Song remains the same for EWU football team
Despite departure of QB Vernon Adams, Eagles’ goal is still national title
Judging by the football players’ attitude Monday afternoon, the cup is always half-full at Eastern Washington.
Even as quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. announced that he was moving on to Oregon, his former teammates were sweating it out in the weight room, preparing for spring ball and the 2015 season.
The news from Adams drew hardly a shrug, perhaps because it was expected.
“He’s a great quarterback, but it’s not going to set us back at all,” All-America offensive lineman Aaron Neary said after a set on the bench press.
“We still have the same goal: a national championship,” Neary said.
The bar is set pretty high these days in Cheney, partly because of Adams but mostly because of what the program accomplished before Adams set foot on campus: winning the national title in 2010.
That Adams couldn’t deliver another one speaks to many factors, though it was his fourth-down overthrow against Towson that helped cost the Eagles a return to the title game in 2013.
Want a telling stat? Since 2012, the Eagles are 26-6 when Adams started under center, but 10-3 when he didn’t.
With or without Adams, the Eastern progam is among the top in the Football Championship Subdivision, even after one of the most eventful, distracting offseasons in recent history:
- As Eastern competed in the playoffs, coach Beau Baldwin was rumored to be in the running for positions at Oregon State and Colorado State, among others.
- In response, the school gave Baldwin the biggest pay increase in his 7-year tenure, raising his base salary 27 percent, to $212,717.
- In late January, Baldwin announced a major staff shake-up, notably replacing longtime defensive coordinator John Graham with safeties coach Jeff Schmedding. Among other reasons, the change was made, in Baldwin’s words, to “push for even more.”
- Last week, moments before he announced this year’s crop of 21 high-school signees, Baldwin had to answer more questions about Adams.