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By PAUL DELANEY
Staff Reporter 

Eagles out of FCS postseason

Despite poll rankings of No. 17 and No. 19, Eastern fails to make bracket in field of 24

 

Last updated 11/22/2017 at 10:41am

Paul Delaney

Nic Sblendorio hauls in this pass that turned into a 74-yard third quarter touchdown play in EWU's 59-33 win over Portland State last Saturday at Roos Field. Sblendorio had nine catches and a pair of touchdowns. Both scores came on spectacular catches followed by long runs. Sblendorio had 273 receiving yards in what turned out to be the final game of his EWU career. He was just shy of the single game receiving record of 275 yards set by Cooper Kupp.

Nic Sblendorio's last collegiate game will at least be very memorable.

The Eastern Washington University senior wide receiver caught nine passes for 273 yards and a pair of touchdowns. His were not just run-of-the-mill scores but long catch and runs.

One came when the ball bounced off his helmet, high into the air and he battled a pair of Viking defenders to corral the catch and race 60 yards for a score that gave his team a 24-14 second quarter lead.

The other put the exclamation point on Eastern's 59-33 destruction of Portland State last Saturday at Roos Field as the one-time transfer from Washington State took a Gage Gubrud pass over the middle, in stride. He again beat a pair of PSU defenders and then zig-zagged his way following blockers 74 yards for his team's final points.

Sblendorio wound up two yards shy of tying the single game yardage record set by Cooper Kupp.


While it's likely little consolation, Sblendorio netted both College Sports Madness and Big Sky Conference Player of the Week awards.

The win gave the Eagles a 7-4 overall record and a 6-2 mark in the Big Sky Conference and a three-way tie with Northern Arizona and Sacramento State.

But Sblendorio and the rest of his Eagle teammates saw their season end less than 10 minutes into the Nov. 19 Football Championship Subdivision selection show when Eastern failed to be selected with an at-large berth in the 24-team bracket.

"Shocked. Absolutely shocked," first-year Eastern head coach Aaron Best, said. "I thought our resume was bold and strong, and it's my firm belief that we are one of the best 24 teams in the nation."


Poll voters indeed seemed to agree, ranking Eastern 17th in the STATS FCS Top 25 poll, which was announced prior to the pairings. Northern Arizona was ranked 25th, Southern Utah was 12th and Weber State was 11th. Eastern earned a No. 19 final ranking in the FCS Coaches Poll released Nov. 20.

Eight teams in the FSC Coaches Poll who were ranked below Eastern all qualified.

"I think after doing this for many, many years, I have a pretty good pulse on where I think things are (and) yes, I'm blown away, shocked, I really am," EWU Athletics Director, Bill Chaves said on his weekly podcast Nov. 19.

This is the first time Eastern has been a bubble team and the rationale for the snub - besides a number of statistical categories where the Eagles fell flat (see Crunch time) - could rest with any number of reasons.


Conventional wisdom seemed to point that Eastern's playoff pedigree since 2009, qualifying in seven of nine seasons, might have been a plus, but such was not the case.

Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.

 

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