It’s worth a look back
A quick glance is deceiving.
It appears the playoff-bound 8-3 Eastern Washington football team of 2004 looks a lot like the 1997 Eagles that made it as far as the I-AA semifinals, finishing with a 12-2 record.
Efficient quarterbacks, good running backs, big-play receivers and strong lines on offense. Solid defense.
But beauty, as they say, is only skin deep.
“It’s hard to compare statistics because of the schedule,” Eastern head coach Paul Wulff, the offensive line coach in ‘97, said. “If you want to compare statistics, compare what we did in the conference. This team probably beat that team by quite a bit.”
Strength of schedule isn’t the only major difference between the teams.
“We had a ton of seniors on that team,” said Jerry Graybeal, the recently resigned Weber State coach, who was the defensive coordinator for the Eagles in ‘97. “These guys are getting it done with young guys across the board.”
Mike Kramer, the head coach who moved on to Montana State a year later, started seven seniors on offense and seven on defense with just three juniors, four sophomores and a freshman.
Kramer was deservedly the Big Sky Coach of the Year after a 6-1 league mark. The defense had four first-team all-league picks, including MVP Chris Scott, and the offense had four picks with quarterback Harry Leons the MVP.
Wulff has eight senior starters out of a class of 12 and starts seven juniors, three sophomores and three freshmen.
Led by quarterback Erik Meyer, the Big Sky Offensive MVP, the Eagles put six players on the All-Big Sky first team offense and five on defense.
“We have better depth now,” Wulff said of his 14th-ranked team that will play at No. 1 Southern Illinois on Saturday. “That team had no injuries. This team has had injuries and continued to play at a high level.”
The other difference is speed.
“The team speed we have overall is much greater than that team,” Wulff said. “Defensively, it allows us to play a lot more aggressive. We create more turnovers. It’s a little different from a philosophy standpoint.”
Other than Wulff, Chris Samms is the only other holdover from the ‘97 team. He was a freshman quarterback in 1997 and is now the graduate assistant on offense.
“I think the similarities are the quality of players and the team togetherness. When I was a freshmen, there were a lot of seniors, a lot of upperclassmen, that really had that bond together,” Samms said. “The difference is maybe the talent level. There are a lot of great players on this team that should probably be playing somewhere else at a higher level.”
Apples and oranges
In 1997, the Eagles opened at home against poor NAIA teams. A pair of easy conference wins followed.
“Then we lost (17-7) at Montana State,” Wulff recalled. “I think that really woke the team up and things took off after that.”
There was a close win at Montana (40-35), which was ranked second, and a tight non-league win against Division I Idaho (24-21).
The current Eagles got behind the 8-ball early by losing at Nicholls State in Louisiana and at Air Force, giving up 599 yards on the ground and 857 overall to the two option running teams.
Then they came home and easily dispatched Division II Central Washington and Idaho State.
“Playing well against Idaho State solidified this team,” Wulff said. “Opening up against two tough teams that run the option doesn’t do anybody any good.”
Next was a game at Portland State, ranked 25th in one poll, followed by Northern Arizona, then ranked 16th, and No. 5 Montana at Woodward Field. The first two were solid wins, the dreaded Grizzlies escaped with a 31-28 win when they blocked a last-second field goal.
The Eagles rebounded to close with four straight wins, including whipping No. 11 Cal Poly and then escaping Bozeman in the finale with a scintillating 51-44 overtime win over Kramer’s Bobcats.
Now they are where the Eagles of ‘97 were.
High powered offenses
“That team was real balanced, run and pass, but we’re a lot more explosive now,” Wulff said. “We have more ways to do things; we’re a lot more multi-dimensional.”
So why do Eastern fans have the sense the teams are so similar, especially on offense?
“They have similar style of quarterbacks in Harry Leons and Erik Meyer,” Graybeal said. “They throw the ball quick and have a great understanding of what the offense is trying to do. We had a great one-two punch at running back, Rex Prescott and Mike MacKenzie. These guys were down to their No. 3 running back (in a 51-7 romp) and they ground-chucked us to death.”
