Eagles getting back at it
Eastern Washington University officially buried a long off-season of discontent on Monday by opening fall football camp with a pair of fast-paced, spirited practices.
Eighth-year head coach Paul Wulff and his staff put 20 incoming freshman through a 75-minute workout Monday morning and then welcomed back about 70 returning players for an afternoon session that lasted just over two hours.
Afterward, Wulff once again expressed satisfaction over the way his veterans responded over the winter after suffering through a dismal 3-8 season last fall that left them tied with Weber State for sixth place in the Big Sky Conference.
“It’s time,” Wulff said, “and, obviously, it’s been a long time coming. Since last November, I’ve been waiting to get back at it, and all of the kids have, too.
“You can go back and look since last November until now and see that we’ve done a lot of really good things during the off-season. So, we’re proud of the progress our kids made, but now we’ve reached a new phase where we need to take another step to where, hopefully, all of that hard work will translate into improvement.”
Sophomore quarterback Matt Nichols, who started the last 10 games of 2006 as a rookie, threw the ball exceptionally well during padless drills on Monday and seems much more confident than he did last fall, when he threw for 1,749 yards and eight touchdowns, but was picked off 17 times.
“This is completely different than last year when I was really more just fighting for a job,” the 6-foot-2, 220-pounder from Cottonwood, Calif., said. “This year, I feel like I have more respect from my teammates, so I can just come out and take charge.”
Nichols and his young group of receivers, which is made up predominantly of fellow sophomores, stayed on campus most of the summer and worked out regularly in an effort to wash away the lingering taste of last fall’s meltdown that produced Eastern’s first losing record in seven seasons.
“There’s really good chemistry between us, just with all of us coming in the same class,” Nichols explained. “They’re all my best friends, so we came out and worked hard all summer. Any time we were bored, it was like, ‘Let’s go throw.’
“Now, we all have a year under our belts and we realize how fast the game is, how much you need to know and how you can’t afford to mess up – even on the little things. All of us have loads more confidence this year.”
Wulff expects his young skill position players to be greatly improved, but admits they are far from being finished products.
“They’re better, they’re definitely better,” he said. “But they’re not where they need to be for us to win a championship today. It’s going to depend on how hard we work and how much we accomplish.”
When asked what newcomers might be asked to contribute immediately, Wulff pointed to junior college transfers Ryan Kelly, a junior cornerback from College of San Mateo (Calif.) and Felipe Macias, a junior placekicker from Moorpark (Calif.) College.
Of his incoming freshmen, Wulff said, “For the first day and judging them for an hour and 15 minutes, we were very impressed. Some kids are in very good shape and some aren’t, which is typical. But talent-wise, absolutely. There is a tremendous amount of talent, potentially, in that group.”
On the injury front, both senior safety Gregor Smith and senior offensive tackle Matt Alfred are hurting. Smith, who has been plagued by injuries throughout his career, had shoulder surgery during the off-season and has another MRI scheduled later this week.
Alfred is nursing a bad knee, but Wulff is hoping to have him available for the Eagles’ Aug. 31 home and season opener against Montana-Western.