Reality check time
Having easily disposed of Montana-Western 52-13 in its season opener 14 days ago, Eastern Washington University will face its first real challenge of the football season this evening when the University of California, Davis travels to Woodward Field for a non-conference game.
The Aggies (1-1) are coming off a 26-17 road win over Portland State, which entered last Saturday’s game ranked No. 18 among Football Championship Subdivision schools. The upset win over PSU helped UC Davis ease the sting of a 28-21 home loss to Western Washington in its season opener and give EWU coach Paul Wulff a much better idea of what to expect in tonight’s encounter.
“Beating Portland State after losing to Western Washington was a great comeback win for them,” Wulff said of the Aggies, who lost three fumbles, dropped four easy passes and had a chip-shot field-goal attempt blocked against WWU. “Against Portland State, they played the way they normally do, and beating a solid Big Sky team on the road was very impressive.
“It sounds like they were sloppy and kind of gave the game away against Western Washington. They will play a lot better (against us) – that’s just the kind of program they are.”
UC Davis coach Bob Biggs said his team let one slip away against WWU, but he liked the way it came back against Portland State, after falling behind 17-3 in the first half.
“We’re still a very, very young football team with a lot of redshirt freshmen and sophomore players,” Biggs said. “But I thought we played very, very physical and with a lot of confidence against Portland State, which was something we didn’t do against Western.
“We had some disasters happen last week, too, but the difference was that during that time we were down 17-3, there was a quiet confidence among our kids that we were going to come back – which is something you don’t always find in a young football team.”
One of the Aggies’ young standouts is redshirt freshman running back Joe Trombetta, who has amassed 429 all-purpose yards in his first two college games. The 6-foot, 201-pounder and former track standout at Casa Grande High School in Petaluma, Calif., is averaging 141 rushing yards and 73.5 receiving yards.
“For a freshman, he obviously has some talent,” Wulff said of Trombetta, whose media guide mug shot makes him look like a boy scout. “He’s obviously a big key for them, so we’ve got to find a way to slow him down.”
Biggs said Trombetta looks like someone straight out the “Leave it to Beaver” television series.
“He’s a real throwback to the ‘50s,” Biggs explained. “He’s got a great innocence about him, too, but he’s a hard worker and very likeable kid who knows what to do with the football once he gets it.
“The thing that excites me the most about him, though, is the improvement we see from one week to the next. In high school he just outran everybody, but up here he’s had to learn to be more patient, wait for his blockers and wait for the play to develop.”
Eastern (1-0) will play for the first time since Aug. 31, when sophomore quarterback Matt Nichols torched Montana-Western, an NAIA school, for six touchdown passes, while junior running back Dale Morris was rushing for 148 yards on just 16 carries.
Rust could be a factor, but Wulff is more concerned with the upgraded defensive challenges his offense will face.
“Defensively, they’re very aggressive, especially up front,” Wulff said of the Aggies. “They’ve got two defensive linemen (senior end James Amos and junior tackle John Faletoese) who are as good as we’ll see this year, and they do a very good job of creating pressure on the quarterback.”
Along with keeping the Aggies off Nichols’ back, the Eagles also need to get junior running back Alexis Alexander more involved in the offense.
“There’s no question that he needs to touch the ball more,” Wulff said of Alexander, a converted fullback, who looked sharp throughout fall camp but carried only once against Montana-Western.
Notes
Junior Terry Mixon, a two-time junior college All-American defensive back, who transferred from Washington State earlier this week, is eligible to play for EWU in tonight’s game and could, according to Wulff, see spot duty in the Eagles’ injury-riddled secondary. … UC Davis, which is 7-3 all time against Big Sky teams, lost in its only other meeting against Eastern Washington, 24-6, in Cheney in 2005.