‘This is a storied program’: Eastern Washington opens fall camp ready to regroup from down year

In January, Aaron Best challenged the mentality of a team coming off a 3-8 season that was, by that metric, the program’s worst in 17 years.

Waiting until February or March wasn’t going to work, he said.

After the full Eastern Washington football team practiced together for the first time this preseason on the EWU campus in Cheney on Thursday, Best praised the Eagles’ work not so much on this day – which wasn’t without its share of miscues – but on the seven months previous.

“They’ve grown physically, but maybe more importantly they’ve grown mentally,” the Eagles head coach said, “because they’ve gotten through stuff together and they’ve stayed together through the process.”

As that process turns to full-team practices in anticipation of the Eagles’ season-opening game against North Dakota State on Sept. 2 in Minneapolis, Eastern is looking to build on its offseason toward a more successful regular season.

“This is a storied program,” Best said. “You can’t argue that. We had a down year, and that maybe was the best thing for us when it’s all said and done.”

One area of focus is stopping the run. Last year’s Eagles allowed an average of 289 rushing yards per game, worst among all 123 FCS programs.

“We want to be a team that’s respected in the Big Sky, respected in the country, and that comes with preparation,” senior linebacker Jaren Banks said. “Last year, it’s no secret, we weren’t good (at stopping) the run. … We want to change that mentality going forward.”

Toward that end, the Eagles brought in a pair of transfers at linebacker – Ben Allen from Bucknell and Adam Cohen from UCLA, both seniors – as well as a pair of defensive ends in Caleb Oppan (Duke) and Da’Marcus Johnson (Fresno State).

The defensive line lost starting defensive end Mitchell Johnson (to graduation) and starting tackle Joshua Jerome (to transfer), and last spring it was depleted by injury and attrition. But they are restocked this preseason.

At linebacker the Eagles are more formidable with a healthy Ahmani Williams and a more experienced duo of Derek Tommasini and Conner O’Farrell, all under the tutelage of new position coach Eric Sanders.

Trust also became an issue for the defense, senior end Brock Harrison said. That’s something he is confident will be different this year.

“We’ve just got to trust one another to fit the right gaps. Last year at times, we lost trust in each other, kind of flying all around with our heads cut off,” Harrison said. “This year there’s a lot more trust in one another that we’re going to be able to do our jobs.”

The offense will be led by redshirt sophomore Kekoa Visperas, who played well in his lone start last season in the season finale against Northern Colorado. He also saw the team take strides during the last six months.

“I’d say our success has been shown in our process and what we’ve been doing in the offseason,” he said. “To have the full unit as one again and be on the grass is huge.”

The Eagles are back to five quarterbacks on the roster with the addition of true freshmen Nate Bell and Aidan Carter. They join junior transfers Michael Wortham and Jared Taylor, who were both around for spring practices.

Visperas, in his third year in the program, said he feels good about leading the offense.

“I would say really comfortable, but it’s bigger than that,” he said. “It’s the guys around me that feed my confidence. I have a lot of trust in the guys around me.”

He’ll be throwing to a group that includes preseason all-conference receiver Efton Chism III and returners Nolan Ulm, Jakobie James and Anthony Stell Jr. They also have seven tight ends on the roster that could factor into the offense more this season.

The Eagles are counting on the work they did in the offseason to jump-start their process of getting back to the FCS playoffs, which they have reached in three of Best’s six seasons as head coach.

“They’ve done more in the last seven months than we ever had together,” Best said. “The belief has been better. But that doesn’t equate to wins, just because you have a great offseason. You can win the offseason and lose a bunch of games. You can lose the offseason and win a bunch of games. But it gives us more chances at success because of the stuff they’ve done from January until now.”