From a historical perspective, Nevada – Eastern Washington’s opponent at noon Saturday in Reno – stands as a success story and a model for teams that may wish to climb the ranks of college football.
Eastern Washington head coach Aaron Best frequently talks about how unpredictable college football can be, considering that the players are anywhere from 18 to 23 years old.
Even though Eastern Washington’s game Saturday at Southeastern Louisiana is a rematch of a contest played only 12 months ago, the Eagles’ matchup with the Lions is in many ways a mysterious one.
The SEC decimated the Mountain West. So did the Big Ten. And the Big 12. And the ACC. The Pac-12 finished the job Thursday when it stripped the Mountain West of its top football schools, leaving behind a conference in peril.
After the conference picked up another win over an FBS opponent last weekend, the Big Sky’s matchups Saturday are almost entirely about proving the conference’s teams can handle others their own size.
It would be difficult to point to one particular play or one definitive reason in explaining how, exactly, the Eastern Washington football team frittered away the opportunity it had Saturday evening at Roos Field.
It looks as if Roos Field’s moniker as “The Inferno” is going to take on a more literal meaning on Saturday afternoon, when Eastern Washington will host Drake in the Eagles’ second game of the season.
There wasn’t anything particularly remarkable, at least initially, about the three touchdowns of Efton Chism III last week against Monmouth (New Jersey).
The non-league games that are usually played in August and September can be key indicators to determine the relative strength of conferences, and this year there are more of those games than ever because of the extra weekend during the FCS calendar.
