The reigning Big Sky Conference Offensive MVP has been picked to defend his honor for the second-straight season. Eastern Washington University quarterback Eric Barriere has been voted the Big Sky Preseason Offensive MVP, the league office announced as part of the Big Sky Kickoff on Sunday evening (July 25).
 
Barriere, who will use his extra year of eligibility from the COVID-19 pandemic this fall, enters his senior season with the Eagles. He hails from Inglewood, Calif., where he graduated from La Habra High School in 2016. In his illustrious career for the Eagles, he is 20-9 as a starter with an unblemished 13-0 record at home. He has racked up 10,102 yards of total offense in his career, including 8,739 through the air.

"This is an incredible preseason honor for Eric. The film doesn't lie, Eric is so special on so many levels," said head coach Aaron Best. "Every day is a new day for Eric to compete at perfecting his craft, and we can't wait to see the script he will write this fall. Congrats, E!"
 
Last season, he was picked as the preseason Big Sky Offensive MVP and went on to earn the Big Sky Offensive Player of the Year honor at the end of the season, as well as being unanimously named to the first team. Additionally, Barriere finished runner-up in voting for the prestigious Walter Payton Award and was honored as a first team All-American by six different organizations at the end of the season. He was also named the FCS Offensive Player of the Year by the FCS ADA.
 
Barriere passed for at least 300 yards in five of six regular games during the unique 2021 spring season, and had at least 400 yards of total offense in three of them. He finished ranked in the top 10 in the FCS in total offense (fifth, 369.0 per game), passing offense (fifth, 348.4), passing touchdowns (third, 19) and points responsible for (ninth, 17.4 per game). He completed 61.8 percent of his passes for 2,439 yards, 19 touchdowns and 2,583 total yards of offense. Twice he directed game-tying and game-winning scoring drives in the fourth quarter for EWU.
 
Idaho's Tre Walker earned the league's Preseason Defensive MVP honor. Barriere's honor was announced as part of the 2021 Big Sky Conference Football Kickoff which is taking place in Spokane, Wash., this weekend at the Davenport Grand Hotel. Tomorrow (July 26) fans can tune in to ESPN+ to hear from Coach Best, Barriere and senior linebacker Jack Sendelbach at 2 p.m. Pacific time.
 
More on Eric Barriere:
 
In his illustrious 38-game career, Barriere is now 20-9 as a starter, including 13-0 at home. He went over the 10,000-yard mark for total offense in his career with a current total of 10,102 – including 8,739 through the air. He ranks fifth in school history in both categories, as well as his career total of 75 TD passes. He's now fourth with 93 total touchdowns responsible for. Eastern career records in those categories are 13,308, 12,616, 110 and 121. Barriere has completed 60.3 percent of his passes in his career (646-of-1071), good for 8,739 yards, 75 touchdowns and 21 interceptions, and has rushed 287 times for 1,363 net yards and 18 more TDs. He had a passing efficiency rating of 146.9 as a sophomore, 151.6 in 2019 and a 148.1 mark in his career to currently rank fifth in school history. Barriere has surpassed the school record for rushing yards by a quarterback -- he now has 1,363 with Vernon Adams Jr. closing his career with 1,232. Eastern is 19-1 when Barriere has rushed for at least 21 yards, with the lone loss coming at Sacramento State (10/5/19) when he finished with 103. Besides the Sac State game, he's rushed for at least 98 yards on four other occasions (98/Southern Utah/2018, 99/Portland State/2018, 101/Northern Arizona/2019, 164/Cal Poly/2019). Barriere now has 10 career performances with at least 400 yards of total offense, and 19 with 300+. He also has had 13 performances with at least 300 passing yards (five with at least 400). He has now been honored six times in his career as Big Sky Conference Offensive Player of the Week, including three times in 2020-21 and twice in the 2019 season.