CHENEY, Wash. — It's been a tough road lately for the Eastern Washington Eagles, who have lost six of their last seven games, and the road certainly won't get easier as they take on Montana State.
It may be even more difficult without quarterback Kekoa Visperas, whose availability is uncertain after he left last week's game vs. Idaho with a minor injury.
"There's no gamesmanship going on, if he was out, I would tell you he is out," Head Coach Aaron Best said. "He's not out, but he's not in. We expect him to play, it's fortunate that we have Jared, we have Mike, we have Nate who's played sparingly this year. We have three quarterbacks outside of Kekoa that can run the offense we intend to run. The offense doesn't change. It tweaks, but it doesn't change based on who's behind center."
Eastern has their work cut out for them against a Montana State defense that has forced 11 turnovers this season, and an offense with two players at or near the 1,000-yard mark on the season. Quarterback Tommy Mellott has 1,142 passing yards heading into Saturday's matchup, and running back Scottre Humphrey has 958 rushing yards.
"They've been a four-quarter complimentary team," Best said. "They've started a little bit slow in their road games, but they've picked up steam as the games have gone on. Explosive plays are not something they're going to deviate from even though they've chased some in the first half and haven't gotten them. A lot of times in the second half of games they've made adjustments at halftime and really, really done a good job of exploiting defenses to get to those 6, 8, 10 explosive plays in a game. They're the number one offense in the country for a reason."
"We execute well on offense no matter who is on the opposite side," Best continued. "So, as long as we're able to fulfill our game plan the way it should be, take our coaching, we will be able to execute against these guys. Very good on [the] defensive line, secondary as well, so they know what they're doing. It's not going to be easy, it's going to be a tough game."
Kickoff at Roos Field is at 1 p.m. on Saturday.