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2009 Eastern Washington Eagles football
FCS First Round, L 33–44 vs. Stephen F. Austin
Conference Big Sky Conference
Ranking
Sports NetworkNo. 13 [1]
FCS CoachesNo. 13 [2]
Record8–4 (6–2 Big Sky)
Head coach
Offensive coordinator Aaron Best
Defensive coordinatorJohn Graham/Torey Hunter
Home stadium Woodward Field
Seasons
← 2008
2010 →
2009 Big Sky Conference football standings
Conf Overall
Team   W   L     W   L  
No. 2 Montana $^   8 – 0     14 – 1  
No. 13 Eastern Washington ^   6 – 2     8 – 4  
No. 17 Weber State ^   6 – 2     7 – 5  
Montana State   5 – 3     7 – 4  
Northern Arizona   4 – 4     5 – 6  
Sacramento State   4 – 4     5 – 6  
Northern Colorado   1 – 7     3 – 8  
Portland State   1 – 7     2 – 9  
Idaho State   1 – 7     1 – 10  
  • $ – Conference champion
  • ^ – FCS playoff participant
Rankings from The Sports Network poll

The 2009 Eastern Washington Eagles football team represented Eastern Washington University in the 2009 NCAA Division I FCS football season. They played their home games at Woodward Field in Cheney, Washington. The team finished 8–4 (6–2 Big Sky) and improved on their record from 2008 in which they finished 6–5.

Matt Nichols

Nichols now has twelve 300-yard passing games in his 35-game career and 14 performances with at least 300 yards of total offense. On EWU's career passing lists, Nichols ranks in the top five in all categories, including second in total offense (9,376) and second in passing yards (8,786) The record holder for both passing yards and total offense is 2005 Payton Award winner Erik Meyer (2002–05) with 10,261 passing yards and 10,942 yards of total offense. Meyer is the player Nichols replaced in 2006 as Eastern's starting quarterback. Nichols now owns the school record with 1,150 career pass attempts, and also ranks fifth in efficiency rating (136.0), second in touchdown passes (63, ranking only behind the 84 of Meyer), second in completions (698) and third in interceptions (40). With 590 rushing yards in his career, Nichols is approaching the EWU career record for a quarterback of 681 set by Meyer. Nichols has been a part of four of the 36-longest pass plays in school history of 70, 78, 80 and 85 yards, but just the 80-yarder was a touchdown. Nichols has the most starts among returning players in 2009 with 33. At the beginning of the 2009 season Nichols was again, named to the Walter Payton Award watchlist. [3]

Schedule

DateTimeOpponentRankSiteTVResultAttendance
September 47:00 p.m. Western Oregon*
W 35–143,113
September 123:30 p.m.at No. 10 California*No. 20
 FSNL 7–5958,083
September 1912:00 p.m. Northern ColoradoNo. 20
  • Woodward Field
  • Cheney, WA
 SWXW 16–05,538
September 261:05 p.m.at Sacramento StateNo. 18
W 56–3010,175
October 36:05 p.m.at Idaho StateNo. 15
W 38–36,003
October 102:35 p.m.No. 21 Weber StateNo. 17
  • Woodward Field
  • Cheney, WA
 ALTL 13–315,370
October 173:30 p.m.at No. 3 MontanaNo. 21
SWXL 34–4125,751
October 3112:05 p.m. Montana StatedaggerNo. 21
  • Woodward Field
  • Cheney, WA
SWXW 28–176,632
November 71:05 p.m.vs. Portland StateNo. 16
W 41-106,124
November 141:05 p.m.at Southern Utah*No. 18
W 48–213,011
November 212:00 p.m.at No. 25 Northern ArizonaNo. 18
W 49–455,023
November 2812:00 p.m.at No. 12 Stephen F. Austin*No. 14
 CBSCSL 33–448,224

Game summaries

Western Oregon

Sophomore Taiwan Jones scored on an 87-yard run on his first carry as an Eastern Washington University running back. But it wasn't that easy the rest of the way in EWU's 35–14 non-conference college football victory against Western Oregon Saturday (September 5) at Woodward Field in Cheney, Washington

The Eagles, ranked 18th in the preseason NCAA Football Championship Subdivision rankings, scored 14 fourth-quarter points on a pair of Matt Nichols-to-Nathan Overbay touchdown passes as they survived for the win over the NCAA Division II Wolves. [4]

California

See also: 2009 California Golden Bears football team
Matt Nichols throwing a pass against Cal.

