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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Ewu Hurt By Success Playoff Run, Defections Damage Recruiting

Wednesday should have been a day of celebration for Mike Kramer. It offered a chance to step back from the craziness that attached itself to Eastern Washington’s unparalleled college football success of 1997 and reap the recruiting spoils that normally accompany a Big Sky Conference title and a berth in the semifinals of the Division I-AA playoffs.

Instead, Kramer spent his day trying to patch some wounds opened late in the recruiting battle and lamenting the negative fallout brought on by the defection of five of his assistant coaches following the Eagles’ 12-2 season that ended with a 25-14 playoff loss to eventual national champion Youngstown State.

“We’ve got blood running deep in my office,” Eastern’s fourth-year head coach candidly admitted on the first day that high school recruits can sign football letters of intent with Division I schools. “We’ve been wounded a little bit in the late going.”

Of immediate concern was the last-minute change of heart experienced by an in-state defensive back who had earlier made an oral commitment to EWU. According to Kramer, who is forbidden by NCAA rules to publicly identify recruits until they are signed, the player in question informed him Wednesday morning that he was no longer sure he wanted to play college football.

In addition, an unnamed offensive lineman, who had also expressed an earlier interest in playing for Eastern, opted to sign with Portland State.

“Now you tell me how an offensive lineman getting recruited by two Big Sky schools can pick Portland State over Eastern,” an obviously perturbed Kramer said, noting Eastern’s penchant for producing NFL-caliber offensive linemen.

Kramer also admitted he was “greatly disappointed” that former EWU defensive coordinator Jerry Graybeal had lured three potential recruits to Weber State, where he took over as head coach in late December and hired away four of Kramer’s assistants, including offensive coordinator J.D. Sollars.

“Those were recruits we had evaluated when (the former assistants) were still on my staff,” Kramer said.

Kramer stopped short of labeling Graybeal’s recruiting tactics as unethical.

“But I’m struggling mightily with it,” he said. “It’s not illegal and it’s not an NCAA violation by any stretch, but it’s upsetting to me that it occurred.”

On the positive side, Kramer announced the signing of 19 recruits, including the most prolific wide receiver in the state and a pair of transfers from Walla Walla Community College, which dropped football following the 1997 season.

“Because of the length of our playoff run, which cut into our recruiting time, and the defection of almost our entire coaching staff, I’m pretty proud of the guys we were able to get,” Kramer said, noting the emphasis was on signing defensive players to help shore up a unit gutted by the loss of seven starters.

Still, the showcase recruit would seem to be Joe Levens, a 5-foot-9, 170-pound wideout from DeSales.

Levens, the son of former WWCC head coach and athletic director Mike Levens, is a two-time B-11 Player of the Year who owns six state receiving records and played a major role on DeSales’ march to the B-11 state title last fall when he caught 94 passes for 1,694 yards and 24 TDs.

“Joe is one of the premier players who has ever played in B-11, flat out,” Kramer said. “He owns about every receiving record established in the state at any level, and he will have an immediate impact because we lost all three (wide receiver) starters.”

The two WWCC transfers are Lance Hattemer, a 6-5, 220-pound quarterback who prepped at Cheney High School, and David Kimball, a 6-3, 235-pound linebacker out of Lakes High School.

Hattemer, who threw for 179.6 yards per game last fall, is already enrolled at EWU and will be eligible to compete in spring drills.

Among EWU’s other signees are local prep standouts Brandon Bouge, a defensive lineman from Central Valley; Brandon Moore, a defensive lineman from Medical Lake; Kurt Sigler, an offensive lineman from Coeur d’Alene; and Nick Reynolds, a kicker/linebacker from Cheney. , DataTimes