Passing game dominates first Eastern Washington football scrimmage
Aaron Best was in a generous mood Saturday.
After presiding over his first scrimmage, Eastern Washington’s new football coach gave solid grades to his players and a much-prized “Eastern Kinda Guy” T-shirt to junior safety Mitch Fettig.
Moments later, Best socialized with fans and friends and gave the media a nice dose of quotes, highlighted by his comparison of football to “face-to-face combat.”
By then, most of Best’s 85 players were long gone, replaced by a dozen or so young boys who were ready to celebrate the ninth birthday of Best’s son Tank.
Moving seamlessly to the end zone, Best was last seen divvying up pizza slices before driving the whole gang to a pitch-and-putt golf course.
And you think you had a full day.
There will be many of those for Best but few as satisfying as his first day in charge of a public scrimmage. About 100 fans were on hand, enduring temperatures in the lower 40s while Best put the Eagles through their paces.
That pace was fast and sometimes frenetic.
Without going into details, Best said, “We kind of have a number that we try and abide by as an offense as far as a certain amount of seconds on the play clock that we want to run a play.”
The Eagles went up-tempo for most of the scrimmage, which included a variety of situations: 80-yard drives, plus short-yardage and goal-line situations.
The offense got off to a quick start, as quarterback Gage Gubrud twice hit wide receiver Nsimba Webster on quick passes that Webster turned into touchdowns of 24 and 22 yards.
“We’re starting to get on the same page,” said Webster, who finished with six catches for 84 yards. “I’m not the only target, we have a lot of receivers who can make plays.”
The Eastern defense rallied, scoring on a safety and getting interceptions off Gubrud from Kurt Calhoun and Andrew Katzenberger.
Linebacker Ketner Kupp led the defense with six tackles. Brandon Montgomery and John Kreifels had five each.
Gubrud finished 12 for 19 for 194 yards.
Redshirt freshman quarterback Eric Barriere threw only nine passes but connected with Dre’ Sonte Dorton on the longest play of the day, an 85-yard touchdown pass.
Best and his offensive staff emphasized the running game with mixed results. Tamarick Pierce scored on a 10-yard run, but the backs need 33 carries to gain 75 yards.
“I’m not worried about yards per carry or long run/short runs. I just want runs called just so that we can teach off those moments,” Best said. “The running game is always the last thing that kind of takes form.”
The Eagles will practice again on Tuesday for next weekend’s scrimmage. The Red-White Spring Game is set for April 29.