Eastern Washington is a real good looking football team. The defending FCS champions have a very good shot of repeating this season. They are the type of team that can come into Husky Stadium much like Nevada did a few years ago and lay an unlikely loss on Washington if the Huskies are not prepared to battle.
Eastern has 61 kids from the state of Washington on its roster. This is the game of the century for this program. Not to mention the game of a lifetime for every kid on this roster. Forget that big win over Delaware to win the FCS championship last season. A win over a BCS school like Washington would be the ultimate for this program and every kid on its roster.
So I guess you can say going in that Eastern isn't going to have a much of a problem getting up for this game. They are going to come out and hit Washington in the mouth immediately. They are going to take chances and they are going to go for broke and test the Washington secondary deep.
What will win this game for Washington is better overall talent and depth. Eastern is going to battle and keep it interesting early but Washington will wear these guys down and eventually roll. The only thing that can really prevent that from happening would be UW turnovers.
Bo Levi Mitchell is good looking quarterback who is going to get a long look at the next level. He is going to test the Huskies early while the defense adjusts to the Eagles four wide out sets. The Eagles also should sport a pretty good running game even though Taiwan Jones has left for the NFL.
Washington isn't going to look past Eastern Washington. The Huskies are as excited to play the Eagles as anyone else they will play on their schedule this season. The in state players know most of the in state players on the EWU roster. In many cases a lot of these kids have been competing against each other since ninth grade.
I think both sides are looking forward to this contest but in the end the Huskies will wear drown the scrappy Eagles in the second half. Bo Levi Mitchell is going to spend quite a bit of time on his back looking up into the sky once the Eag's fall behind and go one dimensional.
Mitchell needs to face the facts. Eastern played one D1 school, Nevada, and lost 49-24. They lost to Montana St. 30-7, and only beat Central Washington by 3 points. Most of their Big Sky games last year were close. In 2009 they lost to Cal, 59-7. Are they really a threat to upset a young Washington team that is on the rise...I don't think so...Huskies prevail 38-17!
Bulletin Board Material
"They are picking this game for a reason,'' Bo Levi Mitchell said of UW scheduling Eastern. "They want to come in and get an easy win to start the season out, and I know how that is coming from SMU and playing two (FCS) teams --- you just prepare differently. And we are going to take full advantage of that and just try to come out and smack them in the mouth.''