# 2019 Eastern Washington Eagles football team

The 2019 Eastern Washington Eagles football team represented Eastern Washington University in the 2019 NCAA Division I FCS football season. The team was coached by third year head coach Aaron Best. The Eagles played their home games at Roos Field in Cheney, Washington and were a member of the Big Sky Conference. They finished the season 7–5, 6–2 in Big Sky play to finish in a three-way tie for third place.

## Preseason
### Polls

On July 15, 2019 during the Big Sky Kickoff in Spokane, Washington, the Eagles were predicted to win the Big Sky by both the coaches and media.
Coaches poll :
| Predicted finish | Team | Votes (1st place) |
| 1 | Eastern Washington | 140 (10) |
| 2 | UC Davis | 127 (2) |
| 3 | Weber State | 124 |
| 4 | Montana | 104 (1) |
| 5 | Montana State | 100 |
| 6 | Northern Arizona | 88 |
| 7 | Idaho State | 72 |
| 8 | Idaho | 65 |
| 9 | Cal Poly | 56 |
| 10 | Portland State | 42 |
| 11 | Sacramento State | 40 |
| 12 | Southern Utah | 38 |
| 13 | Northern Colorado | 19 |
Media poll :
| Predicted finish | Team | Votes (1st place) |
| 1 | Eastern Washington | 536 (25) |
| 2 | UC Davis | 510 (13) |
| 3 | Weber State | 472 (4) |
| 4 | Montana State | 417 |
| 5 | Montana | 396 (1) |
| 6 | Northern Arizona | 302 |
| 7 | Idaho State | 285 |
| 8 | Idaho | 248 |
| 9 | Cal Poly | 196 |
| 10 | Portland State | 178 |
| 11 | Southern Utah | 160 |
| 12 | Sacramento State | 125 |
| 13 | Northern Colorado | 90 |

### Preseason All-Conference Team

The Eagles had one player selected to the Preseason All-Conference Team.
Chris Schlichting – Sr. OT

### Award watch lists

| Award | Player | Position | Year |
| Walter Payton Award | Eric Barriere | QB | JR |

### Coaching and personnel changes

On January 18, defensive coordinator Jeff Schmedding left to take a position as linebackers coach/co-special teams coordinator with Boise State. Defensive line coach Eti Ena was promoted to replace Schmedding on January 23, 2019.
On February 9, former starting quarterback Gage Gubrud was granted a medical redshirt year by the NCAA after suffering a season-ending foot injury in a game against Montana State on September 29, 2018. He transferred to Washington State for his final year of eligibility.
On February 12, offensive coordinator Bodie Reeder left to become the co-offensive coordinator at North Texas. On February 25, Central Washington head coach Ian Shoemaker was hired to replace him.

## Schedule

EWU has scheduled 12 games in the 2019 season instead of the 11 normally allowed for FCS programs. Under a standard provision of NCAA rules, all FCS teams are allowed to schedule 12 regular-season games in years in which the period starting with Labor Day weekend and ending with the last Saturday of November contains 14 Saturdays.
| Date | Time | Opponent | Rank | Site | TV | Result | Attendance |
| August 31 | 12:00 p.m. | at No. 13 (FBS) Washington* | No. 4 | Husky StadiumSeattle, WA | P12N | L 14–47 | 65,709 |
| September 7 | 1:00 p.m. | Lindenwood* | No. 4 | Roos FieldCheney, WA | SWX | W 59–31 | 6,785 |
| September 14 | 1:00 p.m. | at No. 17 Jacksonville State* | No. 4 | Burgess–Snow Field at JSU StadiumJacksonville, AL | ESPN+ | L 45–49 | 20,901 |
| September 21 | 12:00 p.m. | at Idaho* | No. 11 | Kibbie DomeMoscow, ID | RTNW | L 27–35 | 6,567 |
| September 28 | 2:05 p.m. | North Dakota | No. 21 | Roos FieldCheney, WA | SWX | W 35–20 | 8,726 |
| October 5 | 6:05 p.m. | at Sacramento State | No. 22 | Hornet StadiumSacramento, CA | ELVN | L 27–48 | 9,640 |
| October 12 | 1:05 p.m. | Northern Colorado | | Roos FieldCheney, WA | RTNW | W 54–21 | 9,091 |
| October 26 | 11:05 a.m. | at No. 10 Montana | | Washington–Grizzly StadiumMissoula, MT (EWU–UM Governors Cup) | RTNW | L 17–34 | 24,072 |
| November 2 | 1:05 p.m. | Northern Arizona | | Roos FieldCheney, WA | SWX | W 66–38 | 8,602 |
| November 9 | 1:35 p.m. | at Idaho State | | Holt ArenaPocatello, ID | Pluto TV | W 48–5 | 5,377 |
| November 16 | 5:05 p.m. | at Cal Poly | | Alex G. Spanos StadiumSan Luis Obispo, CA | Pluto TV | W 42–41 | 6,582 |
| November 23 | 1:05 p.m. | Portland State | | Roos FieldCheney, WA (The Dam Cup) | SWX | W 53–46 | 8,629 |
| *Non-conference gameRankings from STATS FCS Poll released prior to game Poll released prior to the gameAll times are in Pacific time ||||||||
* Source: Schedule Archived 2019-01-23 at the Wayback Machine
Despite also being a member of the Big Sky, the game vs. Idaho will count as a non-conference game and will have no effect on the Big Sky standings.
Although North Dakota is classified as an FCS Independent, games against them still count as Big Sky conference games through the 2019 season.

