The foundation has been built
Paul Wulff believes Eastern Washington has built a house in the high-rent district of I-AA football, but he gets a little melancholy when he thinks about this year’s seniors that helped with the construction.
“The impact these guys have had, they’ve seen so many things change,” the sixth-year head coach said. “They’ve seen the program turn around from the facilities, to becoming a high-level program. We feel now we’ll have a Top 25 program year-in and year-out. They brought that foundation to the program, they were kind of the bottom of the house. Now it’s up to the other guys to keep that house going.”
Eastern says goodbye to those 14 seniors on Saturday when they close the regular season against UC Davis at Woodward Field.
“It’s been a long ride but it’s sad it could be coming to an end,” all-league cornerback Isaiah Trufant said. “I got to meet a great group of guys. As we progressed we got better and better. We feel we somewhat turned this program around.”
Though this group harbors hope that the best is yet to come – they can slip into the playoffs with a little help on Saturday – they will leave an impressive legacy.
The Eagles have a string of seven straight winning seasons, highlighted by last year’s 9-4 record that included a share of the Big Sky Conference championship and a win over an undefeated top-ranked team in the first round of the playoffs.
Eight of the 14 seniors who will be introduced prior to the 2:05 p.m. kickoff earned all-league recognition. The team earned the No. 7 spot in last season’s final Top 25 poll, as well as a preseason ranking of No. 4 this fall.
“There are a lot of memories,” quarterback Erik Meyer said. “It’s kind of sad but it’s been a fun ride.”
Though this group began contributing early, the heights to which the Eagles soared were unimagined.
“Back in our redshirt year, I really didn’t think Erik Meyer was all that good,” wide receiver Eric Kimble said. “We talked about his sloppy balls, he didn’t have accuracy. We talked about it, we told him he wasn’t good, he was going to be an average player, or not even average.
“We didn’t have big dreams, it just kind of built up. You could see the change in Erik Meyer and the 2001 recruiting class. He proved us wrong.”
Meyer had good numbers as a redshirt freshman backing up Big Sky Offensive MVP Josh Blankenship; Kimble was a second-team all-league receiver with 45 receptions; and mighty mite cornerbacks Trufant and Jesse Hendrix started from the get-go.
True freshman linebacker Joey Cwik and offensive lineman Kraig Sigler had multiple starts because of injuries, and offensive lineman Randy Meade, defensive back Muhammad Shamsid-Deen and wide receiver Raul Vijil each had a start.
As they continually progressed on the field, they were also doing the job off the field. Eight different players have combined for all-conference academic honors 16 times with more to come.
“This is the most competitive and most complete class when it comes to academics and their competitiveness in the weight room, on the practice field and in games,” Wulff said. “They want to win. They’re very strong willed. They’ve been through a lot. They’ve worked as hard as you could ask anybody through their four or five years.”
It started with early bonding.
“We’ve been tight right from the first day we got here,” Trufant said.
Cwik confirmed that closeness of the seniors. He came in a year later than the rest but didn’t redshirt and was quickly accepted.
“When you get here you wonder what your niche is, everybody does,” he said. “I don’t know what other schools are like, but at Eastern they kind of take you under their wing.”
Meyer and Kimble became the face of the program.
The numbers they have piled up are staggering, and between them they hold virtually every Eastern passing and receiving record, a couple of league marks and have consistently been among the national leaders.
Meyer only started one year in high school at LaMirada, Calif., but is a three-year starter for EWU. Kimble was a standout running back and basketball player out of Tacoma.
With Meyer as the main trigger man, Kimble has caught 239 passes for 3,924 yards and 43 touchdowns in 43 games. A punt return standout, he was an All-American last season when he caught 83 passes for 1,453 yards and 19 touchdowns.
Meyer has completed 66 percent of his passes (685 of 1,034) for 9,740 yards and 78 touchdowns. He was the Big Sky offensive MVP last season when he led the nation in passing efficiency at 171.4 by throwing for 3,707 yards and 31 touchdowns. In 40 career games he has throw just 17 interceptions.
The rest of the receiving corps also came in and stayed together. Craig McIntyre, a walk-on, Vijil, a soccer star who played one year in high school, and Richmond Sanders, who had his 2005 season cut short by an injury, have combined for 232 catches, 3,471 yards and 25 touchdowns.
“It has definitely been fun to watch those guys from the sidelines do what they do best: making plays,” Hendrix said. “In practice it was all about competition. As a combination, they’re probably the deadliest combination I’ve ever had to compete against. That’s why we all made each other better.”
As Meyer and Kimble piled up the numbers, Trufant and Hendrix were also earning all-league honors.
“They are pretty much the best cornerbacks we face,” Kimble said. “They really built Meyer and I up to what we are because of the competition we faced throughout the years (in practice).”
The rest of the class includes all-league fullback Lars Slind, one of the academic standouts, oft-injured backup linebacker Jake Young, and backup defensive lineman Marc Keefer.
Defensive linemen Harrison Nikolao and Garrett Quinn, who sat out for academic reasons in 2001, are skipping Senior Day because they plan to return next season.
Two other players in Cwik’s class played as freshman, tight end Tim Calhoun, who earned all-league honors, and wide receiver Brandon Keeler. Calhoun has since missed two seasons with injuries but has returned to all-league form. Keeler redshirted his second season and returned as an all-league free safety.
These Eagles have made memories – most point to last year’s comeback overtime win at Montana State that clinched a share of the Big Sky title – but the best have come off the field.
“I was hanging with the seniors the other day thinking how much we’ve grown up,” Meyer said. “I have great memories of these guys.”
Hendrix agreed.
“I went through a lot of changes here, changes in my life,” he said. “I did a lot of growing up here. The best memory has to be coming in not knowing what to expect at all and meeting these guys, friends I’ll have for the rest of my life.”