score in the fourth quarter and JSU won 49-45, as Barriere finished 24-of-43 for 294 yards, five touchdowns and two interceptions.
One game earlier versus Lindenwood when EWU had a school-record 769 yards of offense, Barriere accounted for 556 by himself to rank as the 14th-most in Big Sky Conference history and just four away from the school record. That helped him earn Big Sky Conference Offensive Player of the Week honors from College Sports Madness, as well as honorable mention from STATS for the National FCS Offensive Player of the Week award that wide receiver
Dre' Sonte Dorton won. Barriere completed 32-of-46 passes for 522 yards, five touchdowns and an impressive 200.76 passing efficiency rating. He recorded the second-most passing yards in school history and just missed the top 14 in the 56-year history of the league (528 yards is No. 14 on the list). He rushed for 34 more yards, giving him 556 to come four yards from the EWU total offense record of 560 set by
Gage Gubrud in 2017 versus Montana in which he also set the passing yards record of 549. Barriere's previous career highs were 352 passing yards and 405 yards of total offense.
Barriere was extremely productive throwing the ball in 2018 as an injury replacement for All-American
Gage Gubrud (now at Washington State), finishing 13th in FCS in passing efficiency (146.9), 29th for passing yards overall (2,450) and 13th in touchdown passes with 24 after setting school and FCS Playoff records with seven versus Maine on Dec. 15. He was ninth with 198 total points responsible for and was 26th in average per game (14.14). He also finished 45th in total offense per game (218.8). Barriere averaged 6.2 per carry and finished with 613 yards on the ground to break the school record of 606 set by Gubrud in 2016.
In 2018, Eastern finished as the only school to rank in the top 20 in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision in total offense, rushing and passing. The Eagles averaged 528.2 yards on offense to rank third in FCS, including 255.9 rushing (10th) and 272.3 passing (20th). Eastern was also ranked fourth in scoring (43.1). The Eagles as a team finished the 2018 season with a school-record 6.62 average per rush on the season to break the previous record of 6.41 set in 2001. The Eagles set team records for rushing yards (3,839) and rushing touchdowns (41).
Harrison Leads FCS With Perfect 12-of-12 Field Goal Accuracy in 2019
Redshirt freshman kicker
Seth Harrison was the only player in FCS with an average of at least one field goal attempt per game to be perfect, going 12-of-12 in the 2019 season. He was 31st in field goals with an average of 1.09 per game, including four field goals – the second time in four games he did that -- in a 48-5 victory over Idaho State on Nov. 9. He had makes of 40, 36, 21 and 36 in the first half, and his 40-yarder was a career long. He also had 10 kickoffs for a 57.5 average with one touchback.
Harrison was also 50-of-53 on extra points in 2019, having a string of 22-straight makes from Oct. 5 until missing his first attempt at Cal Poly on Nov. 16. He also averaged 52.9 yards on 78 kickoffs (six touchbacks). He received honorable mention All-Big Sky Conference honors and also earned Freshman All-America accolades.
Harrison garnered Big Sky Conference Special Teams Player of the Week honors from the league after converting all nine of his extra point attempts and booting a 27-yard field goal in a 66-38 win over Northern Arizona on Nov. 2. He also had 10 kickoffs for a 50.8 average versus the Lumberjacks with one touchback.
In EWU's previous home game, he kicked four field goals (32, 21, 21 and 23) and made all six of his extra points to finish with 18 points in Eastern's 54-21 romp over Northern Colorado on Oct. 12. All four of his field goals came in the first half as he came one kick away from the school record of five. He also had 10 kickoffs for a 52.9 average.
Harrison had a field goal of 35 yards versus Montana on Oct. 26. In his first action as the No. 1 kicker on Sept. 14 versus Jacksonville State, Harrison made a 22-yard field goal, converted all six of his extra points, had eight kickoffs for a 58.1 average with two touchbacks and even recovered a fumble that led to an EWU touchdown.
Harrison, a redshirt freshman from Coeur d'Alene (Idaho) High School, didn't even start out the year as EWU's kicker. That role fell to junior
Andre Slyter, who was 1-of-3 kicking field goals and later left the program. Harrison and Slyter were replacing EWU career and single season kick scoring leader
Roldan Alcobendas, who was a perfect 16-of-16 kicking field goals in 2018 to win the Fred Mitchell Award as the top placekicker in the nation (all levels but FBS).
Thus, entering the 2020-21 spring season, Eastern kickers have made 29-of-31 field goal attempts since 2018.
Senior Calin Criner to Wear No. 4 Jersey for Eagles
Eastern senior
Calin Criner will continue the legacy of wearing the No. 4 jersey for the Eagle Football team, a tribute that has existed for more than 10 years. Since the 2008 season when senior Jason Belford had the number, the coaching staff has selected a leader on defense to wear the jersey. It symbolizes the defensive player who most embodies the characteristics of defense at Eastern -- grit, toughness, effort, leadership and academic success.
Since arriving at Eastern in the fall of 2016 from Rocky Mountain High School in Boise, Idaho, Criner has seven interceptions, 183 tackles, 10 passes broken up, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery in his 38-game career (16 as a starter). He had four performances in his career with at least 10 tackles.
In 2019, Criner started all 12 Eastern games and was third on the team with 85 tackles on the season. He also had three passes broken up and four interceptions. His average of 7.1 tackles per game ranked 14th in the Big Sky and his average of 0.33 interceptions tied for second.
Twice he received national accolades for his performances in individual games in 2019. He had his second two-interception game of his career and had eight tackles in EWU's 48-5 victory over Idaho State (11/9/19) to earn College Sports Madness Big Sky Conference Defensive Player of the Week honors. Playing in front of a crowd of 14 family and friends which included his well-known father and grandfather, he also broke-up a pass and one of his tackles was for a loss of two yards.
Earlier in the season, Criner helped Eastern to a dominating 6-0 advantage in turnovers forced with another pair of interceptions and seven tackles in EWU's 35-20 victory over North Dakota (9/28/19). He was rewarded by earning honorable mention for STATS National Defensive Player of the Week honors.
Criner is the son of long-time collegiate and professional coach Mark Criner. Calin's grandfather, Jim Criner, was head coach at Boise State from 1976-82 and guided the Broncos to the 1980 NCAA Championship Subdivision (then I-AA) title.
In 2019, senior
Dylan Ledbetter wore the No. 4 jersey and went on to win honorable mention All-Big Sky Conference honors.
Although the honor isn't necessarily given to the most talented defensive player on the team, Eastern has had 11-straight players in that number earn All-Big Sky honors, and 13 of a possible 14 since Eastern joined the league in 1987. Below is the list of players who have worn that number since EWU became a member of the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision in 1984 (Big Sky in 1987).
Name – Year - Pos. - Hometown / Previous School
Hunter, Darryl - 1983-84-85-86 - DB - Tacoma, Wash. / Foss HS
%Corr, Dominic - 1986-87-88-89 - RB - Seattle, Wash. / Garfield HS
%Wright, Harold - 1990-91-92-93 - RB - Tacoma, Wash. / Lakes HS '89
Givens, Roderick - 1995 - DB - Auburn, Wash. / Auburn HS '94
#%Brightful, Lamont - 1998-99-00-01 - WR - Everett, Wash. /Mariner HS '97
%Williams, A.J. - 2002-03 - DB - Lacey, Wash. - North Thurston HS '01
%Dotson, Anthony - 2005-06-07 - DB - Federal Way, Wash. / Federal Way HS '03
%Belford, Jason - 2005-06-07-08 - DL - Tacoma, Wash. / Lincoln HS '04
#%Sherritt, J.C. - 2007-08-09-10 - LB - Pullman, Wash. / Pullman HS '06
%Brown, Allen - 2010-11-12-13 - DB - Tacoma, Wash. / Foss HS '09
%Raynes, Todd - 2012-13-14-15 - DB - Kenmore, Wash. / Inglemoor HS '11
%Zamora, Miquiyah - 2013-14-15-16 - LB - Pasco, Wash. / Chiawana HS '12
%Havili, Albert - 2013-14-16-17 - DL - Federal Way, Wash. / Federal Way HS '13
%Fettig, Mitch - 2015-16-17-18 - DB - Olympia Wash. / Olympia HS '14
%Ledbetter, Dylan - 2016-17-18-19 - DL - West Seattle, Wash. / O'Dea HS '15
Criner, Calin – 2017-18-19-20 – DB – Boise, Idaho / Rocky Mountain HS '16
#All-America selection (Brightful was first team in 2001, second team in 2000 & second team in 1999 as return specialist, and honorable mention in 2001 as a wide receiver; Sherritt was the Buck Buchanan Award winner in 2010, and first team in 2009 and 2010 as a linebacker).
