2016 Eastern Washington Eagles football team

The 2016 Eastern Washington Eagles football team represented Eastern Washington University in the 2016 NCAA Division I FCS football season. They were led by head coach Beau Baldwin, who was in his ninth season with Eastern Washington. The Eagles played their home games at Roos Field in Cheney, Washington and were a member of the Big Sky Conference. They finished the season 12–2, 8–0 in Big Sky play to share the conference championship with North Dakota. They received the automatic bid into the FCS Playoffs where they defeated Central Arkansas and Richmond in the second round and quarterfinals, before losing to Youngstown State in the semifinals.

2016 Eastern Washington Eagles football
Big Sky co-champion
FCS Playoffs Semifinals, L 38–40 vs. Youngstown State
Conference	Big Sky Conference
Ranking
STATS	No. 4
FCS Coaches	No. 4
Record	12–2 (8–0 Big Sky)
Head coach	Beau Baldwin (9th season)
Offensive coordinator	Aaron Best (16th season)
Offensive scheme	Multiple
Defensive coordinator	Jeff Schmedding (2nd season)
Base defense	4–2–5
Home stadium	Roos Field
Seasons ← 2015 2017 →

2016 Big Sky Conference football standings

v t e	Conf.							Overall
Team		W		L					W		L
No. 4 Eastern Washington +^		8	–	0					12	–	2
No. 12 North Dakota +^		8	–	0					9	–	3
No. 25 Weber State ^		6	–	2					7	–	5
No. 24 Cal Poly ^		5	–	3					7	–	5
Southern Utah		5	–	3					6	–	5
Northern Colorado		4	–	4					6	–	5
Northern Arizona		4	–	4					5	–	6
Montana		3	–	5					6	–	5
Montana State		2	–	6					4	–	7
Portland State		2	–	6					3	–	8
UC Davis		2	–	6					3	–	8
Sacramento State		2	–	6					2	–	9
Idaho State		1	–	7					2	–	9
$ – Conference champion ^ – FCS playoff participant Rankings from STATS Poll

On January 16, 2017, head coach Beau Baldwin resigned to become the offensive coordinator at California.^[1] He finished at Eastern Washington with a nine year record of 85–32.

Preseason

Big Sky polls

On July 19, 2016, the Big Sky Conference released its preseason coaches' and media polls. The Wildcats were predicted to finish fourth in the coaches' poll and third in the media poll.^[2]

Coaches' poll

Predicted finish	Team	Votes (1st place)
1	Northern Arizona	132 (8)
2	Portland State	121 (2)
	Montana	121
4	Eastern Washington	112 (2)
5	North Dakota	105 (1)
6	Weber State	83
7	Southern Utah	73
	Montana State	73
9	Cal Poly	66
10	Northern Colorado	43
11	Sacramento State	30
12	Idaho State	24
13	UC Davis	23

Media poll

Predicted finish	Team	Votes (1st place)
1	Northern Arizona	287 (8)
2	Montana	283 (7)
3	Eastern Washington	269 (5)
4	North Dakota	262 (2)
5	Portland State	252 (3)
6	Weber State	174
7	Southern Utah	162
8	Montana State	157
9	Cal Poly	153
10	Northern Colorado	111
11	Idaho State	58
12	UC Davis	56
13	Sacramento State	50

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 3	5:00 pm	at Washington State*	No. 14	Martin Stadium Pullman, WA	P12N	W 45–42	32,952
September 10	12:30 pm	at No. 1 North Dakota State*	No. 8	Fargodome Fargo, ND	SWX	L 44–50 OT	18,906
September 17	4:05 pm	No. 10 Northern Iowa*	No. 8	Roos Field Cheney, WA	SWX	W 34–30	9,111
September 24	4:05 pm	at Northern Arizona	No. 4	Walkup Skydome Flagstaff, AZ	SWX	W 50–35	10,179
October 1	1:05 pm	UC Davis	No. 4	Roos Field Cheney, WA	RTNW	W 63–30	10,741
October 8	1:05 pm	Northern Colorado	No. 4	Roos Field Cheney, WA	SWX	W 49–31	10,924
October 22	11:05 am	at Montana State	No. 3	Bobcat Stadium Bozeman, MT	RTNW	W 41–17	18,087
October 29	12:35 pm	No. 16 Montana	No. 3	Roos Field Cheney, WA (EWU–UM Governors Cup)	RTNW	W 35–16	10,931
November 5	6:05 pm	at No. 14 Cal Poly	No. 3	Alex G. Spanos Stadium San Luis Obispo, CA	WBS	W 42–21	9,722
November 12	3:35 pm	Idaho State	No. 3	Roos Field Cheney, WA	SWX	W 48–17	9,302
November 18	7:35 pm	at Portland State	No. 3	Providence Park Portland, OR (The Dam Cup)	RTNW	W 35–28	5,669
December 3	1:00 pm	No. 14 Central Arkansas*	No. 3	Roos Field Cheney, WA (NCAA Division I Second Round)	ESPN3	W 31–14	6,085
December 10	1:00 pm	No. 12 Richmond*	No. 3	Roos Field Cheney, WA (NCAA Division I Quarterfinal)	ESPN3	W 38–0	5,150
December 17	3:30 pm	No. 13 Youngstown State*	No. 3	Roos Field Cheney, WA (NCAA Division I Semifinal)	ESPNU	L 38–40	5,233
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from STATS Poll released prior to the game All times are in Pacific time

