SPOKANE, Wash. — Week eight of the college football season is here.
Washington State has a much needed bye week and a pair of Big Sky Conference games for Idaho and Eastern Washington this Saturday.
Idaho
If you're an Idaho Vandals fan, you are on cloud nine right now!
The Vandals brought home the Little Brown Stein for the first time since 1999, topping then No. 3 Montana 30-23 on Saturday.
Now, first year head coach Jason Eck's squad finds itself ranked 17th in the FCS Stats Perform Rankings.
This weekend, a 2-4 Portland State team is coming to Moscow for a home game in the Kibbie Dome.
Thus far, Idaho is undefeated in Big Sky play and are favorites to keep it that way this weekend. For the Vandals, the key will be containing Vikings quarterback Dante Chachere, who can cause problems with his feet.
Chachere leads Portland State in passing yards with 1,103 and rushing yards with 314.
Rather than playing the role of underdog, which the Vandals have done very well with, they now find themselves in a new role, the favorite.
For coach Eck, this week and going forward is all about not getting too big for their britches.
"I think it's important that we focus on the reason that we have played well this year. It's because we've prepared well, we've practiced well, we've taken teams seriously, we've invested and had great preparation during the week," said Eck. "Now is not the time to feel good about ourselves and pat ourselves on the back. We've got to keep stepping up what we've been doing and I think that will continue to lead to success."
Idaho vs. Portland State will kickoff at noon. That game can be watched on ESPN+.
Eastern Washington
Eastern Washington is coming off 52-28 loss to then No. 5 Sacramento State. With the loss, EWU dropped to 1-5 this season.
To say they've had a tough schedule would be putting it lightly. The Eags have faced two FBS power five opponents and three top ranked FCS opponents.
This week, for the first time this season, Eastern Washington will face a team below .500 in Cal Poly.
For the Eagles, this week is all about getting a much needed win and hoping for the offense, which has looked solid at times, to find some consistency.
"I know we're fighters. I know we're starving to win as a team," said EWU head coach Aaron Best.
"We've shown flashes of, I wouldn't say brilliance, but really goodness against some stout competition in the first six games," said Best. "If we can build on those moments and then have more consistent normal moments, then I think we've got a good shot at scoring more points on a weekly basis."
EWU at Cal Poly kicks-off at 5 p.m. and can be watched on ESPN+.
An interesting storyline in this one is that former Eastern Washington head coach from 2008-2016 Beau Baldwin is now the head coach at Cal Poly. This means Aaron Best will be facing his former boss at EWU.
DOWNLOAD THE KREM SMARTPHONE APP
DOWNLOAD FOR IPHONE HERE | DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID HERE
HOW TO ADD THE KREM+ APP TO YOUR STREAMING DEVICE
ROKU: add the channel from the ROKU store or by searching for KREM in the Channel Store.
Fire TV: search for "KREM" to find the free app to add to your account. Another option for Fire TV is to have the app delivered directly to your Fire TV through Amazon.
To report a typo or grammatical error, please email webspokane@krem.com.