%All-Big Sky Conference selection (Corr was first team in 1989 & second team in 1989 as return specialist; Wright was Big Sky Newcomer of the Year in 1989, and first team in 1991 & second team in 1992 as a running back; Brightful was first team in 2001 as a wide receiver and return specialist, first team in 2000 as a return specialist, second team in 2000 as a wide receiver and first team in 1999 as a return specialist; Williams was honorable mention in 2003 and 2002 as a safety; Dotson was second team in 2007 as an outside linebacker; Belford was second team in 2008 and honorable mention in 2007 as a defensive end; Sherritt was the Big Sky Defensive MVP in 2010, first team in 2009 and 2010 as a linebacker & honorable mention in 2008 as a linebacker; Brown was second team in 2012 & honorable mention in 2013 as a safety; Raynes was third team in 2015 as a safety; Zamora was first team in 2016 & honorable mention in 2014 as a linebacker; Havili was second team in 2017 as a defensive end; Fettig was third team in 2018 & 2017 & honorable mention in 2016 as a safety; Ledbetter was honorable mention in 2018 and 2019 as a defensive tackle).
Boston Enters 2020-21 Season with 93 Career Catches
A freshman All-America selection in 2018,
Andrew Boston returns for his junior season after earning third team All-Big Sky honors in 2019. He has 93 receptions for 1,291 yards and 10 touchdowns in 26 career games (19 as a starter) as an Eagle.
He finished the 2019 season 79th in FCS in receptions per game (4.5 with a total of 50) and 75th in receiving yards per game (66.4 with a total of 730). He caught a career-high 10 passes for 147 yards and a pair of touchdowns against Idaho State on Nov. 9. Earlier in the season, he had six catches for 112 yards and a TD versus Washington in EWU's opener on Aug. 31.
Boston finished his freshman season second on the team with 43 receptions for 531 yards (12.3 per catch) and four touchdowns. He had a career-high nine catches versus Idaho on Oct. 27, and had five grabs for a season-high 89 yards and a TD against Nicholls in the first round of the FCS Playoffs on Dec. 1. He scored a touchdown versus Maine in the semifinals, and had scores against Washington State and Cal Poly in back-to-back games early in the season.
He is from Puyallup, Wash., and is a 2017 graduate of Emerald Ridge High School. He was the 2017 co-Scout Team Offensive Player of the Year. He earned honorable mention freshman All-America honors from Hero Sports in 2018, and received third team accolades by from Phil Steele Publications. He earned third team All-Big Sky honors as a sophomore in 2019.
Mitchell Johnson Enters Junior Season With Six Career Sacks
In a big year for the defense at Eastern, redshirt freshman
Mitchell Johnson was awarded first team Freshman All-America honors in 2018 from Hero Sports and Phil Steele Publications, on his way to earning second team All-Big Sky honors.
In his sophomore season in 2019, he had 41 tackles with 1 1/2 sacks and an interception, giving him 72 tackles, six sacks, three interceptions, three passes broken up, three fumble recoveries and a pair of forced fumbles in his 27-game career (11 as a starter).
Mitchell burst on the scene in 2018 and responded with 31 tackles, a team-leading 4 1/2 sacks, a pair of interceptions, two passes broken up, a pair of quarterback hurries, a fumble recovery and a forced fumble. Johnson earned second-team All-Big Sky honors in his first season as an Eagle. He played in all 15 games as a backup in 2018, and had season highs of four tackles in three different games. He had four of his sacks in consecutive games versus Northern Arizona, Washington State and Cal Poly. Two of them came against the Cougars, and he also had a half-sack versus Maine on Dec. 15 to advance EWU to the NCAA Division I Championship Game on Jan. 5 in Frisco, Texas. Mitchell also had interceptions against Southern Utah in the regular season and UC Davis in the playoffs. His fumble recovery came against Weber State on Oct. 13 – Eastern's last setback until losing to North Dakota State in Frisco. He also had a sack and forced fumble against Cal Poly on Sept. 22 which was returned 62 yards for a touchdown by teammate
Jim Townsend.
A 2017 graduate of West Linn (Ore.) High School, Johnson was EWU's Defensive Scout Team Player of the Year when he redshirted in 2017.
More on Eagle Offensive Players
The four returning starters on offense include quarterback
Eric Barriere, offensive tackle
Tristen Taylor and wide receivers
Johnny Edwards IV and
Andrew Boston. A total of 10 players return on offense who have started games as Eagles.
Eastern closed the 2019 season with the best offense in FCS, finishing at 524.8 yards per game. Eastern also ended the regular season second in scoring (40.6), fifth in passing (317.1) and eighth in turnover margin (+0.92 per game). The Eagles also ranked 19th in rushing at 207.8 yards per game, and were the only team in FCS to rank in the top 24 in total offense, rushing and passing.
In EWU's last 16 seasons (2004-2019), EWU has ranked in the top 10 in passing 13 times, total offense on 12 occasions and scoring seven times. In school history, EWU has won a trio of FCS titles for total offense (2019, 2001, 1997), as well as three passing offense titles (2016, 2015, 2011) and two for scoring offense (2014, 2001).
Backing up Barriere in 2020-21 will be junior
Gunner Talkington, sophomore
Simon Burkett and redshirt freshman
Trey Turner. Talkington was the only player of the three to throw a pass in 2019, completing 9-of-26 for 73 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions. He's completed 15-of-38 passes for 135 yards and a pair of scores in his career.
Edwards returns for his senior season with 36 games of experience (12 as a starter), and has career totals of 52 receptions for 823 yards and seven touchdowns. As a junior, he was third on the team with 32 catches for 553 yards (17.3 per reception) and three scores.
The most dynamic receiver at the end of the 2019 season turned out to be
Talolo Limu-Jones, who will enter his senior season with 35 games of experience (two as a starter). He was 63rd in FCS with seven touchdown catches and his average of 24.04 yards per catch closed the year second behind the 24.49 average of Isaiah Weston of Northern Iowa.
Jones has 42 career catches for 841 yards and 11 touchdowns – an average of 20.0 per reception in his career (currently second in school history behind the record of 22.8) and a TD every 3.8 catches. He finished with 24 grabs for 577 yards in 2019, with his per-catch average ranking second in school history behind the record of 25.8)
Also returning to the receiver position are sophomores
Freddie Roberson and
Anthony Stell Jr., a pair of former high school teammates who were impressive as redshirt freshmen in 2019. Roberson closed the year with 14 catches for 220 yards and a score, and Stell had five grabs for 41 yards.
Champ Grayson also lettered in 2019 and had one reception in five games played.
A pair of redshirt freshmen are
Chris Johnson and
Jakobie James, and James caught a pass while playing in three games as a true freshman. Also returning is sophomore
Michael Taras, with
Robert Mason III coming to EWU from Central Washington where he caught 20 passes in two seasons for the Wildcats.
All-Big Sky tight end
Jayce Gilder graduated, but three other tight ends from 2019 return. Junior
Dylan Ingram has 27 games of experience, and has caught four passes for 41 yards and a score in his career. Sophomore
Aiden Nellor is also back with 12 games of experience as an Eagle, as well as redshirt freshman
Blake Gobel.
Gobel played in four games in 2019, making his debut on Oct. 26 versus Montana. He had his first career catch on a 15-yard touchdown on a fake field goal attempt, then started in EWU's 42-41 win over Cal Poly on Nov. 16. The Eagles started in a three tight end formation and turned it into a 25-yard rushing gain on EWU's first offensive play
The running back position is void of one of the most productive backs in school history, but still returns senior
Tamarick Pierce, who received a redshirt in 2019
. Senior running back
Antoine Custer Jr. handled the majority of the carries in 2019 and finished 15th in FCS in rushing (102.3), 12th in total rushing yards (1,228) and 11th in rushing touchdowns (16). Custer finished the year with six 100-yard performances – including his last four games – and earned second team All-Big Sky honors.
After coming off an injury from the year before, Pierce made his 2019 debut versus Montana and had a team-leading 57 yards and a touchdown on just seven carries (long of 30). He finished with 177 yards in four games played, and retained his redshirt status.
Pierce will enter his senior season in 2020-21 with a 6.3 career average per rush which currently ranks fourth in school history. Pierce has rushed for 1,014 yards and 18 touchdowns in 39 games with 13 catches for 107 yards and another score.
Merritt returns after suffering a serious lower leg injury versus Lindenwood on Sept. 7, 2019, and missing the remainder of the season. He has 559 yards and four touchdowns rushing in his career, and another eight catches for 147 yards and a score in 30 games. Merritt had 87 yards (7.2 per rush) in 2019 before he was injured.
True freshman
Silas Perreiah and redshirt freshman
Micah Smith rounded out the running back corp in 2019, with both making their debuts as Eagles versus Lindenwood on Sept. 7. Perreiah played in 10 games and did not redshirt, and had 255 yards rushing, two catches for six yards and scored twice. He had 126 yards and a score versus North Dakota.
