No. 16 Montana not overlooking Eastern Washington despite poor record

Unquestionably, the Eastern Washington football team is having a down year.

The Eagles are 2-7 overall and 1-5 in conference play. Should they go winless in their next two games – at Montana on Saturday and at home to close out the season the following week against Northern Colorado – the Eagles would finish lower in the Big Sky standings than they have since a 1-6 season in 1995. That season they finished eighth in what was then an eight-team conference.

But the Eagles’ poor record hasn’t led Montana to take the Eagles lightly heading into their contest at Washington-Grizzly Stadium this weekend.

“Eastern’s a very skilled team,” Montana coach Bobby Hauck said during his media availability on Monday. “They’ve got a lot of weapons, particularly on the offensive side. I’m concerned with a lot of things they’re doing.

“They view it as a rivalry game, and coach (Aaron) Best and his staff always do a nice job of preparing for us.”

Montana (6-3, 3-3) is ranked 16th in this week’s FCS Stats Perform Top 25, a poll Eastern Washington fell out of more than a month ago.

The Eagles haven’t stopped the run all season (they rank last nationally in rushing yards allowed), and the Grizzlies are coming off a 57-0 victory over Cal Poly in which they ran for 412 yards. Redshirt sophomore Nick Ostmo had 221 of those on 26 carries. He scored two touchdowns.

When these programs met last December in a playoff game in Missoula, Eastern outgained Montana 608-368.

But thanks largely to Eastern’s miscues and Montana’s strong special teams play, the Grizzlies started five drives on the Eagles’ side of the field. When they did have the ball, they ran effectively: 36 times for 208 yards.

That ended in a 57-41 victory for the Grizzlies.

“It wasn’t a fun bus ride home,” Best said .

Yet this is a different Eastern Washington team than the one that went 10-3 in what was Best’s fifth season as head coach.

“We’re a new team,” Best said. “The ’22 team is different than the ’21 team.”

That Eastern Washington team was led by seniors at just about every position group, none more prominent than Walter Payton Award-winning quarterback Eric Barriere, who set a number of program records for career, season and single-game statistics during his tenure.

The Eagles also relied heavily on senior linebackers Jack Sendelbach and Ty Graham as well as safety Calin Criner, a trio that finished with the three highest tackle totals on the team.

Flanking Barriere were senior receivers Talolo Limu-Jones and Andrew Boston, each of whom had 14 receptions in the playoff game at Montana last year. Protecting Barriere’s blindside was left tackle Tristen Taylor, the program’s all-time leader in starts.

Eastern simply hasn’t replaced those players’ production this season.

Senior quarterback Gunner Talkington ranks third in the Big Sky in passing yards (2,308) and second in touchdowns (22), but his efficiency rating ranks sixth in the conference, one spot behind Montana quarterback Lucas Johnson.

“I think (the losing) definitely hurts (Talkington) for sure, because he’s putting a lot more on himself than people realize,” sophomore receiver Efton Chism III said this week.

“He’s taking it on the chin, but I think people don’t understand how much he cares. He’s trying everything to win for us.”

At receiver, junior Freddie Roberson leads the team with 718 yards and seven touchdowns, but his per-game pace of 79.8 yards doesn’t match that of Limu-Jones’ a year ago (102 per game and 1,122 total on the season).

On defense, the Eagles have struggled to stop just about everyone they’ve played. They held Cal Poly – the Big Sky’s only team without a conference win – to 10 points, but otherwise each opponent has scored at least 29 .

They have also dealt with injuries to a number of starters, such as senior captain Anthany Smith at safety, junior cornerback Darrien Sampson, junior tackle Joshua Jerome and sophomore linebacker Ahmani Williams.

Williams returned against Idaho and made two tackles, and Jerome has played the past four games after missing the games at Florida and Weber State.

But they played last week without tackles Caleb Davis and Soli Paleso’o, and across the defense just four seniors – defensive ends Debore’ae McClain and Mitchell Johnson, linebacker Jaren Banks and safety Keshaun King – are significant, healthy contributors.

“I’m just trying to take it game by game. I don’t want to think about the last game of the season too soon,” King said after the 48-16 loss to Idaho. “It’s good seeing the younger guys get in because they have a bright future, and so they need to get these reps early and be able to get the feel for the game before going into next season.”

In that sense, then, these games are certainly important for the Eagles, and winning would make the finish all the sweeter.

“It would honestly make the season so much better, especially beating these guys,” junior receiver Anthony Stell Jr. said this week, referring to Montana. “It’s going to be tough. Yeah, they did put us out of the playoffs last year, but we have the chance to knock them out of the playoffs this year.”

Best, too, highlighted the fact that the Eagles still have two games left. That alone is worth enjoying, he said.

“It’s always fun to compete,” Best said. “Guys love to compete no matter who it is, or when it is, and we’ve competed really well this year. We just haven’t been on the winning side of the competition very often.

“So if our mentality stays together, which it has been, provide that, a little bit of luck and opportunity, who knows what could happen?”