Fake field goal was the right call no matter what, Baldwin says
Beau knows football, but he also knows math.
Eastern Washington coach Beau Baldwin is no riverboat gambler, but a fake field goal with the game on the line?
From the stands, that smacked of desperation – until holder Reilly Hennessey found fourth-string tight end Beau Byus for the winning score in the Eagles’ 34-30 win over Northern Iowa.
Baldwin thinks otherwise.
“I try to look at it as a percentage,” Baldwin said. “Everyone loves it because it works, but you have to trust in it regardless of how it turns out.”
And it turned out just fine, thank you.
With 1 minute, 8 seconds to play, the Eagles were at the UNI 13 in position for an easy field goal, but two penalties brought up fourth-and-13 at the Northern Iowa 23 with 50 seconds left.
The Eagles gathered around Baldwin, who called Byus’ number.
“I wasn’t expecting it; I was kind of surprised,” Byus said.
Hennessey, the regular holder on placekicks, ran the play perfectly, pulling the ball away at the feet of kicker Roldan Alcobendas at the right instant.
“Just like we have in practice,” Hennessey said.
Against a UNI defense that had brought pressure all night, Byus was able to slip past the line and got two strides behind a linebacker.
“Then I was thinking, ‘Just catch the ball,’ ” Byus said.
After the game, well-wishers swarmed Byus, a sophomore from Central Valley High School whose first touchdown catch will go down as one of the most memorable at Roos Field.
“It’s just so surreal right now – what an awesome opportunity,” Byus said.
Baldwin enjoys ‘luxury’ of quarterback depth: Baldwin said it last spring and again this fall: The Eagles can win with any of their top three quarterbacks: Hennessey, Gage Gubrud and Jordan West.
Sure enough, Hennessey relieved a struggling Gubrud in the second half against UNI, completing 21 of 28 passes for 226 yards and three touchdowns as Eastern rallied from a 17-point deficit.
“I have three guys I can win with, and that’s a luxury I’ve never had,” said Baldwin, now in his ninth year as coach.
Going into Saturday’s game, Gubrud was the national leader in almost every passing category, but he struggled through the first half and into the third quarter. Dealing with a stiff wind and a pressing UNI secondary, Gubrud was 13 of 26 for 114 yards and two interceptions.
“Gage has a lot of juice, but he wasn’t at his best tonight,” Baldwin said. “I’m not going to lose my faith in Gage – he just went through some tough moments.”
Former Eastern stars in town: When they watch Gubrud in action, some Eastern Washington fans see a little of Vernon Adams Jr.
In fact, so does Adams, the record-setting quarterback who was in Cheney on Saturday to cheer on the Eagles against Northern Iowa.
“We talk all the time,” said Adams, now with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League. “I told him he has the athletic ability to be an All-American.”
They talked again after Eastern’s 34-30 win over Northern Iowa, when Gubrud struggled before yielding to Hennessey.
“He just has to mentally get it right,” said Adams, who reveled in only his second visit to Cheney since graduation in the spring of 2015.
Adams transferred to Oregon after his redshirt junior season, but has followed the Eagles ever since and counts former teammate Shaq Hill as a close friend.
“He’s the old Shaq again,” Adams said as Hill warmed up on the field.
Adams, the No. 2 quarterback for Montreal, said he’s “not having the best of seasons, but I’m working on the little things, trying to get them right.”
Adams wasn’t the only former EWU star in attendance. Three-time All-Big Sky Conference cornerback T.J. Lee III – now with the CFL’s British Columbia Lions – also was in the house, recuperating from a torn Achilles suffered earlier this season.
Wide receiver Brandon Kaufman, an All-American wide receiver in 2012, is back from Australia, where he played Australian Rules Football last spring. He’s in Cheney this fall to finish his degree.