The 2019 Eastern Washington Eagles football team represented

Eastern Washington University Eastern Washington University (EWU) is a public university in Cheney, Washington. It also offers programs at a campus in EWU Spokane at the Riverpoint Campus and other campus locations throughout the state. Founded in 1882, the university is ...

in the

2019 NCAA Division I FCS football season The 2019 NCAA Division I FCS football season, part of college football in the United States, was organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) level. The FCS Champions ...

. The team was coached by third year head coach Aaron Best. The Eagles played their home games at Roos Field in Cheney, Washington and were a member of the

Big Sky Conference The Big Sky Conference (BSC) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I with football competing in the Football Championship Subdivision. Member institutions are located in the western United States in the eigh ...

. They finished the season 7–5, 6–2 in Big Sky play to finish in a three-way tie for third place.

Previous season

The Eagles finished the 2018 season 12–3, 7–1 in Big Sky play to finish in a three-way tie for first place. They received the third seed in the FCS Playoffs and advanced to the National Championship Game, where they lost to

North Dakota State North Dakota State University (NDSU, formally North Dakota State University of Agriculture and Applied Sciences) is a public land-grant research university in Fargo, North Dakota. It was founded as North Dakota Agricultural College in 1890 as th ...

Preseason

Polls

On July 15, 2019 during the Big Sky Kickoff in

Spokane, Washington Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Canada ...

, the Eagles were predicted to win the Big Sky by both the coaches and media.

Preseason All-Conference Team

The Eagles had one player selected to the Preseason All-Conference Team. Chris Schlichting – Sr. OT

Award watch lists

Coaching/Personnel Changes

On January 18, defensive coordinator Jeff Schmedding left to take a position as linebackers coach/co-special teams coordinator with

Boise State Boise State University (BSU) is a public research university in Boise, Idaho. Founded in 1932 by the Episcopal Church, it became an independent junior college in 1934 and has been awarding baccalaureate and master's degrees It became a publ ...

. Defensive line coach Eti Ena was promoted to replace Schmedding on January 23, 2019. On February 9, former starting quarterback Gage Gubrud was granted a medical redshirt year by the NCAA after suffering a season-ending foot injury in a game against

Montana State Montana State University (MSU) is a public land-grant research university in Bozeman, Montana. It is the state's largest university. MSU offers baccalaureate degrees in 60 fields, master's degrees in 68 fields, and doctoral degrees in 35 fiel ...

on September 29, 2018. He transferred to

Washington State Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...

for his final year of eligibility. On February 12, offensive coordinator Bodie Reeder left to become the co-offensive coordinator at

North Texas North Texas (also commonly called North Central Texas) is a term used primarily by residents of Dallas, Fort Worth, and surrounding areas to describe much of the north central portion of the U.S. state of Texas. Residents of the Dallas–Fort Wor ...

. On February 25,

Central Washington Central Washington is a region of the U.S. state of Washington between the western and eastern parts of the state extending from the border with the Canadian province of British Columbia in the north to the border with the U.S. state of Oregon i ...

head coach

Ian Shoemaker Ian Shoemaker is an American football coach and former player. He is currently the offensive coordinator at Hawaii. He was the head football coach at Central Washington from 2014 until 2018. Coaching career Western Washington Following Shoemake ...

was hired to replace him.

Schedule

EWU has scheduled 12 games in the 2019 season instead of the 11 normally allowed for FCS programs. Under a standard provision of NCAA rules, all FCS teams are allowed to schedule 12 regular-season games in years in which the period starting with Labor Day weekend and ending with the last Saturday of November contains 14 Saturdays. *Source
Schedule
Despite also being a member of the Big Sky, the game vs. Idaho will count as a non-conference game and will have no effect on the Big Sky standings. Although North Dakota is classified as an FCS Independent, games against them still count as Big Sky conference games through the 2019 season.

Game summaries

at Washington

Lindenwood

at Jacksonville State

at Idaho

North Dakota

at Sacramento State

Northern Colorado

at Montana

Northern Arizona

at Idaho State

at Cal Poly

Portland State

Ranking movements

References

{{Eastern Washington Eagles football navbox

Eastern Washington Eastern Washington is the region of the U.S. state of Washington located east of the Cascade Range. It contains the city of Spokane (the second largest city in the state), the Tri-Cities, the Columbia River and the Grand Coulee Dam, the Hanfor ...

Eastern Washington Eagles football seasons

Eastern Washington Eagles football The Eastern Washington Eagles football team represents Eastern Washington University in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision. The Eastern Eagles are members of the Big Sky Conference and play at Roos Field, which is known for bein ...