Eastern received a boost at running back with the return of sophomore
Isaiah Lewis in 2020-21. He played in two games early in the 2019 season and had 64 yards and a touchdown rushing versus Lindenwood, but shortly after that left the team. As a redshirt freshman in 2018, he played in three games and had 52 yards, including 47 versus Southern Utah.
Besides true freshmen, Eastern's other running back in 2019 is Washington transfer
Jamyn Patu. Although he didn't carry the ball for the Huskies, in his final two seasons at O'Dea High School in Seattle, Wash., he rushed for 3,777 yards and 42 touchdowns on 430 carries, averaging 155.8 per game and 8.8 per rush. As a senior in 2017, he was the Associated Press Washington Player of the Year for all classifications, and was the
Seattle Times Player of the Year for all classifications.
The biggest priority for EWU in 2020-21 is replacing four starters on the offensive line, a situation which was helped considerably with the return of Taylor. He's started all 40 games he's played as an Eagle, but the four starters lost totaled 193 games played and 141 starts in their careers.
Senior
Conner Crist returns with 22 career games of experience and two starts under his belt, including seven games and both starts in 2019. Junior
Wyatt Musser has 12 games worth of experience in his career, and both of those players saw significant reps at guard in 2019. Junior
Matt Shook also has 10 games of experience but was injured in 2019 and did not play.
Sophomores
Brad Godwin and
Charlie Baumann are Eastern's other returning letterwinners on the offensive line and played in nine and five games, respectively, as redshirt freshmen in 2019. Non-lettering squad members
Brad Prestegord, Aaron Williams and
Andrei Leonardi are back. They are joined by five redshirt freshmen –
Luke Dahlgren, Isaac Flemmer, Nate Hagreen, Matthew Hewa Baddege and
Cameron Lynch. Flemmer and Hewa-Baddege saw action as true freshmen in 2019.
Eastern had 2,450 yards of offense in the last four games of the season (612.5 per game) to take over the national lead in total offense and maintain it. Eastern closed the year with 559 yards against Portland State on Nov. 23 and had 496 one game earlier at Cal Poly on Nov. 16. Prior to that, the Eagles had 706 versus Northern Arizona on Nov. 2 to rank fifth in school history, and 689 at Idaho State on Nov. 9 to rank seventh all-time. Eastern also had a school-record 769 in 2019 versus Lindenwood, and 637 against Northern Colorado on Oct. 12 to rank as the 19th most in EWU history.
The four linemen honored on the All-Big Sky team in 2019 combined to start 171 games, with 194 total games of experience. Offensive tackle
Chris Schlichting (first team) started all 52 he played, and Taylor (second team) has started all 40 games he has played in his career. Center
Spencer Blackburn (first team) started the last 49 of his 51-game career, and
Kaleb Levao (third team) started 30 of the 51 he played. The fourth starter lost from 2019 was
Will Gram, who finished his career with 39 games worth of experience and 10 starts (all in 2019).
Eastern had some impressive rushing performances in 2019, rushing for at least 174 yards eight times and at least 247 in six games (including the last four). The school's 5.29 average per rush ranked 13th in FCS. The Eagles had a season-high 320 versus Cal Poly on Nov. 16 as Barriere rushed for a career-high 164 and a score and Custer finished with 107 and four touchdowns on just nine carries.
More on Eagle Defensive Players
The six starters returning on defense feature a quartet in the secondary, plus the group is led by Sendelbach, who served as one of EWU's co-captains in the 2019 season and will serve again in 2020-21. The other starters back include safety
Calin Criner, rover
Kedrick Johnson, end
Mitchell Johnson and cornerbacks
Tre Weed and
Darreon Moore. A total of 10 players who have started previously return, led by the 16 starts of Criner and 15 by Sendelbach. Those 10 players have combined for a total of 86 starts.
Starting rover
Kedrick Johnson is back for his senior season, and has played in 30 total games in his career (seven as a starter). He has 98 tackles, a pair of sacks and four passes broken up in his career after a 2019 campaign which saw him come on strong to finish with 50 tackles and a pair of PBUs.
Eastern's other two returning starters in the secondary are at cornerback where junior Moore and sophomore Weed return. Weed earned Freshman All-America accolades after a season in which he had 44 tackles, two interceptions and seven passes broken up as an 11-game starter. Moore started seven games, and finished the season with 29 tackles and three passes broken up, giving him 40 tackles in his 24-game career.
Junior
Ira Branch and sophomore
Darrien Sampson each started three games in 2019, with Sampson closing the year with 17 tackles and a pair of PBUs, while Branch closed with 14 stops and broke up four passes.
Other returning letterwinners in the secondary include senior
Tamir Hill, junior
Keshaun King, junior
Anthany Smith, junior
Dean Sise and sophomore
Demetrius Crosby Jr.
Hill had three tackles in 2019, and has 11 in 17 games of experience. King had six tackles as a sophomore and seven in his 14-game career, and Smith has 27 career tackles in 18 games. Smith played in just three games in 2019 before being lost for the season with an injury. Sise had four tackles in five games played, and Crosby had a pair in five games.
The secondary also includes Arizona State transfer
Ely Doyle, as well as redshirt freshman
Marlon Jones Jr. Doyle played in one game while at ASU, and is a former teammate at Bishop Alemany High School in California with Ojoh.
Sendelbach and Ojoh headline a linebacker corp that includes five returning letterwinners. Sendelbach was second on the team with 94 tackles with three sacks as an 11-game starter in 2019. He enters the 2020-21 season as a sixth-year senior with 36 games of experience (15 starts) and 159 tackles, five sacks, four fumble recoveries and three fumbles forced.
Ojoh began the year as a starter in the first three games but was injured, and played in just one game after that to retain his redshirt status. He had 27 tackles in four games, giving him 150 tackles, 2 1/2 sacks, an interception and three passes broken up in his 30-game career (11 as a starter). He has four performances in his career with at least 10 tackles, and Sendelbach has eight.
Also back at linebacker are a pair of special teams standouts in junior
Cale Lindsay and sophomore
Emmanuel Osuoha. Lindsay had 20 tackles in 2019, giving him 28 in 17 games as an Eagle. Osuoha had seven stops during his freshman season.
Rounding out the linebacker corp is redshirt freshman
Steven Flowers, who had a tackle while playing three games as a true freshman in 2019.
Four other returning lettermen are back for a defensive line which routinely rotates 9-12 players a game. Junior
Caleb Davis has been productive in his first two years in the program with 47 tackles and a pair of sacks in 23 games, including 21 stops and one sack as a sophomore. Sophomore
Joshua Jerome has played in just 15 career games, but already has 41 career tackles with 1 1/2 sacks, with 26 of his tackles and all of his sacks coming in 2019.
Junior
Debore'ae McClain rounds out the returning letterwinners. McClain had 11 tackles in 2019, giving him 21 in 27 career games.
Also back on the defensive line is Warren, who transferred to EWU in 2019 from the University of Washington. He played in EWU's opener against his alma mater in 2019, but missed the rest of the season. In his 31-game career as a Husky, he had nine tackles, 1 1/2 sacks, a forced fumble and caught a 2-yard touchdown pass.
Five redshirt freshmen are also on the roster –
Warren Hardin, Brock Harrison, Jacob Newsom, Soli Paleso'o and
Jacobe Lee. All but Lee played as true freshmen in 2019, with that quartet combining for eight games played. Paleso'o had two tackles in two games played, and Harrison also had a pair in four games worth of action.
More on Eagle Special Teams Players
A year after having new players at each position, this season Eastern has some semblance of experience with sophomore kicker
Seth Harrison, sophomore punter
Nick Kokich and sophomore long snapper
Cody Clements.
As a true freshman, Kokich made his season debut four games into the season and held the punting position the rest of the year. He averaged 39.0 yards in 41 punts in 2019, with 10 downed inside the opponent 20-yard line and a long of 59 to equal the 38th longest in EWU history.
Eastern's kickoff return team suffered a jolt in 2019 when senior Dre'Sonte Dorton was injured and lost for the year at mid-season. However, that provided opportunities for other players who could potentially step into future full-time return roles.
Stell ended up returning four kickoffs for a 20.0 average, and
Marlon Jones Jr. had a pair for 62 yards and a long of 40 during limited action as a true freshman. Weed returned three for 50 yards, and Limu-Jones ended the year with two for 44 yards in EWU's season finale. One game earlier, Grayson returned two for 39 yards. Earlier in the season, Edwards returned three for 41 yards and Smith had a pair for 29.
Eastern used several players as punt returners in 2019, including Criner, Weed and Sampson. Weed has the best return of the year with a 13-yarder to end the season versus Portland State.
