Ewu Wary About California Dreamin’ Coach Wants Eagles To Avoid Distractions At Cs Northridge
Mike Kramer read the newspaper accounts of Washington State’s ill-fated trip into Pasadena, Calif., last weekend.
And Eastern Washington’s third-year football coach is determined to make sure his Eagles don’t suffer a similar pratfall when they invade the distraction-bloated Los Angeles area for tonight’s 5:05 Big Sky Conference matchup against Cal State Northridge at North Campus Stadium.
“We learned a lot about listening to what happened to the Cougars,” Kramer said earlier this week, in reference to WSU’s uninspired effort in a 38-14 loss to UCLA at the Rose Bowl. “They got down there, it was hot, they were there for a couple of days, a lot of their kids from California had their families around, which is a distraction, and they came out flat.
“I know (Cougars coach) Mike Price is bitchin’ and yelling at his guys this week, so I’m bitchin’ and yelling at my guys, too. Because I’ll tell you what, I don’t want to go down there and lay down.”
The setting, however, is ripe for a letdown.
The 24th-ranked Eagles (6-4 overall and 3-3 in the Big Sky Conference) are coming off a 13-10 loss to Northern Arizona that blew them out of the NCAA Division I-AA playoff picture. And they will play a Northridge team (6-4, 3-3) that has exceeded expectations in its first season in the Big Sky.
The Matadors have done it with junior-college transfers, an offense that is averaging 446.7 yards and 35.8 points per game and a defense that has stopped the run.
“Like us, they’re a very surprising football team,” Kramer said. “They have the No. 1 rushing defense in the Big Sky (112.8 yards per game), and offensively they’ve been able to protect their quarterback and throw the ball very efficiently, which nobody really anticipated them being able to do.
“(Coach) Dave (Baldwin) and his staff have been able to get their guys to go out and play hard regardless of who they’re playing.”
EWU can draw some motivation from its desire to send its 10 seniors out as winners. They include running back Joe Sewell, the only two-time 1,000-yard rusher in school history.
But to do that, the Eagles must contain a Matadors passing game that has produced 315.1 yards per game. Aaron Flowers, a junior, has completed 217 of 367 passes for 3,040 yards and 25 touchdowns.
His top receiver has been David Romines, who leads the Big Sky with 1,300 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns on 87 catches. But Romines has been slowed this week with a sore hamstring and might not be 100-percent healthy tonight.
Eastern has lost two straight and three of its last four, but could finish 7-4 and match its highest victory total since 1985.
“We’ve preached to our players that being 7-4 is a whole lot different than being 6-5,” Kramer said. “We’re taking every step we can to be as enthused and as ready as we can be.
“We’re approaching it as if this is our only game of the year, not our last game of the year.”
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Graphic: Eagles at Cal State Northridge