EWU story lines
In the 33-year history of the NCAA’s Football Championship Subdivision, only three schools – Georgia Southern (1985-86 and 1999-200), Youngstown State (1993-94) and Appalachian State (2005-06-07) – have successfully defended their national titles.
Defending FCS champion Eastern Washington has a chance to join that elite list this fall. And the Eagles, with 15 starters returning from last year’s team – including senior quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell, the Most Outstanding Player in the 20-19 title game victory over Delaware – seem capable of a repeat.
Early season respect
Coming off last year’s riveting championship run, Eastern has earned an unprecedented amount of respect. The Eagles will start the 2011 season ranked No. 1 in both The Sports Network/Fathead.com and FCS Coaches’ Polls. In addition, seven of fourth-year head coach Beau Baldwin’s returning players – Mitchell, senior defensive tackle Renard Williams, senior safety Matt Johnson, senior linebacker Zach Johnson, junior wideout Brandon Kaufman and senior offensive linemen Chris Power and Gabriel Jackson – have been named preseason All-Americans.
Six of those players, with Mitchell being the surprise exception, were selected to the preseason All-Big Sky Conference team, along with junior safety Jeff Minnerly and senior special teams standout Darriell Beaumonte.
In addition, Matt Johnson and Williams have been named to the Buchanan Award watch list, while Mitchell and Kaufman have been named to Walter Payton Award watch list.
Filling the holes
Despite the large number of returning starters, the graduation losses of Buchanan Award winner J.C. Sherritt and starting corners Dante Calcote and Jesse Hoffman, coupled with the early exit of All-American running back Taiwan Jones, has left Baldwin with some big holes to fill.
But helping ease the concern has been the emergence of seniors Alden Gibbs and Jeremy Chaten and sophomores T.J. Lee III and Ronald Baines at the cornerback spots; the improvement in the play of linebackers Grant Williams, Tyler Washburn, both juniors, and senior Bobby Gentry, and the fierce preseason competition at running back, where Beaumonte, sophomores Mario Brown and Demetrius Bronson and impressive freshmen Jordan Talley and Quincy Forbes are battling to replace Jones.
Through the looking glass
EWU is far from a lock to retain the regular-season Big Sky titled it shared with Montana State last fall. The Bobcats and Montana are both ranked in every preseason poll, and Sacramento State ranks among the most improved teams in the country.
Add in the number of unlikely comebacks the Eagles staged in 2010, along with the many friendly bounces and beneficial video replay decisions that were part of their magical championship season, and one can get an idea of just how difficult a repeat will be.
But neither Baldwin nor his players are shying away from the challenge.
“There’s nothing worse than being ranked No. 1 and losing that,” Matt Johnson said. “So we just want to continue building on last year. Like Coach Baldwin said, it would be nice to be ranked No. 1 at this same time next year.
“It won’t be easy, and we all know that. There will be a target on our backs every game, but that’s a good thing to have, because we’ve never had it before.”