Worst Seat In The House: For Eagle fans...

I was meaning to write this update last week but with the Christmas season upon us there can be changes in plans rather abruptly. But sometimes that can also be good for any number of reasons.

For instance, last week I was going to talk about former Eagle and present day San Francisco 49er Kendrick Bourne and the game he had against the New Orleans Saints. He caught four passes two of which were for TDs against New Orleans in the Superdome. This was a huge win for the 49ers.

Last Sunday in Los Angeles, former Eagles Cooper Kupp and Samson Ebakam contributed to a big victory over the Seattle Seahawks. Kupp caught several passes one for a touchdown and Ebakam had four tackles and two sacks on Seahawk QB Russel Wilson. Yes I am a Seahawk fan but it is good to see these guys having great success in the NFL. It was a joy to watch them roaming Roos Field in Cheney just a few years ago.

Last Wednesday Beau Baldwin the former EWU head coach and California Bear Offensive Coordinator was announced as the next Cal Poly head football coach. Baldwin played QB for Central Washington University and would be the Wildcat head man for a couple of seasons before getting the coaching gig at Eastern. Baldwin would lead the Eagles to a National Championship and several semi-finals games before being hired by the Cal Bears.

The Bears will be going to a bowl game for the second year in a row and Baldwin will call the offensive plays for the game. It will be interesting to see if Nicholas Edwards will follow Beau to San Luis Obispo to be part of his new staff. Edwards was an Eagle receiver under Baldwin and is presently the running backs coach for the Bears. I know that Nichols and Baldwin work well together. I would think that having coached at Cal it would help Beau with recruiting in the state. I know one thing, the Mustangs are going to have to get used to seeing the ball flying around after watching the triple option ground game for many years.

It was announced on Sunday that former EWU offensive coordinator Zak Hill would be the new offensive coordinator for the Arizona State Sun Devils. Hill played QB for Central with Baldwin as his coach. Baldwin hired Hill to be his OC at Eastern. Several years ago I had the opportunity to golf with Baldwin and Hill in Ritzville. I asked Hill if he was interested in becoming a head coach someday and he said he was. After that season he was hired by Hawaii to be their OC but would instead take the same position at Boise State. These are the transitions one makes to get to that next level or to get that head coaching position. However, the money is usually good enough to think twice about the headaches of overseeing the entire program in today’s college football scene.

Former EWU defensive coordinator and Eagle alum Jeff Schmedding just completed his first year as the Boise State Bronco DC and linebackers coach. The Broncos won the Mountain West Conference and finished 12-1 for the season. Schmedding was the Eagle DC a year ago when EWU made their run to the National Championship game against North Dakota State.

Along with the Mountain West Championship it also brought an invite to the Las Vegas Bowl against the University of Washington Huskies coached by former Bronco head coach Chris Peterson. Peterson recently announced that he was going to step back from coaching football for the time being. Peterson will coach the Las Vegas Bowl game for the Huskies before turning the program over to UW DC and Eagle alum Jimmy Lake. Lake played at Eastern along with present day Eagle head coach Aaron Best. The duo played on EWU’s first NCAA 1AA football semi-final appearance in December 1997. I was there and it was a heart breaking loss to Youngstown State.

I know one thing about the rivalry between WSU and UW it should be more intense now that Lake is taking over. Peterson is the kind of person that a lot of Cougar fans have trouble disliking whereas Lake has made a few comments concerning Coach Mike Leach’s offense that have offended many of the Cougar faithful. It should be fun.

As far as Eagle fans are concerned we should be proud of these guys and their accomplishments.