Staffs with no secrets

Eastern Washington University’s Big Sky Conference football opener against Idaho State at Woodward Field on Saturday could have a little bit of everything – including “splinters and spiders,” according to second-year ISU coach John Zamberlin.

Zamberlin, who spent three seasons (1992-94) as an assistant at EWU and 10 seasons (1997-2006) as the head coach at Division-II Central Washington before hiring on with the Bengals, used the term during Wednesday’s BSC coaches’ conference call. To him, it describes the vast variety of personal connections between the members of his current coaching staff and that of first-year Eastern head coach Beau Baldwin, who worked under Zamberlin for six seasons (1997-2002) at CWU.

In pointing out his previous link to Baldwin, and noting that his current defensive coordinator Brian Strandley and quarterbacks coach Brian Jensen played high school football with Baldwin and EWU defensive backs coach Torey Hunter at Tacoma’s Curtis High School, Zamberlin said Saturday’s game has “all these kinds of different splinters and spiders.”

They don’t end with the intertwining of the coaching staffs mentioned by Zamberlin.

Strandley and Baldwin spent time together on Zamberlin’s staff at Central, along with Ryan Sawyer, who is Baldwin’s defensive line coach at Eastern. EWU defensive coordinator John Graham played for and coached under Zamberlin at CWU, and Eagles running backs coach Nat Conley was a record-breaking ball carrier for the Wildcats during Zamberlin’s tenure in Ellensburg.

When asked if the familiarity between the staffs made preparing for Saturday’s game easier or more difficult, Zamberlin said it made it “anything but easy.

“If anything, you become, probably, more paranoid on both sides,” he said. “You’re thinking, ‘Well, they think we’re going to do this, but … if they think we’re going to do this, then they’ll probably do that.’ So, you just prepare and go with your game plan and then make adjustments.”

Baldwin, who was in the weddings of both Strandley and Jensen, is looking forward to facing off against his former mentor and his other close friends on ISU’s staff.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” he said. “I have a ton of respect for Coach Zamberlin and what he did for me. Like I said, in the off-season they’re all very good friend of mine, but this week …”

Zamberlin added that he has many great memories from the days when Baldwin was on his staff at Central Washington.

“Beau is a great young coach and really did a great job for me at Central,” he said. “I have the utmost respect for him. He’s has a great staff (at Eastern) that works hard at the game of coaching.”

Century salute

Prior to Saturday’s kickoff – at approximately 12:15 p.m. – Eastern will present its “100 for 100” all-time football team that was selected over the summer to commemorate the school’s 100th year of football.

Nearly 50 of those selected are expected to be on hand for the ceremony.

At halftime the top “100 for 100” vote getters at each position will be revealed.

Halftime ceremonies will also include the induction of four new members – Kevin Sargent (football), Jack Benson (gymnastics), Gary Lindeblad (golf) and Maxine Davis (gymnastics) into Eastern’s Athletic Hall of Fame.

Higgins opens eyes

For the second week in a row, Weber State quarterback Cameron Higgins has been honored as the Big Sky’s offensive player of the week.

Higgins earned his latest honor by completing 21 of 33 passes for 380 yards and four touchdowns and running for another TD in the Wildcats’ 32-27 win over Sacramento State, prompting WSU coach Ron McBride to discuss the dramatic improvement in his sophomore quarterback.

“He’s matured a lot and he spends a lot more time watching film,” McBride said. “He’s more of a student of the game than he was when he was younger. And it’s paid off for him, because right now, he’s a very good player.”

Higgins has completed 80 of 123 passes for a conference-best 1,232 yards and 12 touchdowns, while throwing only three interceptions this year.

Quick kicks

In beating UC Davis 29-24 last weekend, Montana broke its Big Sky record for consecutive regular-season wins with 24. The previous mark was set by the Grizzlies from 1969-71. … Five BSC schools – Northern Arizona (second with 493.7 yards per game) Northern Colorado (seventh with 458), Weber State (13th with 432.8), Sacramento State (22nd with 408.2) and EWU (23rd with 406.7) are ranked among the nation’s top 25 Football Championship Subdivision teams in total offense. … Florida transfer Bryan Waggener threw for 402 yards in Northern Colorado’s 38-35 loss to Texas State last week – the second-highest single-game total in school history.