Aaron Best felt the losing streak within his soul, the emotion resonating more as the disappointment of a former player than that of an Eastern Washington position coach.
EWU’s offensive line coach and run game coordinator certainly felt for his kids as Eastern endured a three-game losing streak to end last season. Losses to Northern Arizona, Montana and Portland State kept the Eagles out of the playoffs for just the second time since 2009. Best, a former EWU offensive lineman who graduated from Eastern in 1999, hated to see his team’s season end in such a fashion. The mark it left in terms of staining the proud tradition EWU has built over the last 20 years stung as much as experiencing the losing streak from the sideline.
“Being a former Eagle myself, I hate to pull myself into emotions but it hurt me more as a former Eagle than as a current Eagle because at 6-2 on a six-game winning streak, everyone expects you to be in the playoffs,” Best said on Tuesday. “Coach (Beau) Baldwin has always stressed each week 50 percent of the teams in America lose. Every week. It’s hard to fathom but we were on the back end of that three straight times. I don’t remember the last three-game losing streak we had. You are not used to it so you are stunned. And it hurts you because it’s not what we do around here.”
EWU head coach Beau Baldwin/by EWU Athletics
Since Baldwin took over in 2008, Eastern has posted a 52-14 record against the rest of the Big Sky Conference. EWU won or shared conference crowns in 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2014, earning playoff bids every year between 2009 and the 2014 season except in 2011. EWU’s national title won in 2010 is the last national championship claimed by a team from the Big Sky.
Eastern seemed to have a solid spot in the driver’s seat of the league race last fall, spurting to six straight wins that included five conference victories plus a non-conference win over Big Sky rival and 2015 preseason BSC favorite Montana State. But the Eagles were scraping by, beating MSU by five, Sac State by eight, Cal Poly by one thanks to a fumble on a game-winning two-point conversion attempt, Northern Colorado by two thanks to game-winning field goal as time expired and Weber State by one thanks to inclement weather in Cheney, Washington.
The ceiling fell down on the Eagles the following week. Northern Arizona’s high-powered aerial attack went to the ground instead, pounding in five rushing touchdowns and helping NAU possess the ball for nearly 36 minutes in a 52-30 win in Cheney. The following week, Montana avalanched the Eagles in Missoula. The Griz defense piled up seven sacks, forced six turnovers and the Griz offense rolled up 464 yards in a 57-16 runaway.
EWU still might’ve been able to punch a playoff ticket with a win over PSU in its season finale. But Portland State’s four takeways, four sacks and 250 yards rushing led the Vikings to a 34-31 win to sew up the only seed in the FCS playoff field earned by a Big Sky team.
“The kids were bitter because they only got 11 games on the schedule,” Best said. “No matter who you are, if you play at Eastern Washington, you expect to play a 12th game. For that to be done, you have to earn the 12th game. Our effort the last three games, we did not earn it.”
The Eagles entered its bye week last at the exact midpoint of the 2016 schedule well on their way to earning a place atop the Big Sky Conference once again. EWU took a 5-1 record into its week and the wins have come in impressive fashion against a formidable schedule.
EWU defenders in 2015/by Evan Frost for Skyline Sports
“There are parts of it that do feel different, but I felt good in a lot of ways last year as well,” said Baldwin, who has EWU ranked No. 4 in the FCS. “It’s a matter of three teams that took it to us at the end of the year, beat us and that’s part of this deal. I’ve cautioned our guys of that since we are playing well right now. You can start reading things and watching things and it’s bull. We haven’t done anything yet. We are in a good spot, but when it comes to what some of the people at Safeway are talking about, that has to be earned. We still have to earn it.”
Eastern opened the season with a resounding 45-42 victory over Pac 12 Washington State in Gage Gubrud’s debut at quarterback. The sophomore from McMinnville, Oregon outplayed Wazzu signal caller Luke Falk, throwing for 474 yards and five touchdowns and rushing for 77 more yards, including the go-ahead score that proved to be the final tally as EWU beat a Pac 12 team for the second time in four seasons.
The Eagles’ lone loss came to five-time defending national champion North Dakota State in Fargo. EWU — the last team to beat NDSU in the FCS playoffs back in 2010 on the way to earning the last national crown claimed by anyone other than the Bison — went blow for blow with the hosts. Eastern railed from deficits of 21-7, 35-24 and 41-31, taking a 44-41 lead with four minutes to play in regulation. NDSU hit a field goal with 42 seconds left but EWU had a game-winning field goal attempt of its own as the clock expired. Jordan Dascalo’s try missed and the game went to overtime. Lance Dunn’s 25-yard touchdown run sealed the 50-44 NDSU victory.
