SPOKANE, Wash. — Call it the week of the underdog.
All three of our division one program's football teams are expected to lose this weekend. Washington State, Idaho and Eastern Washington are all on the road and playing big name college programs.
Washington State
Washington State will head out to Madison, Wisconsin to face the 19th ranked Wisconsin Badgers.
After a not up to expectations start to the season against Idaho for WSU, odds makers have the spread at 17.5 points in favor of the school in the heartland of cheese.
The Badgers are coming off a 38-0 shutout of Illinois State in week one. As always, they are big and physical and look to run the ball down their opponents throat. Wisconsin ran for 221 yards against the Redbirds.
Big and strong is a staple of the Badgers, something redshirt junior running back Nakia Watson knows, as he spent his first three seasons at Wisconsin.
“I be telling them boys going to come down hill,” said Watson. “They are strong, they are fast and they are powerful. So, you know, we’re gonna have to bite down on our mouthpiece and come with what we come with.”
Head coach Jake Dickert knows this from his time growing up as a fan of Wisconsin.
“They play hard, they play physical, they play tough. They’re as advertised and they’re as big as we’ve seen and maybe as big in our league as you can get. So, the challenge is understandable, but you don’t worry about the challenge. You worry about what each individual player needs to do to be successful,” said Dickert.
WSU at Wisconsin will kickoff at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday and is broadcasted nationally on FOX.
Idaho
The Idaho Vandals shocked the Inland Northwest and the college football landscape with their performance against Washington State in the Battle of the Palouse, losing by just seven points.
Now, the FCS team has another power five matchup.
Idaho is headed out to Bloomington, Indiana to face the Indiana Hoosiers. ESPN's matchup predictor gives the Vandals a 3.8% chance to win this game.
After last week's performance, first year head coach Jason Eck said he could feel everyone is officially bought into the new era of Idaho football.
Problem is, this week he thinks will be an even tougher matchup.
“This is going to be a much tougher challenge against Indiana. I think they’re a very good football team. It’s going to be a much tougher environment. Bigger crowd, it’s a harder trip. You know, last week was a glorified home game. You know, slept in your own bed. Now, we have a three-hour flight to go across the country,” said Eck. “Now, I think we’ll have Indiana’s attention. Their coaches will be able to use us playing Washington State tough for motivation, so my message to the team was we got have to improve a lot this week. We got to play much, much better and I think we can play much better than we did to beat a very good Indiana football team.”
Indiana is coming off a 23-20 win over Illinois in week one of the season where quarterback Connor Bazelak threw for 330 yards and a touchdown.
Idaho at Indiana will kickoff at 5 p.m. on Saturday and is broadcasted on the Big 10 Network.
Eastern Washington
Eastern Washington, like Idaho, will be facing a power five foe. The Eags are headed out to Eugene, Oregon to face the Ducks.
EWU is coming off an impressive 36-29 win over Eddie George's Tennessee State team.
In the win, quarterback Gunner Talkington put the nay-sayers to bed, winning the Big Sky Offensive Player of the Week award after throwing for 348 yards and five touchdowns.
Now, just like Idaho, Eastern Washington is a big underdog. ESPN's matchup predictor gives the Eagles a 4.3% chance to win, but, Oregon did look rough last week in a 49-3 loss to Georgia.
Could this be an upset to rock college football? Coach Best knows he'll get a laser focused team this week with the spotlight being so bright.
“It doesn’t matter the mascot or the level. I think our guys love to compete. And it does mean a little bit more when you’re playing an FBS opponent, a power five opponent, it does mean more. Just like anything, when the reward is a little bit more you’re usually willing to do a little bit more to grasp the reward.”
Kickoff is set for 5 p.m. and the game will be broadcasted on the Pac-12 Network.
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