Series Notes
* The Vandals re-joined the Big Sky in football in 2018, and Eastern won 38-14 in Cheney in 2018 after leading 31-0 at halftime The last time the former league rivals had met in a Big Sky game was in 1995 when the Vandals prevailed 37-10 and the last time they met in Cheney was 1994. That 2018 game was the first meeting between the two schools since 2012 when Eastern won in Moscow 20-3.
* Since the series started in 1942, Idaho has won 16 of the 23 games played between the two schools, with a pair of five-game winning streaks. The Eagles are 4-9 all-time in Moscow, including a 35-27 loss in 2019 when the Vandals opened a 28-0 lead at halftime. Until 2018, Eastern had never defeated the Vandals in Cheney, losing 28-7 in 1942, 38-21 in 1992 and 40-15 in 1994. Eastern is 2-4 all-time at Albi Stadium in Spokane (1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1997, 1999).
* The two teams played at least once for 17-straight seasons from 1983-1999, but only twice from 2000-2017. The Vandals and Eagles were Big Sky Conference rivals in the 1980's and 1990's before Idaho moved to NCAA Division I-A (now NCAA FBS) in the 1996 season. Eastern was 3-3 versus the Vandals during Idaho's stint as a FBS member. In 1992, Eastern and Idaho shared the Big Sky Conference title. Idaho was a member of the Big West Conference in four meetings versus the Eagles from 1996-99, and the Vandals were a member of the Sun Belt in the 2003 game. The 2012 game came with Idaho as a member of the Western Athletic Conference.
* Starting in 1984, the game was billed as the "Governor's Cup" with a large traveling trophy presented to the victor, and for a time, a bushel of apples and potatoes were wagered between the two governors. The President's Cup was last played between the Vandals and Eagles in 1997, but was rebranded to the Eastern-Montana contest for four seasons after that. In 1998 and 2000, it was called the George Gee Governor's Cup; in 2002 it was the Rockwood Clinic Governor's Cup; and in 2004 it was named the WestCoast Ridpath Hotel Governor's Cup presented by TicketsWest. The first three meetings were at Albi Stadium in Spokane, and the 2004 game was at Woodward Field in Cheney (now Roos Field).
Looking Back . . . Idaho 35, #11 Eastern Washington 27
Idaho used a huge first half performance to take apart a depleted Eastern Washington University defense to defeat the No. 11 Eagles 35-27 in a non-conference football game on Sept. 21, 2019, at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow, Idaho. The Vandals took a 28-0 lead in the first half, accumulating an early 286-24 advantage in total offense. A year earlier, in a 38-14 Eagle romp in Cheney, Wash., Eastern led 31-0 at halftime en route to a third-straight victory over the Vandals. Idaho beat Eastern for the first time since 1999. Eastern rallied to score the first 13 points of the second half on a pair of rushing touchdowns by
Eric Barriere. But Idaho countered with a touchdown of its own to take a 34-13 lead, and EWU couldn't recover onside kicks following its final two scores in the last 3:59 of the game. Eastern's defense was missing three players who had started each of EWU's first three games, and were replaced by players with a combined two career starts. Idaho finished the game with 463 yards, while Eastern's offense, which had four punts and two turnovers in its first six possessions, finished with 460. Idaho rushed for 223 yards compared to 95 for the Eagles. Barriere had just 74 yards at halftime, but finished 28-of-46 for 365 yards, with another 20 on the ground. He led EWU on a 14-play, 75-yard scoring drive to start the second half, then a short 28-yard drive after an interception by senior safety
Dehonta Hayes to cut the lead to 28-13. Barriere later had a 9-yard touchdown pass to
Jayson Williams and another of 30 yards to
Dre' Sonte Dorton. Dorton led Eagle receivers with seven catches for 133 yards, and
Antoine Custer Jr. rushed for a team-leading 59 yards. Hayes finished with a career-high 17 tackles to rank 19th on Eastern's all-time list. Senior defensive end
Jim Townsend also had a career-high with 12 with a sack and one other tackle for loss, and senior defensive tackle
Dylan Ledbetter blocked Idaho field goal attempts in each half. The Vandals converted 10-of-16 third downs compared to just 3-of-12 for the Eagles.
Looking Back . . . #5 Eastern Washington 38, Idaho 31 (10/27/18 in Cheney)
Led by the arm and legs of
Eric Barriere and another stellar effort by its defense, Eastern jumped out to a 31-0 halftime lead and went on to defeat Idaho 38-14 in a Big Sky Conference game Oct. 27, 2018, at Roos Field in Cheney, Wash. Barriere accounted for a what was then career-high 396 yards of total offense – 266 in the first half alone – in Eastern's 92nd-Annual Homecoming Game. Head coach
Aaron Best announced after the game that All-American
Gage Gubrud would be lost for the season with a lower leg injury requiring surgery, meaning Barriere would be the Eagle starter moving forward. Eastern finished with 546 yards off offense in the school's first-ever victory over Idaho in Cheney, having lost three previous meetings at Roos Field (formerly Woodward Field) against the Vandals. The defense did its part by holding Idaho to 363 yards and extended its string of scoreless quarters to five (a total of 89:52) until giving up touchdowns in each of the third and fourth quarters. Eastern had a near-perfect first half, scoring 31 points and having a 364-129 advantage in total offense. Eastern punted on its first possession and Idaho was on a scoring drive when the Eagle defense forced a Vandal turnover. Helped by a solid hit by linebacker
Ketner Kupp, teammate
D'londo Tucker forced and recovered the UI fumble at the EWU 17-yard line. Eastern went on to score on five of its next six possessions to lead 31-0 at halftime. Barriere opened the scoring with a 48-yard touchdown run, and also passed 22 yards to
Henderson Belk and 7 yards to
Dre' Sonte Dorton for scores. Eastern also had a 3-yard TD run by
Tamarick Pierce and a 30-yard field goal by
Roldan Alcobendas, while the defense held the Vandals scoreless on seven possessions in the first half, with no offensive play of longer than 17 yards. In the fourth start of his career, Barriere completed 29-of-42 passes for 326 yards and three touchdowns in his first 300-yard passing performance of his career. He also rushed for 70 yards and a TD, giving him what was then a career-high 396 yards of total offense.
Andrew Boston had a career-high nine catches for the Eagles, good for 49 yards, and
Nsimba Webster added seven receptions for 62 yards.
Antoine Custer Jr. had 44 yards on just five carries for an average of 8.8 yards per rush, and
Sam McPherson added 36 yards on 14 carries. Defensive end
Keenan Williams led the Eagles with six tackles, including one for loss and a half-sack. Alcobendas made a 30-yard field goal, converted all five of his extra point attempts, and punted five times for a 41.2 average with a long of 49 and one punt downed inside the Idaho 20.
Looking Back Further
● In 2012, transfer quarterback Kyle Padron completed 13-of-33 passes for 260 yards and a touchdown in his EWU debut, as the Eagles rode their defense to a 20-3 victory over its former Big Sky Conference rival in the Kibbie Dome. The win over the NCAA Football Bowl Division foe broke a 10-game losing streak against FBS opponents for the Eagles.
● In the 2003 meeting, an 8-5 Eagle victory, Eastern scored its only points on a third-quarter TD pass from Erik Meyer to Joe Pierce, and a two-point conversion pass from Meyer to Reggie Witherspoon. It was the first of 84 TD passes Meyer threw as an Eagle, as he went to win the 2005 Walter Payton Award. Eastern limited the Vandals to 295 yards of total offense and held them scoreless for the final 54 1/2 minutes of the game en route to the gut-wrenching victory. In all, Eastern's defense held Idaho scoreless in its last 11 possessions of the game. Idaho had two fumbles, missed a field goal, punted four times and was 0-of-4 on fourth down conversion attempts.
● Included in EWU's victories was a thrilling, 24-21 win in 1997 en route to a 12-2 finish and "Final Four" appearance in the NCAA Division I-AA Playoffs (now NCAA FCS). Rex Prescott's 3-yard touchdown run with 34 seconds left to play in the game capped a game-winning drive in front of 7,756 fans at Albi Stadium in Spokane. Prescott's run on the four-play, 64-yard drive came after a pair of pass completions of 38 and 23 yards from quarterback Harry Leons to Jeff Ogden. The 1997 team was inducted into the Eastern Athletics Hall of Fame on Oct. 6, 2012.
● Eastern also won in the Kibbie Dome on Nov. 30, 1985, beating the Vandals 42-38 in the NCAA Division I-AA Playoffs (now NCAA FCS) after getting thumped earlier in the year in Moscow, 42-21. Gambles that went Eastern's way -- including a fake punt, a lateral on a kickoff return and onside kickoffs in
both the second and third quarters -- helped keep the Eagles in the game. But things looked dim for the Eagles, who were coached by Dick Zornes, when they trailed by three and faced a third-and-10 at their own 10-yard line with less than a minute left. However, a 73-yard screen pass from Rick Worman to Jamie Townsend set-up Worman's game-winning 17-yard touchdown pass to Eric Riley with 12 seconds to play. It was the last game before Idaho head coach Dennis Erickson departed for Wyoming. He would go on to coach at Washington State, Miami and Oregon State, then return to Idaho in 2006, and conclude his collegiate head coaching career at Arizona State. He also was head coach in the NFL with the Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers.
