2018 Season:
The Eagles are coming off a very successful 12-3 season in which they advanced to the FCS Championship game. They lost to North Dakota State in the championship game 24-38. They had one game against an FBS school last year, they lost 59-24 to WSU. The Eagles lost 25 seniors from last year’s team. The Eagles set team records in both rushing yards and touchdowns in 2018. The defense in 2018 was the best defense Eastern has had in 20 years. The Eagles allowed 22.7 points per game in 2018 the lowest since 1997.
2018 Offense: 13 Points Per Game, 4084 passing yards, 3839 rushing yards, 38 passing TDs, 41 rushing TDs
2018 Defense: 22.67 Points per Game, 3403 passing yards allowed, 2484 rushing yards allowed, 19 passing TDs allowed, 23 rushing TDs allowed
2019 Eastern Washington Eagles:
Head Coach Aaron Best (Career Record:19-7)
New Coaches: Offensive Coordinator/Quarterback Coach Ian Shoemaker, Wide Receivers Coach Pat McCann, Defensive Coordinator Eric Ena, Defensive Passing game coordinator Allen Brown, Safeties coach Bryan Mills
The Eagles lost 25 seniors from last year’s team including 7 starters on defense and 6 starters on offense. Coming off a visit to the FCS championship game expectations are high for #3 ranked Eastern Washington Eagles.
This is not the same air raid team as when Beau Baldwin was the coach, the Eagles had a balanced offense last season that was one of the best in FCS last season ranking top 20 in both rushing and passing. This season they will have to fight through a new offensive coordinator and 6 new offensive starters, but they do have a very experienced offensive line returning (123 combined starts). Even though they lost their starting Rb, they have 4 returning RBs who combined for 1500 yards last season. QB Eric Barriere took over 5 games into the 2018 season, this year he will have had the full offseason to prepare as the starter.
The 2018 Eagle’s defense was one of the best in Eastern’s program history but in 2019 the team will have a good amount of new faces. They have a new defensive coordinator as well as multiple new position coaches. They do return 4 full time starters and 4 players who started at least one game, but they lost 4 senior DBs who were the strength of their defense last season. The defensive line is the strength of the defense, the Eagles like to rotate in up to 8 guys on the line. Townsend, Johnson and Ledbetter are the leaders of the D line and should all be all conference players this year. However the defensive lineman for the Eagles are undersized with only one player over 275lbs.
Players to watch for:
#75 Center Spencer Blackburn: The 2nd team all-American center was granted a sixth year of eligibility because of games missed due to injury earlier in his career. After injuries earlier in his career he has started 37 straight games.
#3 Quarterback Eric Barriere: After taking over for injured QB Gage Gubrud last season Eric had a successful season going 8-2 while throwing for 2450 yards and 24 touchdowns. He also ran for 768 yards and 8 TDs, so he does have the ability to scramble. He has been held out of the last two scrimmages Eastern had this fall but will be a full go Saturday against the Huskies.
#9 Wide Receiver Andrew Boston: A 2018 Freshman All American from Emerald Ridge High School in Puyallup. He had 43 catches for 531 yards and 4 TDs as a freshman.
#58 Linebacker Chris Ojoh: Led the team in tackles in 2018 as a sophomore with 105.
#49 Defensive End Jim Townsend:After sitting out the 2017 season Townsend was a key factor in their defensive improvement in 2018.
#5 Buck Mitchell Johnson: 2018 Freshman All American, led team in sacks in 2018. 2 sacks vs Washington State last season
DEPTH CHART vs WASHINGTON
