A win and a paycheck

When it comes to football you never really know what can happen on any give game day. Last Saturday, for instance, the Eastern Washington Eagles traveled to Pullman to take on the WSU Cougars. As everyone knows by now, the Eagles prevailed in a real shootout 45-42.

WSU was favored by 23 points or so. In the first half it was a matter of trading touchdowns with the Eagles trailing 28-24 at the half. A more entertaining half would be difficult to come by. Defensive minded purists may have cringed a bit as the yardage, big plays and score mounted.

As an EWU alum I was very concerned remembering the difficulties that the Eagle defense had last year getting off the field to let the offense take over. Too many third down conversions by the opponents led to a November to forget. And here they were playing the pass happy Cougars with a good running attack to boot.

Last year, Eastern went from 6-2 and in the driver’s seat to 6-5 and out of the playoffs. The record would have been good enough to play in an FBS bowl but since they are an FCS school they had to be one of 24 schools that got a chance to play for a NCAA championship and 6-5 wasn’t good enough.

The 2015 Eagles had an offensive line that was experienced and very good. The graduated a majority of that group with a couple getting a chance to play professionally. So I was concerned that the young line might breakdown and allow a bunch of sacks and rushing an inexperienced QB into tossing an interception or two or three.

But this group of Eagles was unfazed and accepted the challenge of playing one of the big boys and doing their best to pull off an upset like they did in 2013 in Corvallis, Oregon, against the OSU Beavers.

The young Eagle line protected QB Gage Gubrud and his running ability kept the Cougar defense off balance and added a dimension to the Eagle offense that was lacking last year.

Then there is Cooper Kupp, last year’s Walter Payton award winner for the FCS level player of the year. Kupp made a decision to come back for his senior year and not go pro or do the graduate transfer thing and go to an FBS school.

Kupp could have gone most anywhere but he stayed at the school that recruited him when the bigger schools wouldn’t. In the four games that Kupp has played in against OSU, Washington, Oregon and WSU to start the last four seasons he has 716 total receiving yards and 11 TDs. Last year he set an Autzen Stadium record for most receiving yards in a game.

It is as if he is saying, “This is what you could have had playing for you instead of against you!”

Cougar Coach Mike Leach said after the game, “The best player on the field today was Cooper Kupp, and the second best player was their QB whose name I can’t pronounce.”

Not Luke Falk or Gabe Marks or River Cracraft but two EWU Eagles.

There is a real sense of pride I have for Coach Beau Baldwin and his staff and the entire EWU football team. They play these games against these Pac 12 schools to get a big payment that the athletic department needs to function. Years ago these were called body bag games because so many players got hurt and it took its toll on a lot of teams.

Now there are a lot of competitive programs at the FCS level and they compete very well against the bigger schools. And once in a while they pull off that big upset that allows the alumni to boast for a while. We don’t go overboard but we are extremely proud of our team’s accomplishment.

For you Cougar fans this loss is not the end of the world. Last year’s Portland State’s loss refocused the team and WSU came away with some huge wins on its way to a Sun Bowl victory against the Miami Hurricanes.

The EWU victory was important to get back to the FCS playoffs. Next week the Eags play five-time FCS Champion North Dakota State and the week after that Northern Iowa a team that is a perennial power. The week after that they play the preseason favorite to win the Big Sky Conference in Northern Arizona. I’m not sure there is another team in the country that has a tougher first four games of the season than EWU.

Yes, I am very proud of the EWU Eagles and their big win against WSU. And when you get a big paycheck to boot it’s almost like stealing something from your big brother!