What Eags did on summer vacation worked

First-year Eastern Washington University head football coach Beau Baldwin liked what he saw during the Eagles’ opening practice Friday, which means Baldwin also liked what the majority of the players did on their own over summer.

There was no contact and players won’t pad up until early next week, but the Eagles were generally sharp on opening day, particularly the high-octane offense that returns many of the important pieces that helped put up 33.6 points per game in 2007.

One indication: The football rarely touched the ground, whether it was in skeleton or team drills.

“We get them for a short window in spring – 15 practices,” said Baldwin, EWU’s offensive coordinator from 2003-06 who returned to replace Paul Wulff, now the head coach at Washington State. “I give so much credit to the receivers and quarterbacks, because you can’t build that sort of timing and continuity without their hard work through the summer.”

Junior quarterback Matt Nichols said the Eagles have been highly motivated since losing in the 2007 Football Championship Subdivision quarterfinals to eventual national champion Appalachian State. Another helping of motivation arrived a couple of weeks ago when 10-time Big Sky defending champion Montana was picked to repeat in preseason polls with EWU at No. 2.

“It was a really good first day,” said Nichols, the conference offensive player of the year last season. “All summer long, coming out here and throwing with all the guys, we have a really big chip on our shoulders from how last season ended. We felt we had a really poor performance against the best team in the country. We felt like we deserved to be in that spot and we’re doing everything we can to get back there.”

That includes junior Aaron Boyce, who had team-highs with 1,308 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns in 2007. He wasn’t able to participate much this summer while recovering from shoulder surgery in the spring, but he was recently cleared to practice.

Numerous players on both sides of the ball showed off the results of summer conditioning.

“Looking at their flexibility and the way some of the guys were moving, (strength and conditioning) coach Jeff Carroll spent a lot of time and one of his biggest goals was turning some of these guys into better athletes,” Baldwin said. “I really see that from where we were in the spring.”

Baldwin said most of the next two weeks will be devoted to improving fundamentals and putting in base schemes on offense and defense.

“Our camp, no matter who we’re playing in game one, would not be any different,” he said. “As we get closer to game week or the tail end of camp, then we’ll start gearing up for (the Aug. 30 season opener at) Texas Tech.”

Baldwin has no intention of making wholesale changes to EWU’s camp or playbook.

“There are a lot of (camp) similarities to what Paul did and what I did when I was an assistant here,” he said. “As we go along I would guess there would be some subtle changes. You try to make smart changes. As recently as last year these players have been very successful and I want to make sure we keep them going on certain paths that brought them success last year.”

Notes

Nichols weighs 228 pounds after finishing last season at about 222. He was 217 pounds at the start of camp last year. … Baldwin said all of the veterans expected to be at practice were on hand for the afternoon session. Sixteen newcomers practiced in the morning. Baldwin said a couple of others are still trying to receive academic clearance. “Top to bottom we have a solid group there,” he said.