Eastern shows its guts
If they invite you to the meeting, they probably want your opinion.
At least that’s what Eastern Washington University’s sophomore quarterback Matt Nichols figured Saturday afternoon after being hastened to the sidelines by coach Paul Wulff during a late third-quarter timeout to discuss a crucial play call on fourth-and-1 from Weber State’s 36-yard line.
Eastern was leading 21-16 at time, and Wulff and offensive coordinator Todd Sturdy, who was watching from the coaches’ booth in the press box, were considering their options, which included a traditional quarterback sneak.
“They were discussing it,” Nichols said of the sideline discussion that took place, “and I said, ‘It takes guts to win football games,’ and that kind of swayed the decision.”
So instead of running the quarterback sneak that everyone on Weber’s defense was expecting, Nichols faked the wedge play, took a step back and lofted a soft pass to tight end Nathan Overbay, who made the catch, stumbled momentarily in the Woodward Field mud and rambled, untouched, into the end zone for the touchdown that propelled the 15th-ranked Eagles to a 38-16 Big Sky Conference win over the Wildcats.
The victory, in the regular-season finale for both teams, gave the Eagles (8-3 overall, 6-2 in the Big Sky) sole possession of second place in the conference standings and kept alive their chances of landing an at-large berth in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision playoffs that start next weekend.
The 16-team playoff field will be revealed at 12:30 this afternoon on ESPNU. Wulff is a firm believer that his team belongs – especially after stringing together four wins to close out the regular season.
“We’re a point away from winning the Big Sky championship in a game we dominated at Montana,” he said, in reference to the Eagles’ 24-23 road loss to the Big Sky champion and unbeaten Grizzlies on Oct. 6. “It comes down to the (playoff selection) committee at this point, but it’s pretty clear-cut to me that we’re one of the top teams in the country.
“This team deserves it.”
There was certainly nothing the Eagles did on Saturday that would suggest otherwise.
Nichols, despite having to deal with a downpour that turned Woodward Field’s natural-grass playing surface into a quagmire, threw for 256 yards and four touchdowns. Eastern’s defense slapped the brakes on a high-voltage Weber State offense that had averaged more than 57 points a game in its last three outings.
The Eagles held WSU running back Trevyn Smith, who came in having rushed for more than 100 yards in six consecutive games, to 90 yards on 24 carries and came up with enough big defensive plays to turn back the surging Wildcats (5-6, 4-4), who had won five of their previous six games.
“We knew we had another big test,” said Eastern cornerback Ira Jarmon, who had a hand in six tackles, broke up four passes and picked off another to set up a 20-yard Felipe Macias field goal that put the Eagles up 31-16 early in the fourth period. “We’ve never had back-to-back big games like this, and we were determined to build on last week (a 52-24 rout of Northern Arizona) and just do our thing.
“He (Smith) ran all over us last year (in a 19-14 WSU win) and we were determined not to have that happen again.
Still, it took the gutsy fourth-down call and perfect execution of the fake sneak to lock up the win.
“That was something we practiced all week,” Nichols said of play that sealed things for the Eagles. “We’ve been running a lot of quarterback sneaks the last three or four weeks on third- or fourth-and-short, and Weber, the whole first half, kept plunging guys underneath us so I couldn’t get any drive.
“There have been times in the past where I might have been overly excited and overthrown that pass. But I knew I had to make the play, just step back and follow Nate. He was wide open, and he’s a big target, so if I would have overthrown him, it would have been a pretty terrible pass.”
Overbay, a 6-foot-5, 260-pound sophomore, admitted he had some anxious moments waiting for the ball to arrive.
“It gets to you,” he said. “I was more worried about slipping and falling than I was about catching the ball, because the conditions out there were so horrible.”
That prompted Overbay to further extol the play of Nichols.
“Even with muddy hands out there, he’ll throw a perfect spiral for a touchdown,” he said of his young quarterback, who shook off several early drops by his receivers to put together another outstanding performance. “It’s ridiculous how good he is. Even under pressure, he’s perfect. He doesn’t get worried, he scrambles very well – especially in the mud – and always seems to make a perfect throw.
“We’ve reached the point where we don’t worry about the quarterback position any more.”
Along with all of the hurt he put on the Wildcats with his arm, Nichols also managed to rush for 103 yards on 15 carries without committing a turnover.
“I kept telling our kids the key to the game was turnovers and ball security,” Wulff said, “and that whoever took care of the ball best would win. And that’s how it turned out.”
Nichols called the playing conditions “as bad, or worse, than they probably seemed.”