Eastern Washington football ramps up physicality, toughness ahead of 2023 season

Aaron Best said he’s looking for players with more than four cylinders under their hood when he recruits

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“Cylinders,” in Best’s eyes, are how potentially physical a guy can be.

Best wants to see more physical play throughout Eastern Washington’s spring practices, which will culminate with the Red-White Game next Friday.

Technique can be taught with the proper coaching, but physical play is largely natural, at least in Best’s experience.

“We’ll coach the technique, but can they do it, are they willing to do it and are they willing to do it very consistently?” Best said. “Those things are way more evaluative rather than how pretty it looks in high school.

“Some guys, it takes a little bit longer to get that mentality, Sometimes we don’t get to where we need to get to. But if your foundation is mentality, we can build on that foundation faster. So physicality is one thing. But if you are physical, you probably have a mentality.”

Best was disappointed with what he saw from the Eagles on the field on Saturdays last season.

Junior Wyatt Hansen was quick to say what he and the rest of his offensive linemen needed to improve for the 2023 season.

“Physicality for sure,” Hansen said. “Last year, I felt like we were a little soft, too much penetration on things, and it really showed that we didn’t run the ball well at all. So that was a big emphasis going in (to the offseason), was even if you mess up the play, just go mess someone up, put them in the ground.”

Eight practices into spring football, Hansen has been impressed with what he has seen.

He said he understands there is a big gap between now and when the action starts this fall, so players might as well leave it all out on the line.

“They’re teammates. You don’t want to hurt them, but at the same time, you got to prove something,” Hansen said. “And stepping up our physicality was huge. The transfers have come in and they’ve kind of accepted that. That’s what we need to do and we’ve done a really good job pushing it.”

Increased physical play seems to be a consensus throughout the roster and coaching staff, because Best followed that with his own instruction.

Best said he wants his players to be uncomfortable from Sunday to Friday, so when Saturdays roll around, they play with no hesitation.

“Whether it be chaos, whether it be music, whether it be competitiveness, we put them in vulnerable situations on the field, kind of back-against-the-wall stuff. We put them in precarious situations,” Best said.

Last year, he said, the Eagles didn’t know how to respond when bothered on game day.

The goal is to be bothered, angrier during the week, to be more physical on Saturdays.

“We (want to) play angry on Saturday,” Best said.