Eagles zip through final spring practice
As befitting a team that tied for the Big Sky Conference title and fell one play short of advancing to the final four of the I-AA playoffs, the Eastern Washington University football team took it easy on the final day of spring practice.
With soggy conditions and a number of minor injuries limiting their options, the Eagles quickly ran through 58 plays Saturday in their annual Red and White game that capped a four-week, 15-practice spring.
“(The rain) kind of took away some of the things we wanted to do, and it always makes things a little sloppier than you like,” said EWU head coach Paul Wulff. “We also knew we were trying to make this quick. We got some things done, (but) the majority of our work was done in the first 14 (practices). Now it’s about getting ready these next three months for August.”
The Eagles, who were 9-4 last season, 6-1 in the Big Sky, will reunite the second week of August to prepare for their Sept. 3 opener at San Jose State.
The No. 1 defense allowed 28 yards in 18 plays, forcing seven three-and-outs and allowing just one first down.
The No. 1 offense had two touchdowns.
The first was a 28-yard pass from All-America quarterback Erik Meyer to fullback Lars Slind deep down the middle. A play fake that fooled the television cameramen on the sidelines allowed Slind to get wide open to cap a five-play, 60-yard drive.
The other score was a 7-yard draw by running back Dezmon Cole, capping a nine-play, 60-yard drive. Backup quarterback Chris Peerboom, directing the No. 1 offense in a 2-minute drill just before halftime, hit 5 of 6 passes for 61 yards. He started the drive with a 23-yard completion to Brett Bergstrom and overcame a penalty and a sack by hitting Raul Vijil for a 17-yard gain on fourth down.
Despite four sacks, including two by Larry Raynes, the offense had 49 yards rushing on 31 attempts. Oregon State transfer Ryan Cole led the way with 36 yards on seven carries.
Peerboom finished 13 of 18 for 141 yards and Meyer was 3 of 6 for 40.
Eleven players caught passes, with five grabbing two. Sam Togar led the way with 37 yards and Slind had 32.
On defense, safety Nick Denbeigh had six tackles and Muhammad Shamsid-Deen had five.
“If you want to compare it to other years, it seemed to be really solid,” Wulff said of the spring. “We expect that. We have a veteran team with a lot of players who have been here and played a lot of football. They know what our expectations are and they have expectations for themselves and the direction where we’re headed. … Obviously, we need the fall to be better. That’s what the next three months are for.”
There were four major areas of concern Wulff wanted to address as spring practice began. For the most part, he was satisfied with the progress:
Offensive line, at which two starting tackles needed to be replaced.
“Right now, of all the positions on our football team, it has the furthest to go,” Wulff said. “It’s very important this summer that our players come back, particularly in the offensive line, and make really large strides in terms of getting bigger and stronger.”
Running back, at which the top two ground gainers are gone.
“Ryan Cole continued to get better as spring went along, along with Toke Kefu,” Wulff said. “Dezmon Cole showed some really good flashes at times. We feel really good about those three guys, their abilities, and Lars Slind at fullback.”
Defensive line, at which two starters are gone.
“Larry Raynes getting back on the field is going to help us,” Wulff said. “Johnny Hanson, the development of Jason Belford, Taylor Summers and Kose Kuaea, we feel good there. And Charlie Wolfe is coming off a knee injury in the fall.”
Kicking game, since neither Sheldon Weddle nor Skylar Allen seized the job last fall.
“We still need to solidify who our kicker is going to be in the fall,” Wulff said. “Today I’m not 100 percent sure on that. We were hoping that we would have found that answer. I’m not sure that we’ve found that just yet. Again, it will be a competition as far as we can take it.”Meyer was pleased with the progress on his side of the ball.
“Especially with our transfer Ryan Cole,” the senior from California said. “We had some pretty big shoes to fill in our backfield, and with him and our other running backs, they really stepped up. Our line has really stepped up and looked really good.”
Linebacker Joey Cwik was also pleased.
“We improved a lot from last spring,” the senior out of Mead said. “Last spring we just put in our new defense. … We’ll be able to execute a lot better. We were focusing on four things this spring: compete, tackle, lead and attack. That was the emphasis the coaches had. For the most part we accomplished those, taking it one step at a time.”