UCA to see passing aplenty out of Eastern Washington
CONWAY — Football Championship Subdivision playoff appearances are nothing new for Eastern Washington Coach Beau Baldwin or his team.
Eastern Washington (10-1) has now made the FCS playoffs in six of Baldwin’s eight seasons as head coach, which includes a national championship in 2010. The Eagles will host Central Arkansas (102 ) Saturday at Roos Field in Cheney, Wash., in the second round of the 2016 FCS playoffs.
Eastern Washington had a first-round bye, while UCA advanced with a 31-24 victory over Illinois State at Estes Stadium in Conway on Saturday.
“I have a ton of confidence in what we can do with this team,” Baldwin said. “We’ve had that all the way back to 11 months ago in the offsea- son. We just had a mindset that we could do something special, but it’s one of those things that takes the day-today details. We have the type of outfit that has a chance to make a deep run, but that being said, it has to start with an incredibly good Central Arkansas team.”
Eastern Washington entered the playoffs as the No. 2 seed. UCA Coach Steve Campbell said it is clear what the Bears are up against.
It begins with Eastern Washington’s passing attack. The Eagles rank first among the 125 FCS schools with an
average of 406.8 passing yards per game.
Sophomore quarterback Gage Gubrud leads the nation in individual total offense at 412.2 yards a game. Senior receiver Cooper Kupp is currently third nationally in receiving yards and is the FCS career record holder for receptions, receiving yards, and touchdowns. In four seasons at Eastern Washington, Kupp has 402 receptions for 6,061 yards and 66 touchdowns.
Walterfootball.com ranks Kupp eighth among wide receiver prospects for the 2017 NFL Draft. Kupp won last season’s Walter Payton Award — the FCS equivalent to the Heisman Trophy — and both he and Gubrud are finalists this year.
“This week we have a tremendous challenge,” Campbell said. “Their quarterback is really, really good, a very savvy guy, and they have a receiver who is also really, really good. He’s not a guy they’re talking about as a free agent. They’re talking about him being a firstor second-round draft pick. He’s the real deal.”
Eastern Washington’s lone loss came at North Dakota State, which has won the last five FCS championships. It came a week after the Eagles began the season with a 45-42 victory at Washington State, which is 8-4 and finished second in the Pac-12 North.
“They’re a very good football team,” Campbell said. “We need to do a good job offensively to score some points early, to control the football to try to keep their offense off the field. We know they have one of the top-rated offenses in the country. It’s going to be a challenge to stop them.”
Snow is in the forecast for Cheney through today. Saturday’s forecast calls for a high in the low 40s, but Eastern Washington safety Zach Bruce said he didn’t think weather conditions would factor in the outcome.
“None of us like to play in the cold,” Bruce said. “We don’t, and I imagine Central Arkansas doesn’t. At the end of the day, it’s just going to be two good teams going after it.”