2019 Eastern Washington Eagles football team

The 2019 Eastern Washington Eagles football team represented Eastern Washington University in the 2019 NCAA Division I FCS football season. The team was coached by third year head coach Aaron Best. The Eagles played their home games at Roos Field in Cheney, Washington and were a member of the Big Sky Conference. They finished the season 7–5, 6–2 in Big Sky play to finish in a three-way tie for third place.

2019 Eastern Washington Eagles football
ConferenceBig Sky Conference
2019 record7–5 (6–2 Big Sky)
Head coach
Offensive coordinatorIan Shoemaker (1st season)
Offensive schemeMultiple
Defensive coordinatorEti Ena (1st season)
Base defense4-2-5
Home stadiumRoos Field
(Capacity: 8,600)
2019 Big Sky Conference football standings
Conf  Overall
Team W L    W L 
No. 3 Weber State +^  7 –1     11 –4  
No. 9 Sacramento State +^  7 –1     9 –4  
No. 6 Montana ^  6 –2     10 –4  
No. 4 Montana State ^  6 –2     11 –4  
Eastern Washington  6 –2     7 –5  
UC Davis  3 –5     5 –7  
Idaho  3 –5     5 –7  
Portland State  3 –5     5 –7  
Cal Poly  2 –6     3 –8  
Southern Utah  2 –6     3 –9  
Northern Arizona  2 –6     4 –8  
Northern Colorado  2 –6     2 –10  
Idaho State  2 –6     3 –9  
  • + – Conference co-champions
  • ^ – FCS playoff participant
  • Although North Dakota was classified as an independent, games against them still counted as Big Sky Conference games.
Rankings from STATS Poll

Previous season
See also: 2018 Eastern Washington Eagles football team

The Eagles finished the 2018 season 12–3, 7–1 in Big Sky play to finish in a three-way tie for first place. They received the third seed in the FCS Playoffs and advanced to the National Championship Game, where they lost to North Dakota State.[1]

Preseason

Polls

On July 15, 2019 during the Big Sky Kickoff in Spokane, Washington, the Eagles were predicted to win the Big Sky by both the coaches and media.[2]

Coaches poll
Predicted finish Team Votes (1st place)
1 Eastern Washington 140 (10)
2 UC Davis 127 (2)
3 Weber State 124
4 Montana 104 (1)
5 Montana State 100
6 Northern Arizona 88
7 Idaho State 72
8 Idaho 65
9 Cal Poly 56
10 Portland State 42
11 Sacramento State 40
12 Southern Utah 38
13 Northern Colorado 19
Media poll
Predicted finish Team Votes (1st place)
1 Eastern Washington 536 (25)
2 UC Davis 510 (13)
3 Weber State 472 (4)
4 Montana State 417
5 Montana 396 (1)
6 Northern Arizona 302
7 Idaho State 285
8 Idaho 248
9 Cal Poly 196
10 Portland State 178
11 Southern Utah 160
12 Sacramento State 125
13 Northern Colorado 90

Preseason All-Conference Team

The Eagles had one player selected to the Preseason All-Conference Team.[3]

Chris Schlichting – Sr. OT

Award watch lists
Award Player Position Year
Walter Payton Award[4] Eric Barriere QB JR

Coaching/Personnel Changes

On January 18, defensive coordinator Jeff Schmedding left to take a position as linebackers coach/co-special teams coordinator with Boise State.[5] Defensive line coach Eti Ena was promoted to replace Schmedding on January 23, 2019.[6]

On February 9, former starting quarterback Gage Gubrud was granted a medical redshirt year by the NCAA after suffering a season-ending foot injury in a game against Montana State on September 29, 2018. He transferred to Washington State for his final year of eligibility.[7]

On February 12, offensive coordinator Bodie Reeder left to become the co-offensive coordinator at North Texas.[8] On February 25, Central Washington head coach Ian Shoemaker was hired to replace him.[9]

Schedule

EWU has scheduled 12 games in the 2019 season instead of the 11 normally allowed for FCS programs. Under a standard provision of NCAA rules, all FCS teams are allowed to schedule 12 regular-season games in years in which the period starting with Labor Day weekend and ending with the last Saturday of November contains 14 Saturdays.[10]

DateTimeOpponentRankSiteTVResultAttendance
August 3112:00 p.m.at No. 13 (FBS) Washington*No. 4
P12NL 14–4765,709
September 71:00 p.m.Lindenwood*No. 4
SWXW 59–316,785
September 141:00 p.m.at No. 17 Jacksonville State*No. 4
ESPN+L 45–4920,901
September 2112:00 p.m.at Idaho*No. 11
RTNWL 27–356,567
September 282:05 p.m.North DakotaNo. 21
  • Roos Field
  • Cheney, WA
SWXW 35–208,726
October 56:05 p.m.at Sacramento StateNo. 22
ELVNL 27–489,640
October 121:05 p.m.Northern Colorado
  • Roos Field
  • Cheney, WA
RTNWW 54–219,091
October 2611:05 a.m.at No. 10 Montana
RTNWL 17–3424,072
November 21:05 p.m.Northern Arizona
  • Roos Field
  • Cheney, WA
SWXW 66–388,602
November 91:35 p.m.at Idaho State
Pluto TVW 48–55,377
November 165:05 p.m.at Cal Poly
Pluto TVW 42–416,582
November 231:05 p.m.Portland State
SWXW 53–468,629