Meyer finished with a school-record completion percent of 67.2, throwing for 3,037 yards with 28 touchdowns and seven interceptions. His efficiency mark of 175.49 leads the nation.
The Leons team led the nation in total offense at 505.6 yards a game, while Meyer’s team is at 468.9.
Jeff Ogden was Leon’s favorite target with 57 receptions and school records of 1,148 yards and 13 touchdowns. Steve Correa added 47 catches for 673 yards. Erik Kimble is far and away the best receiver today with school records of 68 catches, 1,207 yards and 16 TDs.
“On offense, it’s kind of similar, although a lot more of the offense goes through Eric Kimble than any single receiver we had,” said Kramer. “Jeff had a tremendous year, but he played in the slot. Eric plays more on the outside.”
Kimble also has the school record for punt return yards, and he’s just a junior.
Seven seasons ago, Prescott set a then school record with 1,494 yards rushing and MacKenzie added 794 toward the team total of 2,489. These Eagles have 2,055 yards on the ground, without the benefit of starting the season against pushovers and Darius Washington playing sparingly in the last four games to finish at 870 yards.
“Our running game down the stretch in ‘97 was a little more consistent,” Wulff said. “Those guys stayed healthy for the most part. Darius has been a little more nicked up, and we’ve been getting it done with a sophomore (Dezmon Cole) and freshman (Toke Kefu) and (senior) Reggie Witherspoon has been a good change of pace.”
Obviously, Eastern’s reputation for outstanding offensive lines is well deserved.
“We had a big offensive line,” Graybeal said. “They have a couple of young guys on the line that are not playing like young kids. (That’s) the thing that jumps out at me … .”
He was referring to freshmen guards Rocky Hanni and Matt Alfred.
“The ‘97 line was more consistent throughout the season and stayed healthy,” Wulff said. “This line has stayed healthy, too, but was a little more of a work in progress because it was unsettled the first three or four games (because two projected senior starters quit). Both are very good.”
The difference is D
Besides those three big linebackers, the old Eagles had three seniors, Steve Mattson, Chris Scott and Ed Harris, and junior Avont Grant on the defensive line that limited opponents to 81.5 yards rushing per game, which was fourth in the nation.
With injuries and defections, the current Eagles have a freshman on the defensive line and a junior and sophomore at linebacker with David Eneberg replacing injured senior Doug Vincent.
Take out the option opening and the season-ending shootout in Bozeman and this year’s defense was impressive.
After giving up 599 rushing those first two games, the Eagles allowed 594 in the next eight, including a stretch of three games when they gave up a combined minus-2.
The secondary appears to be the biggest difference with the ‘97 team starting freshman Ole Olesen and sophomore LeVar McClary at cornerback. This team uses senior Ryan Phillips and juniors Isaiah Trufant and Jesse Hendrix.
“They’re way better corners than we were on defense,” Kramer said. “Though Oly and LeVar played pretty well, these corners are much more capable and they play a much different style of defense because of it. That’s really the most noticeable difference.”
Eastern has picked off 16 passes this year, three more than seven years ago despite opponents obviously being forced to throw to move the ball in the past.
Playoff time
In 1997, the Eagles went into the playoffs as the No. 3 seed and pounded a good defensive Northwestern State team 40-10. Then they outran the top rushing team in the nation 278 yards to 173, beating Western Kentucky 38-21.
Both those games, as well as the 25-14 semifinal loss to Youngstown State, were at Albi Stadium.
This team has to go on the road as it tries to match that postseason success.
The Eagles are certainly capable.
“This team is probably a little bit more mentally tough,” Wulff said. “They worked harder in the off-season than any team we’ve ever had. This team knows how to work. That has been indicative in the continue-to-fight mentality. This team has great character.
“What this team hasn’t done is win a couple of playoffs.”