Drake

[E-Wu Tang Clan]

Yeah. Not trying to bang on Dopa, just don't agree that players are the problem. On another note, I feel nearly as strongly about Baldwin coming back. Huge Baldwin fan before he left the Eag's but his teams since underperformed horribly at Cal, Cal Poly and Arizona State. I just think he has lost the thread. Who knows?

Idk I just thought that comment was particularly dumb but whatever.

Some people are just more comfortable at some levels and places. Bobby Hauck went 15-48 at UNLV but came back to Montana and they went to the FCS championship last year.

Eastern probably gives Baldwin more latitude to do what he wants then being a coordinator that has to answer to the head coach or being a head coach that is constrained by high academic standards. I guess its up to the AD if he even applies for the job.

Zak Hill would be interesting too if he wanted the job. I was watching the Seahawk game and saw him next to Ryan Grubb. Grubb is like an offensive genius so that would be cool.

 

[LDopaPDX]

Absolutely insane. Players should have to pay back their scholarships but Best gets $200k+ a year to tank the football program.

How long have you been an Eastern fan? Alumni? Donor? C'mon man, this is the furthest thing from insane. I've said that last game might be the death knell for the staff. I've been very vocal about saying our defensive coaches simply don't put a product on the field that works and haven't for a long while.

But if you walked around with the team of 10 years ago and compared it to today, you'd see a big difference. If you walk around today's Eastern and then walk around with Montana and Montana State players, you see a difference.

Seriously, let's say you're Best on that drive with inside of 2 minutes where we could have been walk-off winners. You're running the offense. Who do you give the ball to? I saw Taiwan, Kaufman, Bourne, Kupp win games for us over and over with big plays. Even several college heroes like McPherson, Greg, Hurd, etc could take the ball and win you a game. What did this team have in their arsenal? Wortham? Obviously, we'd have liked to get Chism involved but every D will key him all game just because he's the only real weapon we have. Certainly that's a coach problem, but it's hard to be a great coach when you don't have great players. Ultimately, the players on the field are a reflection of the culture, so even that falls on the coach.

And I can't get over this part, Eastern just lost to a team of walk-ons. 63 scholarships and we lost to a team with none. And not only lose, but show no ability to physically overmatch and outperform.

If you want to try to take this further, please look at this roster...

https://goeags.com/sports/football/roster/2018

The only position group that even remotely matches up is OL. Every other position group is better across every single guy.

 

[E-Wu Tang Clan]

How long have you been an Eastern fan? Alumni? Donor? C'mon man, this is the furthest thing from insane. I've said that last game might be the death knell for the staff. I've been very vocal about saying our defensive coaches simply don't put a product on the field that works and haven't for a long while.

But if you walked around with the team of 10 years ago and compared it to today, you'd see a big difference. If you walk around today's Eastern and then walk around with Montana and Montana State players, you see a difference.

Seriously, let's say you're Best on that drive with inside of 2 minutes where we could have been walk-off winners. You're running the offense. Who do you give the ball to? I saw Taiwan, Kaufman, Bourne, Kupp win games for us over and over with big plays. Even several college heroes like McPherson, Greg, Hurd, etc could take the ball and win you a game. What did this team have in their arsenal? Wortham? Obviously, we'd have liked to get Chism involved but every D will key him all game just because he's the only real weapon we have. Certainly that's a coach problem, but it's hard to be a great coach when you don't have great players. Ultimately, the players on the field are a reflection of the culture, so even that falls on the coach.

And I can't get over this part, Eastern just lost to a team of walk-ons. 63 scholarships and we lost to a team with none. And not only lose, but show no ability to physically overmatch and outperform.

If you want to try to take this further, please look at this roster...

https://goeags.com/sports/football/roster/2018

The only position group that even remotely matches up is OL. Every other position group is better across every single guy.

I have a Bachelors and a Masters from Eastern. Started there as a transfer student in 2013. I went to every home game and a few UW games. The problem even back then is we couldn't stop the run.

I see a difference in coaching. Players are busting their asses in off season workouts and practices. You should watch some of Nolan Ulm's videos, that dude is intense, you can't tell me that him and the other WRs aren't busting their asses. https://www.youtube.com/@NolanUlm/videos Players want to win but coaches aren't putting them in a position to win, probably because they don't know how to.

Wortham is a good player, there is a reason he is getting accolades for returning balls. Best and the OC don't know how to use him well. Every time he lines up the other team knows its a run play. Play calling is stale and predictable which doesn't put players in the best situations for success. If you remember right teams double covered Kupp but he still got open because Baldwin and his OCs knew how to scheme and spread the field to spread offenses out. All you get now is shitty screen passes.

Lets say the highly recruited, scholarship players are in fact better than the non scholarship, basically walk-ons. What's the difference? I'm guessing it's probably coaching. Because even if you think our coaching staff is incompetent, other schools still think those players were good enough to show interest in and even offer them a scholarship.

Well ya, the senior laden team that had the benefit of years of good coaching is going to be better. Imo, the biggest loss that year wasn't the players but the OC and DC. None of those players were amazing as freshmen so that shows it was mostly coaching.

I don't know what your comparing besides vibes since this team has only had two games so far. But the defense only gave up 67 rushing yards but 393 yards through the air. Drake is known for having a decent run game. If we had even a competent secondary we probably would have won fairly easy.

Drake 35-32 Eastern Washington (Sep 7, 2024) Game Stats - ESPN

Complete team stats and game leaders for the Drake Bulldogs vs. Eastern Washington Eagles NCAAF game from September 7, 2024 on ESPN.

www.espn.com

We lost cause of stupid penalties that not only cost us yards cause of the penalty but also called back huge plays, like the huge Chism pass that got called back because of a fucking man down field. Also, a very costly turnover at a bad time. Finally, a horrible pass defense that couldn't stop non scholarship receivers. All very coachable issues, things that should have not been an issue.

I would probably agree that the QBs since EB3 have been bad comparatively but we shouldn't have to rely on top 3 QB year after year to win games.

 

[LDopaPDX]

Now we agree. There are lot of coaching issues that appear irreparable. I've said it before, I like Coach Best. He's a nice guy and an Eagle through and through. But the neglect of the defense is indefensible. I'm hoping (probably uselessly) that Drake was an anomaly and things will get better tomorrow. I feel like there is some faint hope our offense course-corrects. I don't have any such hopes for the defense... the players just seem woefully out of position and are attempting to run a complex defense with multiple fronts. Sometimes you just need to simplify and play your best players and build cohesion. We play so many guys that it just feels confused on every play. The good news for tomorrow is SELA has been atrocious on offense so far this season, and frankly not much better on D.

I brought this up before... where the hell is Anthony James? He's one guy we've got that looks like he could be a star on D. And after two games, he hasn't played a down. Getting a legit strong-side DE could allow us to get into a 40 front, which feels like it'd complement our personnel better. Given the hullabaloo over him coming to Eastern, the fact he isn't playing is mystifying.