CHENEY, Wash. — The Eastern Washington Eagles will get a chance to upset a top 20 ranked FCS opponent for the third week in a row Saturday against No. 11 Idaho.
The Eags beat Sacramento State two weeks ago and held now fifth ranked UC Davis to just a field goal over two quarters on Saturday.
However, Eastern gave up 45 points in the other two quarters against the Aggies, so head coach Aaron Best is hoping to see his defense put together a more consistent performance against the Vandals.
"We are trying to go from two to three (good quarters) in a row, ideally we would like to skip that third step and get all the way to the fourth step of a full four quarters, but it has been a half and then an intermittent half this past week," Best said. "A lot of it is our own undoing."
Last season, Eastern was without starting quarterback Kekoa Visperas for the Idaho game, but Jared Taylor stepped in and had a terrific game for the Eags.
This time, Visperas will start and he is hoping to lead the high powered EWU offense to a faster start against a stout Vandal defense.
"Starting fast is our emphasis of the week and we are hoping to implement that in the game," Visperas said. "The emphasis this week is that each day is a quarter of the game, so that is our mindset heading into this game and that is how it needs to be."
Eastern has yet to beat Idaho since Jason Eck took over the program in 2022.
"They can beat you in many ways, they are not going to beat themselves, they are at home for a 6 o'clock game and I assume the environment will be pretty rowdy," Best said.
The Eagle offense continues to impress having scored 35 or more points in each of the last three games. Coach Best wants to ensure the ball is in his offense's hands as much as possible on Saturday.
"I think they are going to try and shorten the game and minimize possessions by running the ball," Best said. "They are averaging 63 snaps per game on both offense and defense. 63 snaps on offense for us is a low number and that is the game they want to play. We want to push that number to the low eighties and to do that, you need to get first downs, we cannot go three and out."
This game figures to be a high intensity, possibly one score game just like last season and the Eags will have to vie for a shocking upset for the third consecutive week.
"You need to put your big boy britches on, we are trying to knock off one of the top dogs in the Big Sky," Best said.
Kick off Saturday at the P1FCU Kibbie Dome is set for 6 p.m.