With lots of ties regionally, Josh Fetter enters his 10th season as coach of Eastern’s linebackers in the 2020 season. He also serves as director of high school relations (since 2017) after previously serving as the team’s liaison with professional teams.
In 2019, four different Eagle linebackers combined for 24 starts, with Jack Sendelbach starting 11 games and finishing second on the team with 94 tackles. He'll be a sixth-year senior in 2020 and has a current career total of 159 tackles, five sacks, four fumble recoveries and three forced fumbles. Highly-touted Chris Ojoh redshirted his junior season because of an injury that limited him to four games played and 27 total tackles.
Eastern finished the 2019 season 7-5 overall and 6-2 in the Big Sky to finish with at least five league wins for the 13th-straight season. Eastern's defensive highlights included a 48-5 victory at Idaho State in which EWU held the Bengal offense to just a field goal and out-gained ISU in total offense 689-416. Eastern allowed a season-low 352 yards in a 54-21 home victory over Northern Colorado.
In 2018, the Eagles finished 12-3 overall and 7-1 in the Big Sky Conference to share the league title with Weber State and UC Davis. The Eagles won their last four games of the regular season, then hosted three fellow conference champions in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs – knocking off Nicholls, UC Davis and Maine to advance to the NCAA Division I Championship Game versus North Dakota State.
The Eagle defense allowed just 22.7 points per game in 2018 for the team's best performance since 1997 and a mark which ranked 27th nationally. Eastern's nine games of allowing 20 points for fewer in 2018 equals the school record also set in 1997, 1981, 1964 and 1949. Eastern led FCS with six defensive touchdowns and was second in turnovers gained with 34. Eastern also was third with 22 interceptions and ranked 16th overall in turnover margin (34 takeaways, 24 giveaways, +0.67 per game). Eastern set a school record with 70 passes broken up, breaking the previous record of 67 set in the 2010 season. Eastern's defense was particularly impressive during league play, with EWU allowing only 135 points for a league-leading 16.9 average per game – with seven of those points coming on a punt return touchdown.
Senior linebacker Ketner Kupp and Ojoh, then a sophomore, each had 11 tackles in the NCAA Division I Championship Game. Kupp earned second team All-Big Sky honors and finished his career with 10 career games in double figures in tackles and a total of 267 to rank 14th in school history. His team-leading 115 tackles in 2018 ranks as the 13th-most in school history.
Ojoh had a sack versus North Dakota State and finished the season with 105 tackles to rank 27th all-time at EWU. Another linebacker in 2018, Kurt Calhoun, finished with 173 career tackles and five sacks, but his season and career were cut short because of an injury that forced him to miss the final seven games.
Eastern’s defensive highlights in 2017 came in road victories over Fordham (56-21) and North Dakota (21-14). Eastern's defense held Fordham to just 217 yards total and 1-of-17 on third down, and EWU recorded 11 three-and-outs. Ten Eagles combined for a school-record 10 sacks as the Rams finished with just 26 net yards rushing. Versus the Fighting Hawks, the Eagles held UND to a net 103 yards rushing and an average of 3.3 per rush. The Eagles had a 191-29 advantage in total offense in the second quarter when EWU out-scored UND 14-0.
Fetter coached Miquiyah Zamora to first team All-Big Sky Conference honors in 2016 during a breakthrough season for Eastern’s defense. After becoming just the second player in school history to have at least 100 tackles in three separate seasons, Zamora finished his career with 366 tackles to rank fourth all-time at EWU. He played in 52 games as an Eagle, including 45 as a starter.
Eastern’s defense in 2016 allowed only 24.4 points per game (second-best in the league) during its 8-0 Big Sky Conference season after allowing 40.7 against three challenging non-conference opponents. A year after allowing 57 points in a 41-point setback to Montana, the Eagle defense allowed just 16 in the rematch on Oct. 29 at Roos Field in EWU’s 35-16 victory. The 16 points for the Griz was their lowest total in the last 33 games in the series dating back 32 years to a 14-14 tie in 1984.
In their last seven victories of the season, the defense allowed just 113 points (16.1 per game). That seven-game stretch was Eastern’s best since the 1997 team allowed only 105 in its first seven games of the season. In a 38-0 victory over Richmond in the quarterfinals of the FCS Playoffs, Eastern’s defense recorded its first shutout in 102 games (since 2009), and the 205 yards Richmond had were the fewest EWU had surrendered in its last 28 outings.
In 2015, linebacker Jake Gall earned honorable mention All-Big Sky honors. Previously, Fetter coached three-time NCAA Football Championship Subdivision All-America linebacker Ronnie Hamlin, who played in what was then a school-record 53 games (50 as a starter) and had 473 career tackles to break the Big Sky Conference record and rank seventh all-time in FCS. Hamlin earned first team All-Big Sky honors in as a sixth-year senior in 2014, with Cody McCarthy and Miquiyah Zamora each earning honorable mention.
That trio combined for 295 tackles, a year after they combined for 309 in 2013. Hamlin earned All-America and second team All-Big Sky honors that season, and McCarthy received honorable mention. Hamlin was an All-American and earned first team All-Big Sky honors as a sophomore in 2012. Also on the unit was second team All-Big Sky selection Zach Johnson, who finished with 324 tackles in his career to rank fifth all-time at Eastern.
Fetter also coached Johnson in 2011 when he missed most of the season with a chronic knee injury, but Johnson was granted a sixth year by the NCAA and returned in 2012. Tyler Washburn and Grant Williams also received honorable mention All-Big Sky honors, giving EWU a league-leading four on the squad in 2012.
Previous coaching stops for Fetter, a former University of Idaho team captain and 1996 graduate, have included Central Washington, Idaho State and Portland State. While at Central, he coached alongside several current Eagle coaches, including former Eastern head coach Beau Baldwin. At ISU, he coached with fellow Eastern assistant Brian Strandley and former Eagle assistant and Idaho State head coach John Zamberlin.
Besides Baldwin, former EWU defensive coordinator/associate head coach John Graham also coached with Fetter at Central from 1996-2000, as well as Strandley from 1997-2000. Former Eagle coaches Ryan Sawyer and Zak Hill were players at the time.
Fetter spent the 2010 season at Idaho State under Zamberlin, a former Eastern assistant coach and head coach at Central Washington. He and Strandley, who was Fetter’s teammate at Idaho, were defensive line coaches for the Bengals.
Before getting the job at ISU, Fetter was going to be defensive coordinator in the 2010 season at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Ore. Prior to that, he spent four seasons as defensive line coach at PSU.
In the 2009 season, two of his Viking linemen earned honorable mention All-Big Sky honors, and in 2007, all three of his regular starters were all-league. In 2006, PSU led the Big Sky in turnover margin, passing efficiency defense, sacks per game, tackles for loss, third-down defense, fourth-down defense and red-zone defense.
Fetter also coached five seasons at Western State in Gunnison, Colo., where he was defensive coordinator, strength and conditioning coach and held the title of assistant head coach.
From 1996-2000 he was at Central, including the final four seasons under Zamberlin as defensive ends coach. He coached defensive tackles in 1996, his first season coaching after graduating from the University of Idaho with a degree in general studies.
After graduating from White River (Wash.) High School in 1991, Fetter was a two-year starter and lettered four seasons for Idaho. As a senior he was voted as a team captain and won Idaho’s most inspirational player award.
Fetter was born Dec. 6, 1972, in Tacoma, Wash. He and his wife, Jahnna, have a son, Michael (14), a daughter, Delani (12) and a second daughter, Laci (8), who was born on the first day of preseason practices on Aug. 10, 2011.