Eastern Washington scored on an 83-yard drive in the first quarter, but the California Bears performed as advertised after that to score 52 unanswered points and record a 59–7 victory over Eastern Washington Saturday (September 12) at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, California. In a match-up between the Big Sky Conference and the Pacific-10 Conference, Eastern entered the game ranked 18th in the Sports Network FCS poll. Cal, meanwhile, was ranked 10th in the Associated Press poll in the NCAA Football Bowl Division and represented the second-highest ranked team EWU has ever played (West Virginia was sixth when they beat EWU 52–3 in 2006).

Heisman Trophy candidate Jahvid Best rushed for 144 yards on 17 carries and scored twice for the Golden Bears, who are now 2–0. The Eagles, now 1–1, were out-gained 392–14 on the ground. In all, California had 507 yards of offense to EWU's 235. [5]

Northern Colorado

The defense forced four turnovers and was equally effective on fourth down as Eastern Washington University shut-out Northern Colorado 16–0 Saturday (September 19) in the Big Sky Conference football opener for both schools at Woodward Field in Cheney, Washington

The Eagles recovered three fumbles and had an interception in Eastern's first shutout at Woodward Field since 1983. The Eagles have had six other shutouts since then either on the road or in Spokane, including a 34–0 win over UNC in 2006. Eastern also held the Bears to a 0-of-4 performance on fourth down and had four sacks. [6]

Sacramento State

Hornet Stadium is definitely a home-away-from-home for the Eastern Washington University football team. The Eagles are now a perfect 10–0 against the Hornets in Sacramento, and avenged a 15–13 home setback to the Hornets last season.

The 19th-ranked Eagles scored 35 first-half points and went on to hold-off Sacramento State 56–30 Saturday (September 26) in sweltering heat at Hornet Stadium in Sacramento, California The win puts the Eastern Washington Eagles in first place in the Big Sky Conference, and also makes a statement in FCS play as EWU is now ranks #17.

Idaho State

Running back Taiwan Jones had another big day, but so did quarterback Matt Nichols and wide receiver Aaron Boyce as Eastern Washington remained unbeaten in the Big Sky Conference football standings with a 38–3 victory over Idaho State Saturday (Oct. 3) at Holt Arena in Pocatello, Idaho. Jones rushed for 168 yards and three touchdowns on just 14 carries (12.0 per rush), including a school-record 96-yard rush for a score in the third quarter. He broke the previous record of 95 yards set by John Ditz against Lewis & Clark in 1954. Last week, Jones had 190 yards and four touchdowns against Sacramento State to earn national player of the week honors.

Nichols completed 27-of-38 passes for 293 yards and a pair of touchdown passes to Boyce, who caught 10 passes for 149 yards. Nichols came up just short of his 13th 300-yard passing performance in his career, but it was the 12th 100-yard receiving output for Boyce. Eastern, which entered the game ranked 17th in the Sports Network NCAA Football Championship Subdivision poll, is now 4–1 overall, and has its third 3–0 start in Big Sky history (1992, 2004).

References

  1. ^ Sports Network's FCS College Football Poll Archived 2011-05-03 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ 2009 FCS Coaches Poll Archived October 8, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ "GoEags – 2009 Football Roster". Archived from the original on July 11, 2011. Retrieved September 16, 2009.
  4. ^ "GoEags – Eastern Pulls Away From Western Oregon". Archived from the original on December 27, 2010. Retrieved September 16, 2009.
  5. ^ "GoEags – Cal Downs Eagles". Archived from the original on December 27, 2010. Retrieved September 16, 2009.
  6. ^ "EWU Football – Eags get shutout". Archived from the original on December 27, 2010.

External links

Media related to 2009 Eastern Washington Eagles football team at Wikimedia Commons

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