Eastern Washington hopes to regain the magic of the 2010 season when the Eagles won the school’s first national title. Last year, a tough start with three road losses and then a home loss to co-champion Montana had the Eagles starting the season at 0-4. The Eagles, however, won six of their last seven games to finish at 6-5 overall. This year, the Eagles again play their first three games on the road with two being against FBS competition in Idaho and Washington State. Eight starters return on each side of the ball to help EWU back to the postseason.
If the Eagles can overcome the first three games, this team appears as if it will be in contention for the Big Sky Conference title and an FCS playoff appearance. The Eagles lose Payton Award winning quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell but bring in another state of Texas FBS transfer quarterback Kyle Padron, who comes to Cheney from Southern Methodist just as Mitchell did. Padron passed for 5,902 yards and 41 touchdowns in his 24-game career with the FBS Mustangs.
Padron will have two all-conference receivers in Nicholas Edwards and Greg Herd to throw to. These two combined for 2,272 yards and 26 touchdowns through the air in 2011. Edwards alone caught 95 passes for 1,250 yards with 19 touchdowns last season. With this threesome, Eastern Washington's should be one of the best passing attacks not only in the Big Sky but the entire country.
The defense looks to replace the loss of some key contributors, including former All-Americans; safety Matt Johnson and tackle Renard Williams. The Eagles will look to T.J. Lee at cornerback who was first team all-conference in 2011 as the team leader on this side of the ball. Another leader on this side of the ball likely will be linebacker Zach Johnson, who was granted a sixth season of eligibility by the NCAA. He missed 12 games because of injury in 2009 and missed seven in 2011. He was second team All-Big Sky during the EWU championship run in 2010.
