CHENEY, Washington — Beau Baldwin has long preached that weather is not a deciding factor in late-season football games. Eastern Washington’s head coach emphasizes that cold, snow, wind and rain are all al part of the game.
“It’s all about who handles any situation better,” Baldwin said last week after his team’s win in the quarterfinals of the FCS playoffs. “If it is a factor, it’s a factor, but who is going to handle it better? It will never be something where I’ll come back and say the weather cost us a game. I’ll say they handled the weather better than us. We need to decide who is going to handle it better and not make it a factor.”
If the adversity of temperatures hovering in the low 20s and a Roos Field dusted with snow is all about acclimation, Baldwin’s Eagles handled the situation almost flawlessly against Richmond here on Saturday. Eastern Washington forced five turnovers, notched six quarterback sacks and pitched its first shutout since 2009 with a 38-0 win over the No. 12 Spiders.
Eastern Washington senior Shaq Hill had three catches Saturday/ By Jason Bacaj
“This was actually the nicest day we’ve had all year in terms of throwing the ball – we’ve had wind every week all season,” Baldwin cracked after his team moved into the FCS Final Four. “It was a calm, clear day and didn’t affect any kicks. This was a nice day.”
Richmond fumbled the ball four times in the first half, including one giveaway on a botched snap by quarterback Kevin Johnson. The sophomore from Atlanta had a hard time getting his footing or a handle on the football all afternoon with EWU senior Samson Ebukam and the Eastern defense bearing down on him relentlessly.
“The four fumbles we had in the first half, slippery ball, bad footing, wet conditions, it all makes it hard to execute at a high level,” Johnson said after throwing for 157 yards. “I have never played in conditions like this but the cold wasn’t really the factor. We didn’t execute and that was the story of the game”
Ebukam was a terror throughout th game, notching eight tackles, four tackles for loss and two sacks. On one of his sacks, he stripped Johnson from behind, a takeaway that helped EWU build a 21-0 halftime lead thanks to three first-half touchdown passes by sophomore Gage Gubrud. Ebukam added an interception in a game for the ages to push EWU within a step of the national title game.
“I haven’t had a game like that and I can’t even explain half the plays I made,” Ebukam said. “At the beginning of the game, I just ask God to play the best I can and that’s what I did.”
Eastern Washington senior Cooper Kupp continued his marvelous career, catching six passes for 128 yards and a touchdown. With EWU leading 7-0, Richmond had its third possession stall out three yards from a game-tying touchdown thanks to senior J.J. Njoku’s sack on fourth down. On the ensuing EWU possession, Gubrud was nearly sacked for a safety. Instead, he scrambled to avoid pressure before finding Kupp for a 68-yard catch-and-run.
“It was a huge play. We felt like there were going to be some moments where we can buy time, but that one he actually had to get out of something,” Baldwin said. “He’s been doing that all year by extending plays. When you can keep your eyes downfield in those situations all the way to the last second and hit the line of scrimmage still making throws, that’s tough on a defense. That’s the type of plays Gage has made all year long.”
Eastern Washington senior Cooper Kupp takes a hit to his injured left shoulder agaisnt Richmond/ by Jason Bacaj
On the next play, Gubrud threw a strike to Kupp on a quick slant. Kupp took a hard hit to his injured left shoulder and had to leave the game for one play. When he returned, he promptly caught a 20-yard touchdown, the 71st of his peerless career.
“The long play, I was running too slow, got caught, heard a lot about it on the sideline but the next play, put my arm out for a one-handed catch, got hit a little wrong, kind of zinged it a little bit,” Kupp said. “But I was able to come back in and shake it off.”
A week after completing 47-of-64 passes for 449 yards in a 31-14 win over Central Arkansas, Gubrud completed 21-of-32 passes for 287 yards. A week after running 100 plays, EWU ran 67 plays for 451 yards.
“We really wanted to stay back in our coverage and make the quarterback make the throws as hard as we could, get our hands up and affect passing lanes,” Richmond senior defensive tackle Andrew Clyde said. “I thought we did that for the better part of the game but ultimately, they made more plays.”