More Team Notes
League Schedules in 2021 Revert Back to 2020
The best-ever home schedule is school history is back. Continuing the twists and turns created by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Big Sky Conference announced Feb. 17 that the league's league football schedule in the fall of 2021 will revert back to the 2020 schedules for all teams, meaning Eagle fans will be extremely happy.
Eastern will now host Big Sky home games against the top three favorites of Eagle fans – Montana (Oct. 2), Idaho (Oct. 16) and Montana State (Nov. 6). The Eagles will also host reigning two-time league champion Weber State (Oct. 23) in a league counter.
Hosting Idaho, Montana and Montana State in the same year will be the first time in EWU history that will have taken place. Eastern will play road contests at Southern Utah (Sept. 25), Northern Colorado (Oct. 9), UC Davis (Nov. 13) and Portland State (Nov. 20).
Eastern originally announced the completion of its 2021 schedule back on Dec. 22, with the league games based previously on the announcement by the league in May 2019 of schedules from 2020 through 2023. But since then, Southern Utah announced it was leaving the conference, and that precipitated the change to revert back to the 2020 schedule for 2021. Schedules for 2022 and beyond will now be revised.
Eastern's 2021 non-conference schedule will remain the same. The Eagles will host Central Washington on Sept. 11, 2021, at Roos Field in Cheney, Wash.. Eastern will also play first-ever non-conference meetings on the road versus UNLV on Thursday, Sept. 2, and at Western Illinois on Sept. 18.
Season ticket renewals for the fall 2021 season will begin in March, followed by sales to the general public. More information will be provided at a later date.
The 2020-23 schedules announced in May 2019 after the addition of Idaho to the league had had all 13 Big Sky teams playing eight conference games with four at home and four on the road. Each team would have two "rivals" it will play each season, and EWU's would be Idaho and Portland State. Over the course of the four years, each Big Sky team was scheduled to play each other a minimum of two times.
Montana, EWU's former rival prior to the return of Idaho, was in the rotation with the other 10 league schools. Thus, EWU was scheduled to host Montana just once in that four-year span (on Oct. 3, 2020), while going to UM on Oct. 8, 2022, and not playing the Griz in both 2021 and 2023. Under the previous schedules, EWU would have played Montana at Roos Field just once in a seven-year span from 2017 to 2023 – and that would have occurred in 2020. Eastern also was scheduled to host Montana State in 2020 and 2023 and play in Bozeman in 2021, but was not scheduled to play the Bobcats in the 2022 season.
The 2021 schedule would have had Eastern's league schedule beginning on Sept. 25 versus Portland State, and would have also included home games against Southern Utah (Oct. 16), Sacramento State (Nov. 6) and Idaho State (Nov. 20). The four conference games on the road for EWU would have been at Montana State (Oct. 9), Cal Poly (Oct. 23), Idaho (Oct. 30) and Northern Arizona (Nov. 13).
2021 Schedule
Date - Opponent - Site - Series/Streak
Sept. 2 (Thursday) - at UNLV - Las Vegas, Nev. (Allegiant St.) - First Meeting
Sept. 11 - Central Washington - Cheney, Wash. - EWU 35-30-4/+2
Sept. 18 - at Western Illinois - Macomb, Ill. - First Meeting
Sept. 25
- at Southern Utah* - Cedar City, Utah - TBA - EWU 7-3/+1
Oct. 2 - Montana* - Cheney, Wash. - UM 28-17-1/-1
Oct. 9 - at Northern Colorado* - Greeley, Colo. - EWU 13-1/+12
Oct. 16 - Idaho* - Cheney, Wash. - UI 16-7/-1
Oct. 23 - Weber State* - Cheney, Wash. - EWU 19-16/-2
Oct. 30 - Bye
Nov. 6 - Montana State* - Cheney, Wash. - EWU 32-10/+7
Nov. 13 - at UC Davis* - Davis, Calif. - EWU 8-0/+8
Nov. 20 - at Portland State* - Hillsboro, Ore. - EWU 21-20-1/+4
*Big Sky Conference Game.
More on the Fall 2021 Non-Conference Opponents
Eastern Washington University will visit Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2021 when the Eagle football team plays at the UNLV on Thursday, Sept. 2, 2021 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Allegiant Stadium is located on about 62 acres of land west of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Interstate 15. Construction on the new domed stadium began on Nov. 13, 2017, and seats 65,000 people for football. It serves as the home stadium for the National Football League's Las Vegas Raiders, as well as UNLV. It is scheduled to host the Pac-12 Conference Championship games in 2021 (it was also scheduled to be there in 2020 but moved to the Los Angeles Coliseum), the NFL Pro Bowl in 2021 and the annual Las Vegas Bowl college game. The Raiders beat New Orleans on Sept. 21, 2020, in the first football game played in the stadium. The first college game was UNLV's loss to the rival Nevada Wolf Pack on Oct. 31, 2020.
The Rebels are a member of the Mountain West Conference and the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision. Eastern is 8-24 all-time against current members of the league, with 24 of those meetings coming versus former Big Sky Conference rivals Boise State and UNR (Nevada Reno).
Besides UNLV, Eastern has never played Mountain West members Colorado State, Hawaii, New Mexico, Wyoming and Fresno State. However, Eastern recently announced a game versus Fresno State scheduled for Sept. 9, 2023. The last time EWU played a team from that league came in 2010 when Eastern lost at UNR 49-24, but then won 13 of its last 14 to claim the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision title.
Although Eastern is 8-24 overall versus the league, just six of them (2-6 record) have come versus members of the FBS. Eastern is 6-13 overall versus Boise State, but 1-2 since it moved to FBS in the mid-1990's. Nevada also left the Big Sky at that time, and EWU 1-7 versus UNR prior to that (1-8 overall). Eastern also lost to San Diego State in 2003, Air Force in 2004 and San Jose State in 2005, and defeated Utah State in 1994.
The Rebels completed the abbreviated 2020 season 0-6 – all Mountain West games -- and had two games canceled because of the pandemic. All three of their home games were played in Allegiant Stadium. They were 4-8 overall in 2019, including a season-opening 56-23 victory over Southern Utah of the Big Sky. UNLV was 2-6 in the Mountain West, and ended the season with victories over San Jose State (38-35) and UNR (33-30 in overtime).
Central Washington and Eastern were fierce rivals in the NAIA and Evergreen Conference prior to EWU becoming a member of NCAA Division I and the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (formerly known as I-AA) in 1984. The Wildcats are now in NCAA Division II and a member of the Great Northwest Conference.
Eastern leads the all-time series 35-30-4, including a 10 victories in the last 11 meetings since 1978. Eastern is 7-1 versus the Wildcats since EWU moved to FCS, with Central beating Eastern in Cheney 21-14 in 2006. Eastern has won the two meetings since then – 35-32 in 2010 at Qwest Field (now Lumen Field) in Seattle, and 58-13 in 2018 in Cheney.
The Wildcats did not play in fall of 2020, but are scheduled to play at Montana on April 10, 2021. Central ended the 2019 season with a six-game winning streak and finished 7-4 overall and 5-1 in the GNAC. The Wildcats opened the season with a 41-31 loss at Idaho, and their lone GNAC loss was 36-26 to Eastern Oregon.
Eastern will also play its first-ever game against Western Illinois of the Missouri Valley Conference, with the game played Sept. 18 in Macomb, Ill. Eastern was scheduled to play the Leathernecks at Roos Field in the fall of 2020, but the game was postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic and has yet to be re-scheduled.
Entering 2021, Eastern is 10-14 all-time versus current members of the Missouri Valley Conference, having also not played Indiana State and Missouri State. Five of those victories (and no losses) came versus North Dakota when it was a member of the Big Sky Conference. Eastern is 1-3 versus North Dakota State, which has won eight of the last nine titles in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision.
Eastern's last game versus a MVC foe was a 38-24 loss to NDSU on Jan. 5, 2019, in the 2018 NCAA Division I Championship Game. Eastern did beat North Dakota 35-20 on Sept. 28, 2019, in the final Big Sky match-up between the two schools.
Like Eastern, the Leathernecks did not play in the fall of 2020. But they will begin an eight-game league-only schedule on Friday, Feb. 27.
Eagles Continue Big Sky Success With Impressive Consistency
Consistency has been a cornerstone of EWU Football, and the Eagles have cemented a 16-year run of winning the league title and/or advancing to the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs at least every other year. Since 2004, Eastern has advanced to the playoffs and/or won the league title at least every other year, and hasn't had back-back-empty seasons since 2002 and 2003.
