Earliest start ever for team as they prepare for Aug. 23 Roos Field opener vs. Sam Houston
Eastern Washington's Mario Brown (5) and Steve Forgette (70) celebrated Brown's third quarter touchdown that helped rally the Eagles from a 21-0 deficit and take their first lead, 24-21 over Towson last Dec. 21 at Roos Field in an FCS semifinal playoff game. The visitors would stage their own rally to win the game 35-31 in the final 17 seconds. Since then, the Eagles have eagerly awaited the start of fall camp, their first game Aug. 23 at Roos versus Sam Houston, and hopefully another deep playoff run.
It's been seven months - 222 days to be exact - since Eastern Washington University football players left foggy Roos Field stunned by another gut-wrenching loss, 35-31 to Towson, in the Football Championship Subdivision semifinal playoffs.
The journey on the road that hopefully leads back to a do-over starts earlier than ever as football practice for the Eagles begins today, July 31 at 9 a.m. on the Sports and Recreation Center practice fields.
All efforts point to the Saturday, Aug. 23 start of the nation's college football season that kicks off here in Cheney at 12:30 p.m. against FCS rival Sam Houston State University.
Eastern will practice in pads for the first time Sunday, Aug. 3 at 9 a.m., followed by its first of six days of two-a-day practices Aug. 4. The Eagles are expected to exclusively use the practice fields through Aug. 8, after which Roos Field will be utilized leading up to the team's opener.
Eastern head coach Beau Baldwin, entering his seventh season at the helm and 11th overall at EWU, has a team picked by three national publications as the preseason No. 1 team in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision. Recently, the Eagles were also selected to repeat as Big Sky Conference Champions after last year's perfect 8-0 campaign.
The Eagles, who advanced to the semifinals of the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs in 2012 and 2013 and have been to the playoffs in seven of the last 10 years, will scrimmage twice before the team's season opener.
Eastern's first scrimmage of preseason camp will take place Saturday, Aug. 9, at approximately 9:50 a.m., and a second scrimmage will take place a week later on Aug. 16, also at about 9:50 a.m. Both scrimmages are free and open to the public, and take place at Roos Field.
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