After the offense starred in Eastern Washington’s first spring scrimmage a week ago, on Friday at Roos Field the Eagles’ defense showed that it, too, could make the big plays.
The Eagles’ offense scored just once during the session, on an 18-yard touchdown pass from starting quarterback Jared Taylor to sixth-year receiver Nolan Ulm. Ulm made five catches for 79 yards, a promising performance from the team’s most veteran wideout.
But otherwise, what stood out was a strong effort from the defense, which included an interception by redshirt junior safety Drew Carter, who earlier in the scrimmage dropped two would-be picks.
“It felt great,” Carter said of the interception. “I should have hung on to all of them.”
The fifth-year senior Taylor completed 15 of 22 passes for 166 yards. After featuring more a part of the running game last season, Taylor is clearly going to be given more opportunities to throw this fall.
“He’s waited to get this opportunity,” EWU head coach Aaron Best said. “We laugh all the time: I say (to Taylor), ‘You threw the ball pretty well for a running quarterback.’ It’s the running joke between us. Quarterbacks aren’t just throwers or runners. They’re quarterbacks. You’ve got to do it all. He gets a laugh out of that.”
The defense’s performance included a few goal-line stands and pressure on the quarterback that drew Best’s praise. Redshirt junior tackle Isaiah Perez had two sacks, while redshirt junior Ethan Williamson – a Mt. Spokane grad – and junior Jirah Leaupepetele teamed up for another sack.
It was the closest Leaupepetele had come to game action since last season when he played just four games.
Still, the defense was facing an Eagles offense that played shorthanded: It’s offensive line has been practicing all spring with barely a full two-deep, and on Friday it ran with just two running backs and a half dozen receivers.
Redshirt junior Talon Betts got the bulk of the carries, taking 13 of them for 19 yards. Marceese Yetts had one carry for negative-4 yards; he also caught a pass for 13. Fifth-year senior Malik Dotson, sophomore Kevin Allen III and redshirt freshman Amir Dendy – a transfer from East Tennessee State – did not participate.
“At the end of the day we’re down guys like everybody else,” Best said. “Having enough reps for everybody to get meaningful reps is very, very important to us.”
Redshirt freshman Boden Gardner caught four passes for 62 yards, while senior transfers Drew Carlson (five for 44) and Kyson Thomas (three for 44) also saw significant snaps in a receiving corps that held out Miles Williams, Wesley Garrett, Noah Cronquist and Jaxon Branch.
Redshirt sophomore tight end Braden Kuik had the longest play of the scrimmage, a 51-yard reception. He also caught a pass for 12 yards.
“The explosive plays on offense, there were a few more last week,” Best said, referring to the April 4 scrimmage that included seven touchdowns. “At the end of the day, it’s nice to convert some of those third-and-12s, but it’s not so fun to see those third-and-12s be converted when you’re on the defensive sideline.
“I thought (today) there was a little more consistency from the defense from start to finish.”
Best reiterated that this is a younger team than Eastern was last year and that players coming off their redshirts have every opportunity to earn starting spots, especially on a unit that returns plenty of sophomores who played outsized roles as freshman in 2024.
“We got a ton of repetitions last year from the young guys. We just didn’t seize the moments we could have seized,” Best said. “There are very few starting spots locked down on this team, so we’ve got to find a combination that rises up in those third- and fourth-down situations and in the red zone.”
Eastern has one more week of practices, culminating in the Red-White Game at 6 p.m. Friday.