In 2018, Eastern secured its 10th Big Sky title and 13th appearance in the FCS Playoffs in what is now 36 years as a member of the FCS (formerly I-AA). Since 2010 when EWU won the NCAA Division I title, the Eagles have won league titles six times (2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2018) and advanced to the playoffs all six of those seasons. From 2004 to 2009 Eastern advanced to the playoffs four times (2004, 2005, 2007, 2009), and won the league title twice (2004, 2005). Eastern has three other playoff berths in school history (1985, 1992, 1997) and two other titles (1992, 1997), and has only had two multi-year stretches in which they accomplished neither. Those were both six-year stretches from between 1986-1991 and 1998-2003.
The Eagles have been impressive – if not dominant – in the league in the last 13 years (2007-2019), winning 80 percent of their games (83-21) and six titles. In that span, Eastern has had no league finish below 5-3 and five of them have included 7-1 or 8-0 records.
Eagles Denied a Berth into NCAA FCS Playoffs
Unfortunately for the Eastern Washington University football team, a deep tradition in the postseason and overall in this decade didn't translate to a berth in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Playoff when bids were handed out on Nov. 24, 2919.
Eastern finished 7-5 overall and 6-2 in the Big Sky Conference to finish in a three-way tie for third with two other league schools who were selected among the top six seeds in the 24-team tourney. Big Sky co-champions Weber State and Sacramento State earned the No. 3 and 4 seeds, respectively, after finishing 7-1 in the league, while fifth-seeded Montana State and No. 6 Montana joined EWU with 6-2 records in the league. North Dakota, a team EWU defeated 35-20 on Sept. 28, received one of 14 at-large berths. Eastern was 0-2 versus other teams who made the bracket (losses to Sacramento State and Montana).
Nevertheless, Eastern can take solace in that it finished the regular season with the third-most wins in this decade (2010-19) with 97 victories, and its winning percentage of .735 (97-35) is fifth-best among 124 schools currently in FCS. Moreover, the Eagles still rank 12th overall in FCS playoff berths with 13, and currently have the 10th-most victories (19) and the seventh-best percentage (.612, 19-12). Eastern has 10 playoff berths in a 16-year span (2004-19), ranking the Eagles as one of only six schools among 124 in FCS to accomplish that feat.
Winningest Current FCS Teams from 2010-19
By percentage . . . 1. North Dakota State .913 (137-13); 2. Kennesaw State .762 (48-15); 3. San Diego .741 (86-30); 4. Harvard .740 (74-26);
5. Eastern Washington .735 (97-35); 6. James Madison .733 (96-35); 7. Jacksonville State .7280 (91-34); 8. Sam Houston State .7279 (99-37); 9. Dartmouth .700 (70-30); 10. Bethune-Cookman .690 (78-35); 11. North Carolina A&T .687 (79-36); 12. Dayton .676 (75-36); 13. Central Arkansas .667 (80-40); 14. Wofford .650 (80-43); 15. South Dakota State .648 (83-45); 16. McNeese State .646 (73-40); 17. Montana .642 (79-44); 18. Illinois State .634 (78-45); 19. Duquesne .632 (72-42); 20. Montana State .629 (78-46).
By victories . . . 1. North Dakota State 137; 2. Sam Houston State 99;
3. Eastern Washington 97; 4. James Madison 96; 5. Jacksonville State 91; 6. San Diego 86; 7. South Dakota State 83; 8. New Hampshire, Central Arkansas & Wofford 80; 11. Montana & North Carolina A&T 79; 12. Montana State, Illinois State & Bethune-Cookman 78; 16. Northern Iowa 77; 17. Dayton 75; 18. Harvard 74; 19. McNeese State 73; 20. Duquesne 72.
Eagles Now 57-10 on the Red Turf with Record 14-Game Winning Streak
Having won all five of its regular season home games in 2019 and all eight in 2018, Eastern will enter the 2020-21 season with a school-record 14-straight wins at Roos Field in the 2019 season. Eastern is now 57-10 (85.1 percent) overall at "The Inferno" since 2010. The stadium has been known as Roos Field since 2010 when a new red synthetic Sprinturf surface made its debut. Eastern's last home loss came on Nov. 4, 2017, versus Weber State.
At its current site, the previous school record was 11 consecutive home wins set between 9/16/78 and 9/27/80 (between losses was from 11/19/77 to 11/1/80). Overall, the school record is 21 set from 1935-40. Eastern had a nine-game winning streak snapped in a 36-21 loss to Montana State on Sept. 24, 2011. The Eagles also had a nine-game winning streak at that venue snapped against Sacramento State on Oct. 21, 2000, when the Hornets made a 23-yard field goal with no time remaining.
Eastern has lost just six regular season games at "The Inferno" – 44-6 (88.0 percent), plus are 13-4 (76.5 percent) in playoff games. The only regular season losses at home for EWU since 2010 are to conference foes Montana State (2011), Portland State (2011 and 2015), Northern Arizona (2015) and Weber State (2017), as well as North Dakota State (2017).
Eastern finished a perfect 8-0 in its debut season at "The Inferno," including three playoff victories. Eastern has won 85.1 percent of its games since the red turf was installed in 2010 – including a 4-0 record versus rival Montana.
The North Dakota State game on Sept. 9, 2017, was the 50th at Roos Field since the red turf surface was installed in 2010. In 2016, Eastern finished 7-1 in the 50th season of football at EWU's current stadium location, which opened in 1967. Eastern has a 170-65 record (72.3 percent) in 235 games at Roos Field (formerly Woodward Field) since 1967, with the Eagles utilizing Joe Albi Stadium in Spokane as the school's main home field from 1983-89.
Eagles Averaged 609 Yards and Outscored Opponents 267-156 at Roos Field
If only every game could be played at "The Inferno." Eastern averaged 609.6 yards of offense and 53.4 points per game in five games at Roos Field in the 2019 season, while defensively allowing 430.4 yards and 31.2 points. Eastern was quite impressive in the first half, out-scoring opponents 167-65 with advantages of 79-28 in the first quarter and 88-37 in the second period. On Oct. 12 versus Northern Colorado, EWU led 40-0 at intermission.
Quarterback
Eric Barriere, who is a perfect 11-0 in his career as a starter at Roos Field, completed 62.6 percent of his passes and had an efficiency rating of 176.32 in those four games. He passed for 1,687 yards and had 16 touchdown passes with no interceptions. He also rushed for an additional 234 yards and four scores for an average of 384.2 yards of total offense, while running back
Antoine Custer Jr. totaled 606 yards on the ground with nine scores.
Defensively,
Dehonta Hayes had 45 tackles and an interception at home in 2019, and fellow safety
Calin Criner had 31 with a pair of picks. Linebacker
Jack Sendelbach added 38 tackles and a pair of sacks. Eastern had 11 sacks at home, compared to just seven in seven road contests. The Eagles also had an 14-3 advantage in turnovers forced on the red turf, but away from home had 10 turnovers while forcing eight.
Eastern Leads FCS in Total Offense for Third Time
Eastern closed the 2019 season with the best offense in FCS, finishing at 524.8 yards per game. Eastern also ended the regular season second in scoring (40.6), fifth in passing (317.1) and eighth in turnover margin (+0.92 per game). The Eagles also ranked 19th in rushing at 207.8 yards per game, and were the only team in FCS to rank in the top 24 in total offense, rushing and passing.
In EWU's last 16 seasons (2004-2019), EWU has ranked in the top 10 in passing 13 times, total offense on 12 occasions and scoring seven times. In school history, EWU has won a trio of FCS titles for total offense (2019, 2001, 1997), as well as three passing offense titles (2016, 2015, 2011) and two for scoring offense (2014, 2001).
Junior quarterback
Eric Barriere was second in total offense with an average of 355.8 yards per game (E.J. Perry of Brown is at 367.8). Barriere was third in passing (309.3, with Northern Arizona's Case Cookus leading the Big Sky and the nation at 342.8) and was eighth with 31 touchdown passes and fourth in points responsible for (20.2 per game with 31 TDs passing, eight rushing and a two-point conversion).
Senior running back
Antoine Custer Jr. finished 15th in rushing (102.3), 12th in total rushing yards (1,228) and 11th in rushing touchdowns (16). Custer finished the year with six 100-yard performances – including his last four games.
On a balanced receiving corp, junior
Talolo Limu-Jones was 63rd with seven touchdown catches and his average of 24.04 per catch (second in school history behind the record of 25.8) closed the year second behind the 24.49 average of Isaiah Weston of Northern Iowa. Jones has 42 career catches for 841 yards and 11 touchdowns – an average of 20.0 per reception in his career (currently second in school history behind the record of 22.8) and a TD every 3.8 catches.
