Struggling Eagles Square Off With Nau
“Eight and three doesn’t sound so bad.”
It was a statement made earlier this week by a well-intentioned Eastern Washington football booster hoping to lift the spirits of Mike Kramer.
But Kramer, as the coach of a winless, struggling football team, can’t afford himself the luxury of looking eight games ahead let alone presuming his Eagles can run the table. “So I told him, ‘Right now, 1-3 sounds pretty good to me,”’ Kramer said, when asked about his response to the booster’s optimism.
And if that sounds like a thinly veiled version of that age-old coaching cliche of “playing them one game at a time,” it isn’t.
At 0-3 overall and 0-2 in the Big Sky Conference, Kramer and his Eagles have been relegated to playing them one play at a time. Which means looking beyond even the opening kickoff of tonight’s 6:35 Big Sky showdown against Northern Arizona (3-1, 0-1) at Woodward Stadium could be a big mistake.
“I’m not really concerned about the game,” Kramer said. “I’m more concerned with how we play on each down, and how we listen and respond to what our coaches are telling us. We’re physically talented enough to play better than we’re playing right now.
“I don’t want to slight NAU, or any of our future opponents, but right now our biggest enemy - by far - is ourselves. And if we can’t focus and make improvement play to play, we’re in for a rude awakening.”
It’s obvious that Kramer feels his Eagles have underachieved. And if that trend, perceived or otherwise, continues tonight against Northern Arizona, 1-4 might sound pretty good by next weekend.
The Lumberjacks come in riding the high of last Saturday’s 28-9 rout of Division II Western State and the return of record-setting quarterback Travis Brown.
Brown, a 6-foot-4, 210-pound junior, who threw for 6,793 yards and 43 touchdowns in his first two seasons at NAU, dislocated his left (non-throwing) elbow in the Lumber jacks’ second game of the season. He is expected to play for the first time in three weeks tonight.
It’s the kind of timing one might expect when things are going bad, but Kramer doesn’t seemed bothered by the latest bit of bad news.
“A dislocated elbow is a traumatic injury,” Kramer said, “so we’ll see. But I hope (Brown) is healthy and is going to play as well as possible, because he’s just a tremendous talent at quarterback.”
In Brown’s absence, the Lumberjacks dropped a 41-10 verdict to Cal State Northridge, the team that edged EWU 38-35 last Saturday. Kramer pointed out, however, that NAU stayed close to the Matadors until the final quarter.
“It just got away from them at the end,” Kramer said. “And I was really impressed with the way they bounced back from that loss to pound Western State.”
Kramer said the key to NAU’s success has been the play of its young offensive line, which features two redshirt freshmen, a sophomore and two juniors. “Last year their offensive line had five or six starters that had been there for a long time,” Kramer explained. “I thought there might be a dropoff, but this line is right there with that line right now - and they’re bigger.
“I’m really impressed with NAU, and I had hoped I wouldn’t have to be.”
First-year Lumberjacks coach Jerome Souers has used his surprisingly solid offensive front to shoulder the brunt of his thus-far conservative attack, which is averaging 317.5 yards per game. Junior tailback Tavon Cooper is averaging 5.5 yards per carry in an offense built around the run.
And EWU defensive coordinator Steve Kizer doesn’t expect the Lumberjacks to change their philosophy, even with Brown back under center.
“They’re not got to re-pattern their offense just because one person is back,” said Kizer, whose defense is giving up an average of 417.7 yards per game - including 161.7 on the ground. “They’re about a 60-percent run team and they’ve got to feel like they can run the ball against us.
“I don’t think they’re going to change much. They’ve got, basically, four running plays and they dare you to stop them.”