Against another Missouri Valley Conference opponent in Northern Iowa, EWU fell behind 24-7 in its home debut. Baldwin elected to pull Gubrud in favor of sophomore Riley Hennessey, a highly-touted in-state product who went on to throw three touchdowns in the second half to lead EWU to a 34-30 win.
During three straight wins to open Big Sky play, Eastern Washington had laid down the hammer and finished strong. Leading 36-28 at NAU, the Eagles forced a pair of turnovers and turned in a pair of touchdown runs to win going away, 50-35. EWU turned a 30-28 deficit against UC Davis into no contest as the Eagles scored 35 third quarter points ina 63-30 win. Last week, Northern Colorado led EWU 24-21 in the third quarter before the Eagles stepped on the gas. Gubrud threw three touchdowns to Shaq Hill, who tied a school record with four TD catches and the Eagles won 49-31 to enter the bye without a Big Sky loss.
“We found out that we were a tough team,” said EWU wide receivers coach Nick Edwards, a key member of EWU’s 2010 national title and 2012 league championship as a wide receiver. “We’ve won in a ton of different ways. It’s been fun to see how we would respond to a bunch of different types of scenarios and they’ve responded well to each.”
EWU wide receiver Kendrick Bourne (11) in 2015/by Evan Frost for Skyline Sports
As has been the trademark of the Baldwin era, Eastern is winning with eye-popping offensive production. North Dakota State has given up more than 28 points on two occasions during the regular season since the beginning of 2011: in a 38-35 loss at Montana to open up the 2015 campaign and in this year’s win over EWU.
Entering Saturday’s matchup with reeling Montana State (0-4 in Big Sky play, 2-5 overall), Eastern Washington leads the country in passing offense by a long shot averaging 433.2 yards per game through the air, nearly 80 more than Sam Houston State. EWU is averaging 565.2 yards of total offense per outing, third in the FCS and the top mark in the Big Sky. EWU has scored at least 44 points on five different occasions, topping 50 twice and 60 once. Eastern’s 47.5 points per game lead the Big Sky by more than a touchdown and rank second to Sam Houston State nationally.
Part of the offensive evolution this season has been the addition of passing game coordinator Troy Taylor, a highly successful high school coach who helped quarterbacks Dano Graves (now at Cal Poly) and Jake Browning (now at Washington) earn National Prep Player of the Year honors at Folsom High outside Sacramento.
Taylor’s field-spreading offense has helped four different Eastern wide receivers — All-America senior Cooper Kupp, senior Kendrick Bourne, senior Shaq Hill and sophomore Stu Stiles — notch 100-yard outings. The offense spreads the field such that it opens up running lanes for Gubrud, EWU’s leading rusher who has 374 yards and four touchdowns on the ground.
“We utilize the quarterback in our run game more than we ever have,” Best said. “Having a mobile quarterback helps a bad offensive lineman be not as bad and an ok offensive lineman be a bit better than OK. When you have a mobile quarterback who will run the ball when his number is called, that makes you more challenging as an offense. At the end of the day, it makes our job easier.”
Gubrud leads the country in total offense (450.8 yards per game), passing yards (2,351) and passing touchdowns 23.
“The guys have been comfortable learning the system and Gage continues to grow and become more confident and more at ease,” Taylor said.
“Gage has been outstanding. It was a change for him from the system when I got here. He has acclimated to it very well. I couldn’t ask for anything more in terms of the ease in which he’s run the system…he’s operated like a guy who’s been in the system for two or three years instead of a guy who has only been in the system half a year.”
EWU quarterback Gage Gubrud/by EWU Athletics
Despite missing a game and a half, Kupp is second in the FCS receiving yards (712) and catches). He has seven touchdowns, which ranks sixth nationally. Bourne (44 catches for 616 yards, three touchdowns) and Hill (35 for 522 and eight touchdowns) both rank in the top 15 in the country in various receiving categories, including yards.
“We are always trying to learn,” Edwards said. ‘The older guys always continue to teach the younger guys. My job is to get the starters ready and it’s those guys’ job to get the younger guys ready. It’s a family atmosphere and we are always trying to get better.”
Eastern experienced a surge of momentum last season and has been a team that has thrived off momentum for most of Baldwin’s tenure. Now Baldwin and his staff are staked with the task of harnessing that dynamic and riding it into the playoffs for the ninth time since 2004.
“You don’t play the season on paper,” Best said. “No matter what you read in the paper, it’s the insiders that matter. It doesn’t matter how many returning starters you have, how much experience you have, a lot of things have to fall into place throughout training camp, the non-league schedule, Flagstaff against the Big Sky favorites (NAU). It’s not easy but it makes you play at the top of your game from the get go and not have to get good by game nine.
“Just because we’ve exceeded everybody else’s expectation doesn’t mean we’ve exceeded ours. We still have everything in front of us.”
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