In addition,
Andrew Boston was 79th in receptions per game (4.5 with a total of 50) and 76th in receiving yards per game (66.4 with a total of 730).
Dehonta Hayes was 18th in tackles (9.6 per game; 115 total). Redshirt freshman
Seth Harrison ended the season first in field goal percentage, with a perfect 12-of-12 performance. He was the only kicker in FCS with at least one field goal attempt per game to make all of his field goals in 2019. He was 29th in field goals with an average of 1.09 per game).
Eastern had 2,450 yards of offense in the last four games of the season (612.5 per game) to take over the lead and maintain it. Eastern closed the year with 559 yards against Portland State on Nov. 23 and 496 at Cal Poly on Nov. 16. But the Eagles had 706 versus Northern Arizona on Nov. 2 to rank fifth in school history, and 689 at Idaho State on Nov. 9 to rank seventh all-time. Eastern has also had a school-record 769 in 2019 versus Lindenwood, and 637 against Northern Colorado on Oct. 12 to rank as the 19th most in EWU history.
In some of the more key categories, EWU finished 27th in FCS in third down conversions (42.4 percent) and 13th in red zone scoring (89.1 percent). Defensively, Eastern was 74th in third down conversions (40.5 percent) and 68th in red zone scoring (81.8 percent). They were also 83rd in rushing defense (179.1), 112th in passing defense (266.3), 104th in total defense (445.4) and 97th in scoring defense (34.6) among 124 FCS schools. In addition, Eastern was eighth in turnover margin (plus 0.92 per game), with 24 takeaways (22nd) and 13 giveaways (13th).
Eagles Extend Record String of Winning Seasons to 13
With a 7-5 finish in the 2019 season, Eastern has now had 22 winning seasons in the last 24 years (1996-2019), including a current school record string of 13-straight (2007-19) and another stretch of seven straight (1999-2005). The last time Eastern had that many winning seasons in a row came 75 years earlier in the Red Reese era when Eastern had a string of 11-straight winning seasons from 1931-1941. Since 1996, the only losing seasons for the Eagles came in 1998 under Mike Kramer (5-6) and 2006 under Paul Wulff (3-8).
Eagles Have Impressive 59-11 Big Sky Record Since 0-2 Start in 2011
The Eagles have won 59 of their last 70 Big Sky games since a 0-2 start in 2011. Included are current stretches of 49 victories in the last 58 games (including two at the end of the 2012 season) and 27 of the last 32 (since 2016).
Including three wins at the end of the 2009 season, Eastern has a 69-14 record in league games since then. Including four non-conference victories (two versus MSU, and one each against Cal Poly and Northern Arizona), two playoff wins (Montana and UC Davis) and one loss (Idaho), the Eagles are 65-12 since the 0-2 start in 2011 and 55-9 since winning the last two games at the end of the 2012 campaign.
At one point the Eagles had won 44 of 50 league games, and the only Big Sky school which has come close to that in the 56-year history of the league was Montana, which won 50 of 55 games from 1995-2002 and 46 of 51 from 2003-2009.
What is perhaps most impressive is Eastern's ability to consistently win on the road versus conference foes, with records of 25-7 on the road, 29-3 at home and 54-10 overall in the last eight seasons since 2012. Since then, Eastern has defeated every Big Sky team on the road at least once, including former Big Sky member North Dakota and a 2012 non-league road victory at Idaho, which re-joined the league in 2018. Until losing at Southern Utah in October of 2017, the Eagles had won their previous road game versus all 13 other league members.
Eagles Play 1,000th Game in School History
Eastern beat North Dakota 35-20 on Sept. 28 on Hall of Fame Day at EWU, but it was also Eastern's 1,000th football game in school history. Now in its 112th season in program history in the 2020-21 season, Eastern has played 1007 games and has 560 wins, 424 losses and 23 ties for a .568 winning percentage since 1901. The Eagles are in their 37th season as a member of the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA) and 34th season as a member of the Big Sky Conference in 2020-21.
Eastern Now 55-0 Since 2010 When Winning the TO Battle
In the last 12 seasons (2008-19), the Eagles are now 64-1 when they've won the turnover battle, 24-9 when they've been tied and 23-33 when they've lost (total of 111-43). The last time EWU lost a game when it won the turnover battle came in the 2009 FCS Playoffs at Stephen F. Austin when EWU had two miscues and forced four in the 44-33 loss.
Thus, EWU is 55-0 since 2010 when they've won the turnover battle, 21-9 when they've been tied and 21-26 when they've lost. That's a collective record of 97-35 (73.5 percent), with 26 of those 35 losses (74 percent) coming in games EWU has lost the turnover battle and 57 percent of EWU's wins coming when they've won the turnover battle (78 percent when including ties).
Eastern finished the 2019 season seventh in turnover margin (plus 0.92 per game), with 24 takeaways (15th) and 13 giveaways (17th). Neither team had a turnover in the first game of the season between EWU and Washington, then EWU lost the battle versus Lindenwood 2-1 and tied Jacksonville State 2-2. Eastern lost by another 2-1 margin at Idaho, but swung the tide by winning 6-0 versus North Dakota. Eastern was tied 2-2 versus Sacramento State, won 2-1 versus Northern Colorado, tied 1-1 against Montana and won 2-0 against Northern Arizona. In a game in which EWU had to settle for field goals three times in the red zone and converted 43 percent on third down, Eastern's 3-0 turnover advantage led to a 48-5 win against Idaho State on Nov. 9. Eastern lost the turnover battle at Cal Poly 3-1 on Nov. 16, but won the game 42-41. Eastern was 3-0 in turnovers in a season-ending 53-46 win over Portland State on Nov. 23. In 2019, Eastern was 5-0 when it has won the turnover battle, 2-2 when it has more turnovers and 0-3 when tied.
In the final 12 games of the 2018 season, Eastern had a plus-16 turnover advantage (32 takeaways and 16 giveaways), but in the first three the Eagles were a negative six (two takeaways and eight giveaways). For the season, Eastern was second in turnovers gained with 34, was third with 22 interceptions and ranked 16th overall in turnover margin (34 takeaways, 24 giveaways, +0.67 per game).
In 2018, Eastern was 9-0 it when it won the turnover battle, 1-3 when it had more turnovers and 2-0 when tied. In 2017, EWU was 3-0 when it won the turnover battle, 3-3 when it lost and 1-1 when it was tied. Eastern finished the 2017 season at minus 10 turnovers for the season, ranking EWU 105th out of 123 FCS schools in turnover margin (-0.91 per game), 90th in turnovers lost (23) and 105th in turnovers gained (13).
Previous Game Recap
Eastern Extends Streaks in 53-46 Win Over Portland State
Senior Day for
Antoine Custer Jr. was a memorable experience. The senior running back from Berkeley, Calif., had a career-high 218 yards rushing to help Eastern to its 13th-straight winning season and remain unbeaten at home with a 53-46 victory over Portland State on Nov. 23 at Roos Field in Cheney, Wash. Finishing the regular season 7-5 overall and 6-2 in the Big Sky, EWU closed with its fourth-straight victory – the team's only multiple game winning streak of the season. EWU has a current school-record 14-game winning streak at "The Inferno," with Eastern going a perfect 5-0 at home and 2-5 on the road in 2019. Eastern scored 28 unanswered points spanning halftime to break it open from a 17-all tie. Portland State rallied to pull within a single score in the fourth quarter, but Eastern senior wide receiver
Jayson Williams recovered an onside kick with two minutes left and EWU was able to run out the clock. Custer averaged 13.6 yards per carry, and scored on runs of 29 and 2 yards. He had an 88-yard non-scoring rush, and finished with the 15th-most yards in school history. He finished the regular season with 1,228 yards for eighth all-time at EWU and his 3,045 career yards are fourth. Quarterback
Eric Barriere passed for 260 yards and rushed for 23 in the win, passing for three and scoring another on a 10-yard rush. Redshirt freshman
Freddie Roberson had his first 100-yard receiving performance as an Eagle with four catches for 104 yards. Senior
Andrew Katzenberger had a team-high 14 tackles, with senior
Jack Sendelbach and junior
Kedrick Johnson finishing with 10 apiece. Eastern scored 14 of its points in the first half off a pair of interceptions. The Eagles took a 17-7 lead in the first quarter on a 10-yard run by Barriere after the first career interception for senior
Tysen Prunty. In the second quarter after PSU knotted the score at 17, an interception by redshirt freshman
Tre Weed led to a 29-yard touchdown run by Custer. Weed originally returned the pick 33 yards for a TD, but a penalty shortened the penalty. That started the run of 28-straight points for the Eagles. A strategic EWU timeout late in the first half helped Eastern get the ball back with 2:31 to play. But the Eagles only needed 1:12 to go 88 yards on four plays, with sophomore
Andrew Boston scoring on a 14-yard pass from Barriere and giving EWU a 30-17 halftime lead. Barriere had passes on the drive of 33 yards to Boston, 24 to Williams and 22 to Roberson. Eastern then scored the first two times it had the ball in the second half, including drives of 90 yards and 56. Custer scored on a 2-yard run after his 88-yarder, and then
Tamarick Pierce caught a 4-yard TD pass from Barriere. Eastern added an insurance TD in the fourth quarter on a 2-yard run by Pierce, who finished with 54 yards in just his fourth game played in 2019, ensuring he can still redshirt and return in 2020.