Despite also being a member of the Big Sky, the game vs. Idaho will count as a non-conference game and will have no effect on the Big Sky standings.[11]

Although North Dakota is classified as an FCS Independent, games against them still count as Big Sky conference games through the 2019 season.[12]

Game summaries

at Washington
1 2 3 4 Total
No. 4 Eagles 0 7 0 7 14
No. 13 (FBS) Huskies 21 7 14 5 47
See also: 2019 Washington Huskies football team

Lindenwood
1 2 3 4 Total
Lions 0 17 14 0 31
No. 4 Eagles 21 10 21 7 59
See also: Lindenwood Lions football

at Jacksonville State
1 2 3 4 Total
No. 4 Eagles 28 7 10 0 45
No. 17 Gamecocks 7 14 7 21 49
See also: 2019 Jacksonville State Gamecocks football team

at Idaho
1 2 3 4 Total
No. 11 Eagles 0 0 7 20 27
Vandals 14 14 0 7 35
See also: 2019 Idaho Vandals football team

North Dakota
1 2 3 4 Total
Fighting Hawks 7 0 7 6 20
No. 21 Eagles 14 14 0 7 35
See also: 2019 North Dakota Fighting Hawks football team

at Sacramento State
1 2 3 4 Total
No. 22 Eagles 7 7 6 7 27
Hornets 21 6 7 14 48
See also: 2019 Sacramento State Hornets football team

Northern Colorado
1 2 3 4 Total
Bears 0 0 14 7 21
Eagles 10 30 14 0 54
See also: 2019 Northern Colorado Bears football team

at Montana
1 2 3 4 Total
Eagles 0 14 3 0 17
No. 10 Grizzlies 3 7 10 14 34
See also: 2019 Montana Grizzlies football team and EWU–UM Governors Cup

Northern Arizona
1 2 3 4 Total
Lumberjacks 14 10 7 7 38
Eagles 17 21 21 7 66
See also: 2019 Northern Arizona Lumberjacks football team

at Idaho State
1 2 3 4 Total
Eagles 3 17 21 7 48
Bengals 2 0 3 0 5
See also: 2019 Idaho State Bengals football team

at Cal Poly
1 2 3 4 Total
Eagles 14 14 7 7 42
Mustangs 0 14 14 13 41
See also: 2019 Cal Poly Mustangs football team

Portland State
1 2 3 4 Total
Vikings 7 10 8 21 46
Eagles 17 13 15 8 53
See also: 2019 Portland State Vikings football team and The Dam Cup

Ranking movements
Ranking movements
Legend: ██ Increase in ranking. ██ Decrease in ranking.
NR = Not ranked. RV = Received votes. т = Tied with team above or below. ( ) = First place votes.
Week
Poll Pre 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Final 
STATS 4 (3) 4 (1) 4 11 21 22 RV RV RV NR NR RV RV RV 
Coaches 3 (2) 5 5 11 22 21 RV RV NR NR NR RV RV RV

References
  1. "Easton Stick leads North Dakota State past Eastern Washington for FCS title". January 5, 2019. Retrieved January 21, 2019.
  2. "Eastern Washington voted to win Big Sky football title". July 15, 2019. Retrieved July 15, 2019.
  3. "Maier, Olson lead preseason All-Conference team". July 15, 2019. Retrieved July 15, 2019.
  4. "25 named to Walter Payton Award watch list". July 31, 2019. Retrieved July 31, 2019.
  5. "Defensive coordinator Jeff Schmedding leaves Eastern Washington to join staff at Boise State". January 18, 2019. Retrieved January 21, 2019.
  6. "Eastern Washington promotes Eti Ena to defensive coordinator". January 23, 2019. Retrieved January 28, 2019.
  7. "Former Eastern Washington QB Gage Gubrud gets NCAA approval for sixth season, will transfer to Washington State". February 9, 2019. Retrieved February 12, 2019.
  8. "UNT to hire Bodie Reeder as new offensive coordinator". February 11, 2019. Retrieved February 12, 2019.
  9. "CWU's Ian Shoemaker takes OC job at Eastern". February 25, 2019. Retrieved February 25, 2019.
  10. "Bylaw 17.10.5.1: Number of Contests, Maximum Limitations—Institutional" (PDF). 2018–19 NCAA Division I Manual. NCAA. July 2018. p. 273. Retrieved March 14, 2019.
  11. "Eastern Washington's 2019 schedule includes Washington, FCS power Jacksonville State". January 11, 2019. Retrieved January 21, 2019.
  12. "North Dakota no longer a Big Sky Conference school, but it's not going away any time soon". July 19, 2018. Retrieved January 21, 2019.
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