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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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Snarling ‘Cats next up for EWU

It could be an angry bunch of Wildcats staring Eastern Washington University's 14th-ranked football team in the face on Saturday, when Weber State invades Woodward Field for potentially crucial Big Sky Conference game that kicks off at 12:34 p.m.

Read on for more details, as well as a few links to related stories about Saturday's showdown.

Weber State's Ron McBride made it abundantly clear during Wednesday's weekly conference call with Big Sky coaches that he is not particulary enamored with is Wildcats at this point in the season.

After narrowly losing to Football Bowl Subdivision oppoonents Wyoming (29-22) and Colorado State (24-23) to open the season, Weber State knocked off Big Sky foes Idaho State (44-17) and Portland State (36-29).  But as the 11th ranked FCS team in the country last Saturday, they suffered an unexpected 26-21 home loss to Montana State, fueling McBride's teleconference rant.

"It was a stupid loss, no question," McBride said. "Montana State came in and played real hard and made the play they needed to make to win, and we didn't make the plays we had to to win. So, obviously, it's a big dissapointment on our side.

"Part of it, obviously, was what Montana State did, but  then a big part of it was a lack of what Weber did. So, I'm not real pleased with our football team. I'm not real pleased with their execution or the way they things, and I'm not sold on where we're at right now. I don't know what a good word to say is . . . but I'm not real positive with my approach to them at this point."

How  the 21st-ranked Wildcats (2-3 overall, 2-1 in the Big Sky) respond to McBride's harsh criticism could go a long way in determining the outcome of Saturday matchup agaisnt league-leading Eastern (4-1, 3-0), whose first three Big Sky wins came against opponents -- Northern Colorado, Sacramento State and Idaho State -- with a combined record of 2-12.

Adding to WSU's motivation is the fact that it was EWU that ruined its bid for a perfect 8-0 Big Sky record last fall when the Eagles went into Odgen, Utah, and hung a 33-26 upset loss on the Wildcats in the regular-season finale for both teams.

Whatever has happened in the past, however, will not -- in the mind of Eastern head coach Beau Baldwin, at least -- change the fact that Weber State remains one of the top teams in the Big Sky Conference, boasting not only one of the league's all-time best running backs in senior Trevyn Smith, but the leagues' reigning offensive player of the year in junior quarterback Cameron Higgins.

"They're a tremendous team; they're good at every position," Baldwin said of the Wildcats. "Obviously, they have some great players at spots -- the league's returning MVP (Higgins), and their running back -- so it's going to be a tremendous challenge.

"I talked to our players about it -- how everywhere on the field there's going to be a challenge, whether you a receiver going up against one fo their DBs, a DB going against one of their receivers, trying to tackle their running back, the O-line, the D-line . . . I mean, everywhere on the field, you're going to be challenged against this football team in a serioius way. So yo've better bring it every time, and you've better understand that you're going to battle through some adversity, too.

"They're going to definitely make a lot of paly, and it's just going to come down -- in my opinion -- to who plays the soundest football."

A win would give Eastern its first 4-0 Big Sky start in school history. But Baldwin insists that means little to his players.

"We really havne't brought that up as far as teh history or what that is," he said. "Our focus is on this week, and our team has done a really good job with tha tsince the beginning. We stressed that all the way back into spring ball that we're going to have a lot smaller goals in terms of what we wanted to accomplish in spring ball and what we wanted to accomplish in fall camp.

"I know everybody says it's one play at a time, one game at a time, but I think our guys are really doing a good job of buying inot the fact that they're thinking only about Weber State, which is an incredible football team, and how big a challenge they're going to be.

"With them, it's just a matter of trying to do everything they can to be 1-0 this week."

You can read more about the game in these notes, supplied by EWU's sports information office, and in this release issued by Weber State sports info folks. I've also included this link to a Q&A session on the Eagles Nick Ramos that was done by the school's sports information department..

This should be a fun one.

My pick:  EWU 28, Weber State 27.  Anyone else?

 



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