Portland State will give Eastern I-A look
Eastern Washington faced Oregon State and West Virginia to start the football season.
Now the Eagles get to see more I-A talent.
The Eagles (2-5, 2-2) play Saturday night at 23rd-ranked Portland State (4-3, 3-2), a team that features 12 I-A transfers on its two-deep roster and 19 overall, along with 20 junior college transfers.
“They have a tremendous amount of transfers, talented kids, so it’s going to be a heck of a challenge for the kids,” EWU coach Paul Wulff said.
Eastern doesn’t turn away transfers and on occasion pursues them, but it’s a pretty rare occurrence. The Eagles have the fewest I-A dropdowns and JC transfers in the Big Sky Conference.
The most prominent drop-down is running back Ryan Cole, who came from Oregon State after his sophomore season. Players are immediately eligible to play when they drop down a level. There is only one junior college starter for EWU – cornerback DeNique Ford.
“That’s not our philosophy,” Wulff said. “I really believe in trying to build great team chemistry and providing the college atmosphere, a culture of a family. To do that, you have to build longer-lasting ties. Not that we don’t want to take a transfer, but we try to limit that.
“A lot of times when you bring guys in, he’s had problems or issues at another institution. When we bring in one, he’s someone that really fits in and doesn’t disrupt what we have going with our kids.”
An example is Josh Blankenship, Big Sky Offensive MVP in his only season, 2002.
PSU’s defensive line features starters formerly at Washington, UCLA and Oregon State plus a Miami backup – “and they’re really big,” Wulff noted.
A rule was passed over the summer that prohibits I-A dropdowns unless they have at least two years of eligibility left.
“I think it’s going to help us,” Wulff said. “Some of those who kind of live off transfers, if they haven’t done good of high school recruiting, it’s going to hurt them.”
Wulff is also leery of hitting the junior colleges too hard.
“Schools and coaches get desperate,” Wulff said. “They have to win now. They think they have to go get a quick fix and it almost always bites them. There are some JC kids that are very fine students. We don’t run into that. It’s more of an attitude or understanding of the work ethic we have in place.”
Quick kicks
Weber State is the first of three teams to play Montana after a bye week. Cal Poly and MSU are the others. … Weber State is switching quarterbacks, going back to Ian Pizarro, who started the first two games before being replaced by Shawn Woods. … Northern Colorado has the bye this week. … Montana State is at Idaho State this week as Bobcats coach Mike Kramer tries to become the third coach with 50 conference wins. Chris Ault and Don Read are the others. Kramer won 23 games at EWU from 1994-99. Paul Wulff, in his seventh year at EWU, has 27 conference wins. … MSU’s Bobcats are 4-3 overall but 3-0 on the road for the first time since 1978.