After Gubrud’s three first-half touchdown passes — to sophomore Nsimba Webster, Kupp and senior Shaq Hill — EWU went to the ground out of the halftime locker room. Eastern ran the ball on eight of nine plays during a 75-yard drive spurred by freshman Antoine Custer Jr. and capped by senior Jabari Wilson’s 20-yard touchdown run.
Eastern Washington freshman Antoine Custer Jr. rushed for 50 yards against Richmond/ by Jason Bacaj
“Offensively it was a day where it was tough, but we were executing and taking care of the football,” Baldwin said. “We were grinding out drives when we needed to and hit plays when we needed to. Sometimes when you are up 21-0 it can be easy to just wait for the game to finish, but our team went right down and scored on the first drive of the second half. We played together as a team the whole day. That’s what I loved about it.”
Richmond might have earned a playoff seed if not for an injury to Kyle Lauletta. The Spiders’ junior quarterback, the preseason Colonial Athletic Association Offensive Player of the Year, tore his ACL in a season-ending loss to William & Mary that likely sent Richmond to the first round.
After the loss, Johnson came to Richmond head coach Danny Rocco and asked to sacrifice himself for the team. The former 3-star recruit was forced into action for three games as a true freshman in 2015. After Lauletta secured the starting job last off-season, Johnson elected to redshirt. He asked Rocco to forfeit his redshirt so he could lead the Spiders into the playoffs.
Johnson helped Richmond to a 39-10 win over North Carolina A&T in the first round. Trailing 24-7 at co-Big Sky Conference champion North Dakota, Johnson led a rally for a 27-24 win stamped by Griffin Trau’s 18-yard field goal at the buzzer.
Richmond sophomore quarterback Kevin Johnson/ by Jason Bacaj
“These playoffs are really special, they really are,” said Rocco, who reportedly took the head coaching job at CAA rival Delaware on Tuesday morning. “For Kevin to lead us into the playoffs and get two wins in the post-season, won in front of the home crowd, won in North Dakota, which was an extraordinary comeback which he led…today was uphill no matter how you look at it. This was a good football team. They are ranked right where they are supposed to be ranked. With the environment and the conditions, we just didn’t catch any breaks and they played really well. Them playing that well generated the score and the outcome they got.”
Rocco, who led Liberty to four Big South titles in six seasons between 2006 and 2011, came to Richmond in 2012. He led the Spiders to a 43-21 record that included two shared CAA titles. Richmond advanced to the FCS playoffs each of the last three seasons, losing in the second round in 2014, the semifinals in 2015 and the quarterfinals this season.
Rocco takes over a Delaware program that won the 2003 national championship and finished as the FCS runner-up in 2007 and 2010 under K.C. Keeler before Keeler left for Sam Houston State before the 2013 season. Dave Brock went just 21-23 at Delaware fore getting fired midway through 2016.
“I told the team in the locker room today that this game really doesn’t define our season,” Rocco said. “We had a great season, back-to-back 10-win seasons. Our senior class has done some extraordinary things here over the last five years. This is the third straight year we made a run in the post season. It’s a great group.”
Eastern Washington’s group of stellar seniors continues its march toward what feels like their destiny. Kupp returned despite significant NFL buzz following a junior season that netted him the Walter Payton Award. Hill earned a medical redshirt and returned to become the first Eagle to claim four Big Sky championship rings.
EWU seniors Cooper Kupp, left, and Kendrick Bourne/ by Jason Bacaj
From Ebukam to hard-nosed middle linebacker Miquiyah Zamora to cerebral safety Zach Bruce to electric receiver Kendrick Bourne, EWU has a talented, focused group ready to make a run at five-time defending national champion North Dakota State and the rest of the FCS field.
First, the Eagles must get past surging Youngstown State (11-3). After a 6-3 start to head coach Bo Pelini’s second season, the Penguins have won five straight, including a 41-20 win over third-seeded Jacksonville State in the second round and a 30-23 double-overtime win over Wofford last weekend.
“It was a game full of guts and heart – that’s the best way I can describe it,” Baldwin said of the Richmond win. “We knew coming out that the field was going to be a little slick and it would be a little colder than what we’ve played in. But our team handled all the details and little things to be at a point to play that well against a very good opponent in the playoffs. That’s not easy to do. Our team was focused the entire week to get that done. Now we have to do it again.”
