CHENEY, Wash — It’s been 45 weeks of football since Eastern Washington hasn’t been a FCS top 25 team.
If they lose to conference opponent 25th ranked North Dakota this Saturday, they’ll drop out. The Eags currently have the worst record among all top 25 teams at 1-3.
It’s a winning culture at Eastern Washington and there’s a sense of urgency to right this ship.
“We take pride in knowing that we're a good program," EWU linebacker Andrew Katzenberger said. "There are dudes that have played here before me. We kind of just hold that standard to try and be a great program.We're going to continue to fight to be better."
EWU OFFENSE MUST BE CONSISTENT
There’s no doubting the offense is the strength of this team, but they’ve had trouble clicking so far.
They look unstoppable in spurts and then inexplicably go dormant.To sustain rhythm, head coach Aaron Best says it starts with the offensive line to get things going.
“We've got to do what we can up front first with those five seniors," he said. "We rely on those guys to give Eric (Barriere) time and our receivers time to get in and out of routes. Once that ball is delivered and the protection is made we come down with the ball and move the sticks."
NORTH DAKOTA HAS ELITE PASS DEFENSE
They’re going to need it to click because North Dakota allows the least passing yards per game in the FCS.
Eags wide receiver Jayson Williams says if they can keep rhythm, they aren’t worried about that.
"To me they haven't seen nobody like us," Eastern Washington wide receiver Jayson Williams said. "They haven't seen a receiving core like us. Earlier on they played North Dakota State and that's a top dog right now in the last few years. But North Dakota State isn't Eastern Washington. We got the wide receiving core, we got the quarterback and the offensive line. They haven't seen our offensive line. If we are clicking, nobody is going to stop us."
GAME TIME
Game time is set for 2 p.m. at Roos Field in Cheney.
