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Eastern Washington University Football

‘Eastern is a family’: Wyatt Musser, former Kamiakin grads, illustrate EWU’s relationship-minded recruiting

By Dan Thompson For The Spokesman-Review

Call him an idealist, but Wyatt Musser would rather not lose a football game. Ever.

To him, losing to Florida – as Eastern Washington did last weekend – is no easier to take just because the Gators play in the SEC, what he considers “the baby of the NFL.”

“I hate it, and I hate it,” Musser said. “I only like to win.”

Call him spoiled, but Musser hasn’t had to deal with much losing in his time at Eastern: He has played 50 of a possible 51 games with the Eagles since the start of the 2018 season, and the Eagles have won 35 of those contests.

Granted an extra year of eligibility due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Musser has taken advantage of it to spend a sixth year in Cheney. This gives him a shot to climb into second on the team’s career games played list, which is led by Tristen Taylor, his former teammate who set the high mark when he played in his 60th game last season.

“I’m to the point where I’m just having fun,” Musser said. “This fall is all about memories.”

But he’d rather those be memories of winning, something the Eagles are eager to do again this Saturday at Weber State in Ogden, Utah.

It’s a game the 24th-ranked Eagles can hardly afford to lose. They are 1-3 overall and 0-1 in the Big Sky, but they still have games against three teams currently ranked among the top 10 in the FCS. That includes No. 7 Weber State (4-0, 1-0), No. 5 Sacramento State (4-0, 1-0) and No. 3 Montana (5-0, 2-0).

Call it a must-win, but then to Musser, that’s just how he approaches every game.

“It is always a must-win, every week,” he said. “That’s how I play it.”

Musser and the Kamiakin line

Musser is part of a couple unique fraternities on the Eastern Washington roster, and both of those groups say something about the way Eastern goes about recruiting.

As one of the team’s 12 players to graduate from high school in 2017, he is among the team’s oldest.

He is also one of four current Eastern players who played at Kamiakin High School in the Tri-Cities. Last year, there were five of them, counting Darreon Moore, who opted not to come back for a sixth season as Musser did.

Of the other three – all of whom are redshirt freshmen – running back Tuna Altahir has seen the most time on the field this season. Through four games, he has 26 carries for 71 yards along with three receptions for another 12. Tight end Messiah Jones and wide receiver Woodley Downard have not yet appeared in a game.

For Altahir, the familiarity of having Musser and Moore already on campus certainly helped in his recruiting process because he was able to hear not just what coaches had to say but what fellow Kamiakin graduates’ experiences had been like.

Four grades younger, Altahir hadn’t played with Musser in high school, but he’d watched the offensive lineman play since he was a little kid.

“Finally getting to play with him for the first time (at Eastern),” Altahir said, “it was a pretty cool memory.”

Eastern has more players from Kamiakin than it does from any other high school, though a few are close. There’s a trio from Rainier Beach (receivers Freddie Roberson and Anthony Stell Jr. plus cornerback Darrien Sampson), another trio from Monroe (receiver Efton Chism III, defensive tackle Josh Jerome and running back Isaiah Lewis), and then three more from Graham-Kapowsin (receivers Robert Mason III and Malaki Roberson as well as running back Micah Smith).

None of that is particularly purposeful per se – Altahir, Jones and Downard were not a package deal – but it is a product of what forms the foundation of all recruiting: relationships.

“I think having guys on the roster enhances that relationship a little, but in the same frame, you’ve got to treat each class as its own,” said Marc Anderson, EWU’s tight ends coach, associate head coach and recruiting coordinator. “Wyatt had a great relationship with those three, and that helped out a little bit, but when you see guys on your team and you see they come from a certain high school, that high school probably went about things the right way.”

Not coincidentally, schools like Monroe and Kamiakin have long participated in the camps Eastern hosts during the summer, Anderson said. Those are another means by which coaches and players on both sides of recruiting build those relationships.

Anderson’s recruiting zones include the Tri-Cities, so he is the point person for schools like Kamiakin.

“It’s a fun area to be in because there’s really good, quality high school football and great people,” Anderson said.

The staff sets a goal that every few years they visit every high school football team in the state, regardless of level, Anderson said. That’s more challenging for an FCS school than it is for programs like Washington or Washington State, but it’s important to Eastern to canvas the state for “EKGs” – Eastern Kind of Guys, Anderson said.

“Just being thorough and working hard is the biggest piece,” Anderson said. “You’re going to miss guys, but hopefully you don’t miss guys in the state.”

At the core of those relationships is head coach Aaron Best, who has been with the program as a coach or player for 26 years, longer than any recruits have been alive. That’s something Anderson said is a powerful message when talking to recruits.

Jay Hill, now 62-36 as Weber State’s head coach in eight-plus seasons there, said this week that the longevity he and Best have had at their respective programs is certainly a factor of having an “all-in” mentality.

“Weber State’s been good to me and my family, and we love it in Ogden. I love the program and I love the players, and I know Aaron Best feels the same way (about Eastern),” Hill said. “These programs have been good to us, but there’s no way to be successful unless you’re all in.”

Best wasn’t the Eagles’ head coach until very late in Musser’s recruiting process, but it was Best – then the team’s offensive line coach and run game coordinator – who reached out to Musser every week, the offensive lineman said, like clockwork.

“He’d call me before every Friday night football game. It’d be the same time, every time, to the T,” Musser said this week.

And where other coaches would be asking him about whether he was ready to commit, Musser said that wasn’t Best’s approach. Best would ask about family, about football and then he would say goodbye.

“He just asked how my week was going and if I was ready for the game,” Musser said.

This is the stretch run not just for Musser but for four other Eastern players who signed with the Eagles on Feb. 1, 2017, 10 days after Best was named the team’s head coach.

Musser admits his recruiting process was “a while back ago,” but he said he chose Eastern for the family atmosphere, something Altahir echoed.

Call just about any Eastern Washington player, and that’s what he’ll say when asked about why he decided to play for the Eagles.

“Coach Best made it feel like it was a family,” Altahir said. “He cared more than the others I talked to. He showed that Eastern is a family and it’s not just about football.”