Big Sky notes: A rematch with a (non) rival
If Eastern Washington fans were expecting a Liberty Lake boat full of bulletin board material coming out of Missoula, they didn’t get it from the Montana Grizzlies’ Monday press conference.
The closest came when coach Bobby Hauck took issue with a question, aimed at cornerback Omar Hicks-Onu, about following up the Cat-Griz victory with a rematch against another rival in the Eastern Eagles, who visit Washington-Grizzly Stadium Friday at 7 p.m.
Hauck interrupted: “We have one rival. We beat them (on Nov. 20). Soundly.”
The question, from Skyline Sports’ Colter Nuanez, was rephrased.
“It was a fun game, playing against our one rival, Montana State,” Hicks-Onu answered, to laughter. “The energy from the jump was there. From the first snap to the last, we wanted to kick their butt and I think we handled that well.
“We’re just going to go into this week and handle business like we’ve been doing the last few games.”
In fact the smack was mainly aimed at the Bobcats, who fell 29-10 in Missoula but like the Griz received a bye into the second round of the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs. They’ll play Tennessee-Martin on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Bobcat Stadium.
“Had the opportunity to go back and review what was a dominating performance in our week 11 game,” Hauck said. “And ... enjoyed watching our 73rd win over our rivals.”
See you Friday
The Eagles’ Tolulu Limu-Jones, stung that his team had to play Saturday while Montana had a bye, remains unfettered.
Following Eastern’s hard-fought 19-9 home win over Northern Iowa — the Panthers twice failed to play the ball up on downs inside the 5-yard line, and threw two picks inside the 20 — Limu-Jones showed up one again on the @EWUFootball twitter feed.
“Missoula! Hey, we’re coming,” he said, twice.
Limu-Jones was limited to zero first-half catches and two receptions total (off six targets) for a career-low 18 yards Saturday. But here’s the rub: Freddie Roberson, the third receiver in a lineup that includes Andrew Boston, had five catches for 127. He and fourth option Efton Chism III are both over 700 receiving yards, which is a by-product of the most prolific quarterback in the FCS, Eric Barriere, who threw for 422 yards in the Eagles’ 34-28 win over Montana on Oct 2.
Saturday marked the third time this season Barriere threw for less than 300 yards (283); it was the first time the Eagles won. He threw for
It helped that they broke up 12 passes on defense, while surrendering 443 yards.
“Today, looking at it, I’ll take the Eagle D. They were up to the challenge. From the first-and-goal in the first quarter to the pick to end the game,” EWU coach Travis Best told the Spokesman-Review. “What a phenomenal day for the defense.”
Barriere, who had a scintillating 18-yard touchdown run, was soon looking forward to the week ahead.
“It doesn’t get any better than this, playing on a Friday night, against another Big Sky team, against a rival,” he said. “I know Missoula’s gonna be crazy, and I can’t wait.”
Revolving kickers
Eastern went to its third-string kicker against Northern Iowa, after Jackson Cleaver missed a 27-yard field goal and a PAT kick.
Freshman Wyatt Hawkins came in and hit field goals of 22 and 30 yards, plus a PAT.
Cleaver had replaced Seth Harrison in the Idaho game. Best has said Harrison was injured, but the sophomore had missed a field goal in that game (but was 9-for-9 on PATs in a 71-21 EWU win).
Harrison was 6-for-12 on 3-pointers; his team is 11-for-20. Eastern’s opponents are 9-for-13 on field goals.
Montana had a field goal blocked in the first meeting with Eastern (likely a fake that didn’t get called into the holder) but also had Malik Flowers house a kickoff return. The Griz often enjoy a special teams advantage. The Grizzlies’ Kevin Macias is 18-for-22 in field goals, and freshman Brian Buschini is all-Big Sky at punter.
Cats shake it off
Montana State’s opponent averages 219 rushing yards a game, but UT-Martin managed just 89 at Missouri State Saturday. They still won, 32-31, thanks in large part to six turnovers by the hosts.
The Skyhawks didn’t dress their quarterback, Ohio Valley offensive player of the year Keon Howard, for that game and he is not on their two-deep this week. But backup Dresser Winn threw well enough, including a 29-yard touchdown pass to Donnell Williams for the eighth and final lead change of the game.
“They won a game they weren’t supposed to win,” MSU coach Brent Vigen said. “They have tons of momentum, and they’re a conference champion. I feel like quarterback-wise, we’re not sure who we’re going to see. But Wynn came in and really made some throws.”
It would seem to be an attractive matchup for the Bobcats, who had a week to recover from the loss in Missoula.
“Gave us an opportunity to move on from the Montana game,” Vigens said. “Certainly not forget it, but move on.”
Howard, who has thrown for 15 touchdowns and thrown for 10, missed the Skyhawks 31-14 loss at Southeast Missouri on Nov. 20.
But more than anything Vigen wants his power-running offense to get going.
“We have to go out and play as fast as we possibly can offensively, and I don’t think we did that against Montana,” he said. “We can’t let the defense dictate like we did that day.”
QUICK KICKS: South Dakota State’s Isaiah Davis had missed eight games with a shoulder injury before carrying 15 times for 217 yards in the Jacks’ 56-24 win over Big Sky playoff entry UC Davis. … Just 3,681 fans at Dykhouse Stadium saw SDSU tie a school record with six interceptions. The Jacks travel to No. 4 seed Sacramento State Saturday. … Announced attendance at Eastern Saturday was 3,845. … From the Missoulian’s Frank Gogola: The Griz defense has surrendered seven plays of 35 yards or longer this season, and EWU had four of them.