Eastern prepares for Rubin
It doesn’t take a great memory to recall Portland State running back Ryan Fuqua slicing and dicing through the Eastern Washington University defense for 393 yards.
That happened four short years ago, when Fuqua was a freshman.
His next two encounters against the Eagles produced games of 264 and 111 yards, but he was sidelined by an injury last year when Eastern went to Portland.
The Vikings instead trotted out Joe Rubin, who rushed for a career-high 167 yards even though the Vikings fell behind early and lost 41-21.
The Eagles know Rubin is good, but his latest performance was Fuqua-esque. The senior out of Foss High in Tacoma torched Northern Colorado for 356 yards and five touchdowns last Saturday.
Guess who is coming to Woodward Field this weekend?
“I’m worried,” Eastern defensive coordinator Jody Sears said of Rubin. “He’s a man back there.”
Rubin, who is 5-foot-11, 230 pounds, produced the third-highest total in Big Sky Conference history, behind Fuqua and the 409 yards that Charles Roberts had for Sacramento State against Idaho State in 1999.
The Eagles will get a huge dose of Rubin. He had a school-record 47 carries despite not practicing all week because of a foot injury.
“I didn’t know how I would play,” Rubin told The Oregonian after the game. “But any of our backs could have run for 300 yards today. I wasn’t getting touched until I reached the safeties.”
PSU’s visit comes one week after Idaho State backs ran for 178 yards against the Eagles but just 52 in the second half.
“It just comes down to executing and tackling,” Sears said. “In the second half (at Idaho State) we did better. That’s what it comes down to this week.”
Eagles nest
Eastern got reinforcements for the defensive line with 290-pound George Lane transferring in from Missouri. He will be in uniform this weekend.
“We’ll see what he has (in practice),” defensive line coach Malik Roberson said. “We could use him right now if he is able to pick up how we do things. We have to see how good of shape he’s in.”
Lane, from Texas, went to College of the Siskiyous, a junior college in California, and arrives just in time to help a thin defensive line.
End Jason Belford was hurt at ISU and his status is uncertain. Tackle Garrett Quinn moved outside at Idaho State because ends Mike Wolfe (knee) and Jacob Kragt (shoulder) did not make the trip.
Wolfe, who came back from knee surgery to start the season opener, decided to quit on Monday. He had reinjured the knee against Western Oregon and wasn’t comfortable playing, EWU head coach Paul Wulff said.
Kragt is back, but like the other backup at end, Greg Peach, he’s an undersized true freshman.
The injury list keeps growing. Wide receiver Richmond Sanders, who hurt a shoulder at ISU, appears to be gone for the season.
Quick kicks
EWU quarterback Erik Meyer leads the nation in total offense at 356 yards a game, but he is only 12th in passing efficiency at 157.3 after leading the nation last season. The Eagles are first in passing offense (381.yards a game) and eight in total offense (485.3 yards). … Wide receiver Eric Kimble is fifth in the nation in receptions (7.33 a game) and yards (118 a game). Raul Vijil is 10th in yards (105.3) and 19th in receptions (6.0). … Kimble needs one catch to join the Big Sky top 10 in career receptions. He has a school-record 188. … Portland State’s game at Eastern will be the 600th in 59 seasons of football at the school, the last 10 at the I-AA level. The Vikings are 293-296-10 overall, 55-49 since moving up.
“Montana State’s 20-17 win over North Dakota State last Saturday, on a touchdown inside of 2 minutes, was the fifth fourth-quarter comeback win under quarterback Travis Lulay. … The win over then-No. 5 EWU equaled the highest-ranked victory in Idaho State history. … For the first time this season all eight conference teams are playing conference games and all will be televised live. The PSU at Eastern game is on SportsWest, picked up by KSKN, channel 22 in Spokane. Although each team plays seven conference games, the only other full conference weekends are Oct. 29 and Nov. 12. … Eight Big Sky players had at least 10 tackles last week, including Eastern’s Joey Cwik (13). Only nine players reached double figures in the first three weeks. Cwik is seventh on the school career list with 262.
“Five I-AA games were canceled because of Hurricane Rita. Southern, McNeese State, Nicholls State and Texas Southern all had their second game postponed or canceled. … For the third straight week the No. 1 team lost, this time Western Kentucky losing 37-14 at Auburn. Preseason No. 1 James Madison lost to a I-AA team (Coastal Carolina), but Southern Illinois also lost a I-AA game.