Opponent aside, Eagles focus on playing solid football

Forget the opponent.

Paul Wulff and his Eastern Washington University Eagles are ready for some football.

“And I don’t think anybody around here cares who we play right now, whether it’s USC or some high school team,” said Wulff, Eastern’s eighth-year head coach.

As it turns out, the Eagles’ opponent in tonight’s season-opener, which kicks off at 7:05 at Woodward Field, is a University of Montana-Western team that falls somewhere in between.

The Bulldogs, an NAIA school based in Dillon, Mont., come in with a spotty resume that includes a dismal 1-9 record last fall. It is unlikely that a win – even a lopsided one – would do much for Eastern’s national prestige, but Wulff still doesn’t expect any problems as far as motivation is concerned.

“We need to play, and we want to play,” he said. “We’ve worked hard all fall and during the spring, and we’re ready to finally play a football game.”

Montana-Western, which plays in the Frontier Conference, returns 15 starters and features a spread offense that promises to present some defensive challenges for Eastern.

“Offensively, they do a nice job,” Wulff said of the Bulldogs, who are coached by Tommy Lee. “They have a nice scheme. They spread you out and throw the ball quite well, and they’ve got a lot of their offensive line back, so they have some experience up front.

“They lost a lot of really close ballgames last year with a very young football team, and I think they envision they’re going to be much better this year, based on the returning kids they have in their program.”

The Bulldogs are still unsettled at the quarterback position, where senior Keali’l Perbera and first-year transfer Kekoa Crowell are in a heated battle to replace last year’s starter Travis Blome, who threw for 2,234 yards and 14 touchdowns.

But they return their top two rushers – Derrick Pluff and Kaleo Igarta – along with four starters on the offensive line.

On defense, however, Lee has some holes to fill, particularly in the secondary, where senior Adam Ridgeway is the sole returning starter.

“They’re very aggressive on defense, and they play hard,” Wulff said.

Eastern, which is looking to bounce back from a disappointing 3-8 finish last season, will counter with an experienced – but still young – offense that is led by sophomore quarterback Matt Nichols, who suffered through his share of growing pains as a rookie starter last fall.

Still, according to Wulff, the Eagles’ focus in tonight’s game will be centered on themselves, rather that what the Bulldogs may or may not bring.

“It’s one of those situations where we need to focus on ourselves and go out and execute what we’ve been working so hard on,” Wulff said. “And, by all rights, that has nothing to do with who we’re playing.

“It has to do with fundamentals, techniques, assignments and performing at a high level.”

Tonight’s game will mark the first time EWU has opened its season at home against a lower-division opponent since 1997, when the Eagles finished 12-2 and advanced to the semifinals of the Division I-AA playoffs.

Eastern holds a 7-0 edge in the series, but the two schools have not met since 1982.