On Needed Improvements From 2019: "We needed to learn how to play better team football more consistently, and we lacked that at times. There were games where we played the best football I've ever seen in all my years as a part of this football program. But at other times we played some of the worst ball I've ever seen. Luck and the injury bug sometimes gets involved, but you have to be more consistent in league or non-league. You can't get too high and you can't get too low."
On Keys to Success: "It starts with turnovers, then it's third down conversion percentage and red zone. You have to move the sticks to get to the red zone, and those are the three things we've hammered home these past few years. We have to be better in those three areas than our opponent."
On Replacing Four Starters on the Offensive Line: "We lost some offensive linemen who started a lot and played a lot of football in the past few years. It's always exciting, refreshing and difficult to put new players in those positions that have never really played college football. We are putting them in an impactful game setting and will be forced to play 75, 80 snaps – they haven't done that in their careers thus far."
On Cornerback Experience: "The cornerback position was very young and green in 2019. We lost four seniors after the 2018 campaign, so all the guys who saw action in 2019 really hadn't played before. It was hard to watch early and we weren't as good as we knew we would be. But we had guys step-up, including
Tre Weed who earned freshman All-America honors after being moved from safety to corner. We're excited to see that group as a whole go from year one to year two, and see how much progress they've made. We want to see what kind of production and competition they've gained."
On Eric Barriere: ""The quarterback is the linchpin of the team. No matter what you run, the quarterback is the player you really rely on. It is settling to have back such a dynamic quarterback like Eric. This will essentially be his third year as a starter, so we're expecting huge things out of him for sure. Eric is one of the most electrifying playmakers I have witnessed play in person. He made a huge jump in touchdown-to-interception ratio in 2019, which in turn made him that much harder to defend. I expect his senior season to be even better. He is certainly one of the best players in this league and at this level. I can't wait to see what is in store. "He's highly-respected, and, on top of that, he's made a lot of progress. He's stayed consistent and really cut down on his turnovers in 2019. That was something he really wanted to do and he did it, and now he has to build on that."
On Andrew Boston: "Andrew is a film junky and he absolutely gives all he has on Saturday. He will strive for more in the future and the best version of 'Boss' is yet to come. He followed up a productive freshman year with a solid sophomore campaign."
On Tristen Taylor: "Tristan is a tough-minded and gritty player. He had a brilliant bounce-back season coming off an injury in 2018. He's a physical player who still has room to grow and lead as a player, and with time to accomplish those tasks. Tristen becomes our bell cow up front. He's played a lot of football and we're excited about his ability to play multiple positions. He's capable of playing all three positions, so we'll rely on him heavily."
On Other Offensive Linemen: "
Matt Shook is coming off an injury from the 2018 season and early in the fall of 2019, and we're excited to get him back. He's played enough ball for us in the past to get a great evaluation on him.
Wyatt Musser played a bit in 2019 and rotated in with
Will Gram, and this season we'll lean on him for more reps than he had that year. There is some experience, but we want to build on that experience and continue to build competitive depth up front."
On Seth Harrison: "Seth started the season as a backup and ended as the guy at our kicker position. He followed our perfect 2018 season kicking field goals with one of his own. We're excited to see him continue to grow and compete for more."
2019 Recap
It was a roller-coaster kind of year in the 2019 season for Eastern, but there was so much to be proud of.
Although denied what could have been a 14th berth in the NCAA Football Championship Playoffs, the Eagles still finished the season as the champions in FCS in total offense, averaging 524.8 yards per game. Eastern also closed with its 13th-straight winning season and went undefeated at home on the red turf at Roos Field for the second-straight year.
Eastern finished 7-5 overall and 6-2 in the Big Sky Conference to finish in a three-way tie for third with two other league schools who were selected among the top six seeds in the 24-team playoffs. Big Sky co-champions Weber State and Sacramento State earned the No. 3 and 4 seeds, respectively, after finishing 7-1 in the league, while fifth-seeded Montana State and No. 6 Montana joined EWU with 6-2 records in the Big Sky.
Eastern started the season 1-3 and lost its first five road games. However, the Eagles finished a perfect 5-0 at home to extend its school-record winning streak at Roos Field to 14 games. Eastern won its last two road contests to finish the 2019 season with a four-game winning streak.
Eastern finished the 2019 season with the best offense in FCS, finishing at 524.8 yards per game. Eastern also ended the year second in scoring (40.6), fifth in passing (317.1) and eighth in turnover margin (+0.92 per game). The Eagles also ranked 19th in rushing at 207.8 yards per game, and were the only team in FCS to rank in the top 24 in total offense, rushing and passing.
Individually, senior running back
Antoine Custer Jr. finished the season with the eighth-best rushing total in school history with 1,228 yards and scored 16 touchdowns to rank fourth. He finished his 47-game career with 3,045 yards to rank fourth and 39 touchdowns to rank second. He had the 18th performance in school history with at least 1,000 yards on the ground, and became just the fourth player to hit 3,000 yards in his career. Custer ended the season ranked 15th in FCS in rushing (102.3 per game), 12th in total rushing yards (1,228) and 12th in rushing touchdowns (16). In Big Sky games only, he led the league with 914 yards.
Quarterback
Eric Barriere finished his junior season with 239 passes without an interception, setting the school's single season record for interceptions-to-attempts ratio. He had only four picks in 438 attempts, a miniscule average of .009 per attempt compared to the previous record of .010 set by Erik Meyer in 2005 (five interceptions in 410 attempts). His last interception came on his 14th attempt at Sacramento State on Oct. 5, 2019.
Barriere finished with the seventh-most passing yards in school history with 3,712, and his 31 touchdown passes is eighth. Including 558 rushing yards, his 4,270 yards of total offense were the third-most all-time at EWU. He'll enter his senior season with 6,300 passing yards (seventh) and 56 touchdowns (sixth), with 7,519 yards of total offense (sixth) and 73 TDs responsible for (sixth).
He closed 2019 second in total offense in FCS with an average of 355.8 yards per game, ranking only behind E.J. Perry of Brown at 367.8. He was also third in passing (309.3), eighth in passing touchdowns (31) and fourth in points responsible for (20.2 per game).
Eastern leaned on an offensive line which finished the 2019 season with 181 starts and 233 games played between them. Senior offensive tackle
Chris Schlichting started in each of EWU's 52 games in his four seasons for the Eagles, equaling the school record originally set by Cooper Kupp (now with the Los Angeles Rams) from 2013-16.
Spencer Blackburn finished his career with a streak of 49 consecutive starts (51 total games);
Tristen Taylor has started all 40 games he played thus far in his career;
Kaleb Levao had 30 starts and 51 total games; and
Will Gram had 10 starts and 39 games played.
Eastern has a current school-record 14-game winning streak at "The Inferno," finishing a perfect 5-0 at home and 2-5 on the road in 2019. By winning its last four games, Eastern still hasn't had a losing season since 2006 when the Eagles were 3-8.
A week after snapping a five-game losing streak on the road with a 48-5 triumph at Idaho State, Eastern won at Cal Poly on Nov. 16 by a 42-41 score to extend EWU's streak of 26-straight seasons with at least two wins away from Roos Field/. The ISU win on Nov. 9 extended EWU's current streak of seasons with at least one road win to 51.
Eastern honored 19 seniors in its season-ending 53-46 home win over Portland State, including a trio (Taylor, and linebacker
Jack Sendelbach and running back
Dennis Merritt) who received a sixth year to complete four years of eligibility at EWU and return in 2020-21. One senior redshirted (
Tamarick Pierce) and one (
Jusstis Warren) elected not to take part in the pre-game introductions because of his intention to apply for a sixth year (which he received).
Together, those seniors helped Eastern go 38-14 overall (73.1 percent) and 27-5 (84.4 percent) in Big Sky Conference play in the last four seasons. After the PSU game, those 17 seniors (not including Taylor, Sendelbach, Merritt or Warren) combined for 684 games played and 308 total starts in their careers. One of them, defensive end
Darnell Hogan, made the second start of his career versus the Vikings.
Eastern's particularly large group of 27 seniors honored in 2018 was reduced to 25 when Blackburn and Levao each received a sixth year to complete four years of eligibility at EWU.
