EWU in the National Championship!

[Beardown]

Guess where one of EWU top receivers is from? Denver!

Did we offer Kauffman? I believe it was Fed Up that said we offered at least a partial to all the kids who left for other Big SKy schools. Brandon Kauffman and Bo Bolen should be wearing a Bears uniform.

I remember an interview on tv with Kaufman after the UNC/EW game at Nottingham. He said UNC only offered him either a preferred walk-on or a gray shirt, I can't remember which one. That's why he went to EW. He said that beating UNC was very satisfying for him because of, in his mind, UNC's lack of respect for his talent.

I got the impression from his interview that had UNC offered a regular scholarship, he would have come here. He had something like 75 people (friends and familly) at the UNC game.

 

[Bearsfan24]

Guess where one of EWU top receivers is from? Denver!

Did we offer Kauffman? I believe it was Fed Up that said we offered at least a partial to all the kids who left for other Big SKy schools. Brandon Kauffman and Bo Bolen should be wearing a Bears uniform.

I remember an interview on tv with Kaufman after the UNC/EW game at Nottingham. He said UNC only offered him either a preferred walk-on or a gray shirt, I can't remember which one. That's why he went to EW. He said that beating UNC was very satisfying for him because of, in his mind, UNC's lack of respect for his talent.

I got the impression from his interview that had UNC offered a regular scholarship, he would have come here. He had something like 75 people (friends and familly) at the UNC game.

I don't blame him for feeling that way. I said this in another thread, I guarantee you that's one of the reasons why UNC loses kids to other FCS/Big Sky schools, is because they don't offer that kid anything or they don't go after them hard enough. Kids are going to go where they're getting scholarships, plain and simple. The only thing is, is maybe UNC didn't have the money to offer him anything. You can thank Downing and co for that one.

 

[EWURanger]

The schools have similar demographics in fact I'd bet UNC is ranked higher academically and for sure has a larger enrollment and a larger endowment.

All in all, I think UNC and EWU are fairly comparable in terms of demographics, enrollment, etc. EWU's enrollment, according to this season's fact book, is 11,500+, with around 10,000 undergrads, so I think we're around the same size as UNC. Academically, we're ranked pretty high in terms of regional universities.

The comments about Kauffman are pretty on the mark. He had offers from some FBS progams, CSU I believe was one of them. But after he had an injury his Senior year, those offers were withdrawn. I believe EWU was the only school that offered him a full scholarship ride. And I'm glad we did!

Thanks for congrats from everyone. It was a great day indeed for the Big Sky, and to knock off two CAA teams back to back was priceless. I know a lot of folks at EWU connected to the program are hoping we can use this as a spring board to further develop the program, particularly in the area of facilities and fan support. I think we sold around 6400 season tickets this year, I'd like to see that number up around 7500. There are some facility improvements planned for as early as next year (jumbo-tron) and some other things. Problem is, as always, that almost everything, including the new playing surface installed over the summer, has to be done with private donations.

Looking forward to the game next year in Cheney and hoping that some of you can make it up there.