## Game summaries
### At Washington

| Quarter | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| No. 4 Eagles | 0 | 7 | 0 | 7 | 14 |
| No. 13 (FBS) Huskies | 21 | 7 | 14 | 5 | 47 |
at Husky Stadium • Seattle, WA
* Date: August 31, 2019
* Game time: 12:00 p.m. PDT
* Game weather: 74 °F (23 °C) • Hazy • Wind @ 0 mph (0 km/h)
* Game attendance: 65,709
* Referee: Kevin Mar
* TV announcers (P12N): Ted Robinson, Yogi Roth, and Lewis Johnson

### Lindenwood

| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| Lions | 0 | 17 | 14 | 0 | 31 |
| No. 4 Eagles | 21 | 10 | 21 | 7 | 59 |

### At Jacksonville State

| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| No. 4 Eagles | 28 | 7 | 10 | 0 | 45 |
| No. 17 Gamecocks | 7 | 14 | 7 | 21 | 49 |

### At Idaho

| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| No. 11 Eagles | 0 | 0 | 7 | 20 | 27 |
| Vandals | 14 | 14 | 0 | 7 | 35 |

### North Dakota

| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| Fighting Hawks | 7 | 0 | 7 | 6 | 20 |
| No. 21 Eagles | 14 | 14 | 0 | 7 | 35 |

### At Sacramento State

| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| No. 22 Eagles | 7 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 27 |
| Hornets | 21 | 6 | 7 | 14 | 48 |

### Northern Colorado

| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| Bears | 0 | 0 | 14 | 7 | 21 |
| Eagles | 10 | 30 | 14 | 0 | 54 |

### At Montana

| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| Eagles | 0 | 14 | 3 | 0 | 17 |
| No. 10 Grizzlies | 3 | 7 | 10 | 14 | 34 |

### Northern Arizona

| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| Lumberjacks | 14 | 10 | 7 | 7 | 38 |
| Eagles | 17 | 21 | 21 | 7 | 66 |

### At Idaho State

| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| Eagles | 3 | 17 | 21 | 7 | 48 |
| Bengals | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 5 |

### At Cal Poly

| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| Eagles | 14 | 14 | 7 | 7 | 42 |
| Mustangs | 0 | 14 | 14 | 13 | 41 |

### Portland State

| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
| Vikings | 7 | 10 | 8 | 21 | 46 |
| Eagles | 17 | 13 | 15 | 8 | 53 |

## Ranking movements

Ranking movements Legend: ██ Increase in ranking ██ Decrease in ranking — = Not ranked RV = Received votes ( ) = First-place votes :
| | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week | Week |
| Poll | Pre | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | Final |
| STATS | 4 (3) | 4 (1) | 4 | 11 | 21 | 22 | RV | RV | RV | — | — | RV | RV | RV |
| Coaches | 3 (2) | 5 | 5 | 11 | 22 | 21 | RV | RV | — | — | — | RV | RV | RV |