Eastern Washington expects to face ‘fired up’ Incarnate Word team coming off loss in opener
From 2007 to 2021, Eastern Washington produced some of the best FCS programs in the country, winning at least 10 games in seven different seasons and reaching the playoffs 10 times.
The Eagles’ descent to decent in the last three seasons has coincided with the ascent of the Incarnate Word Cardinals, a program that looks a whole lot like Eastern did 18 years ago.
Consider the last four seasons for the Cardinals (0-1), which enter Saturday’s game in San Antonio ranked No. 5 in the FCS. They are 42-10 since the start of the 2021 season, making three appearances in the 24-team playoff bracket.
Two head coaches during that span are now head coaches elsewhere: Eric Morris, once Washington State’s offensive coordinator, now leads North Texas, while G.J. Kinne is at Texas State. Current head coach Clint Killough led the Cardinals to an 11-3 record last year and oversaw a 20-6 loss last week to Nicholls in the team’s season opener.
Even with that loss, there is no question that, in the estimation of EWU head coach Aaron Best, Incarnate Word is a premier program in the FCS, even if it lacks the championship that the Eagles boast.
“They’ll be fired up,” Best said at his weekly news conference on Tuesday. “They’ll be angrier than they would probably be with a win.”
In addition to the coaches who have gotten their start at Incarnate Word, the program has also produced a couple of notable quarterbacks. Cam Ward, the No. 1 pick in the latest NFL draft, made his mark at Washington State when he followed Morris there in 2022. Zach Calzada threw for 3,791 yards last season at Incarnate Word and was named a Walter Payton Award Finalist; this week, Kentucky named the transfer Calzada as its starting quarterback.
Richard Torres, a 6-foot-4 redshirt junior, threw three interceptions in last week’s 20-6 loss at Nicholls State, a less than ideal start for the Cardinals’ No. 1 quarterback. He completed 23 of 35 passes for 175 yards, and for the first time since 2017, Incarnate Word failed to score a touchdown.
But as the Eagles prepared for this game, Best was slow to put too much stock in a single performance, let alone a score.
“As much as you’d like to play your best ball every Saturday, that’s not going to be the case,” Best said. “Obviously they expected to play better than they did.”
Best pointed to two moments in the fourth quarter against Nicholls. The first was a third-and-8 play from the Nicholls 16-yard line when the Cardinals got a first down, only to have it called back by a holding penalty; the next play, Torres threw an interception. The other miscue came on a fourth-and-1 set from the Nicholls 6-yard line when the Cardinals were flagged for a holding call.
“It was closer than the score indicated,” Best said.
The Eagles have also had extra time to prepare for the Cardinals, as they started doing so long before last weekend’s game.
Much of that preparation was based on tendencies from last season, and EWU senior wide receiver Nolan Ulm conceded that there are limitations to that.
“Your team changes a lot in a year,” Ulm said last week following Eastern’s final scrimmage. “We know a little bit, but you know how it is. It’s kind of a mystery going in. Hopefully we’ll surprise them with what we’ve got.”
Eastern is plenty different itself. It has an entirely new starting offensive line in front of first-year starters Jared Taylor (at quarterback) and Malik Dotson (at running back). Ulm and Noah Cronquist are the team’s two most accomplished returning receivers, and Ulm is coming off an injury plagued 2024 season when he caught seven passes in four games.
Defensively, the Eagles will start just two seniors as well as five redshirt juniors who have yet to prove themselves at the FCS level. Much of what the Eagles will look like defensively under second-year coordinator Eric Sanders is unclear, given just how many players are getting their first crack at being full-time starters.
“I think that up front on both sides of the ball is what sets the tone for the game,” EWU redshirt junior defensive tackle Isaiah Perez said. “If the defensive line can really set the tone in every game that we play, then everybody behind us will follow through with that.”
It’s going to be hot in San Antonio, with a gametime temperature predicted to be 99 degrees. But Taylor’s focus was on finding ways to beat the Cardinals’ defense, which he said presents a lot of challenges.
“They might have lost last week, but coming into this game I still think they’re one of the top FCS teams in the country. That’s the way we look at them,” Taylor said. “We believe that we have a good opportunity to go out and win this game, so I hope we go do that.”