^[3]

Roster

2016 Eastern Washington Eagles football team roster
Players			Coaches
Offense Pos. # Name Class QB 8 Gage Gubrud  So QB 12 Reilly Hennessey  So RB 28 Antoine Custer Jr. Fr RB 30 Tamarick Pierce Fr RB 2 Jabari Wilson  Sr WR 10 Cooper Kupp  Sr WR 11 Kendrick Bourne Sr WR 1 Shaq Hill  Sr WR 7 Nic Sblendorio  Jr WR 81 Stu Stiles So TE 9 Zach Wimberly  Sr	Defense Pos. # Name Class DL 3 Samson Ebukam Sr DB 32 Zach Bruce  Sr	Special teams Pos. # Name Class	Head coach Beau Baldwin Coordinators/assistant coaches Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible Injured Redshirt Roster

Game summaries

At Washington State

See also: 2016 Washington State Cougars football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 14 Eagles	7	17	14	7	45
Cougars	14	14	0	14	42

At No. 1 North Dakota State

See also: 2016 North Dakota State Bison football team

	1	2	3	4	OT	Total
No. 8 Eagles	0	14	10	20	0	44
No. 1 Bison	7	14	7	16	6	50

No. 10 Northern Iowa

See also: 2016 Northern Iowa Panthers football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 10 Panthers	10	14	0	6	30
No. 8 Eagles	0	7	14	13	34

At Northern Arizona

See also: 2016 Northern Arizona Lumberjacks football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 4 Eagles	12	10	14	14	50
Lumberjacks	7	14	7	7	35

UC Davis

See also: 2016 UC Davis Aggies football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
Aggies	0	23	7	0	30
No. 4 Eagles	14	0	35	14	63

Northern Colorado

See also: 2016 Northern Colorado Bears football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bears	7	10	7	7	31
No. 4 Eagles	3	11	21	14	49

At Montana State

See also: 2016 Montana State Bobcats football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 3 Eagles	14	10	7	10	41
Bobcats	14	3	0	0	17

No. 16 Montana

See also: 2016 Montana Grizzlies football team and EWU–UM Governors Cup

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 16 Grizzlies	7	3	6	0	16
No. 3 Eagles	7	14	14	0	35

At No. 14 Cal Poly

See also: 2016 Cal Poly Mustangs football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 3 Eagles	14	7	14	7	42
No. 14 Mustangs	7	7	7	0	21

Idaho State

See also: 2016 Idaho State Bengals football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bengals	3	7	7	0	17
No. 3 Eagles	7	13	14	14	48

At Portland State

See also: 2016 Portland State Vikings football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 3 Eagles	7	0	14	14	35
Vikings	14	0	14	0	28

FCS playoffs

No. 14 Central Arkansas (Second Round)

See also: 2016 Central Arkansas Bears football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 14 Bears	0	14	0	0	14
No. 3 Eagles	0	21	3	7	31

No. 12 Richmond (Quarterfinals)

See also: 2016 Richmond Spiders football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 12 Spiders	0	0	0	0	0
No. 3 Eagles	7	14	10	7	38

No. 13 Youngstown State (Semifinals)

See also: 2016 Youngstown State Penguins football team

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 13 Penguins	7	10	3	20	40
No. 3 Eagles	10	14	7	7	38

Ranking movements

Ranking movements
Legend: ██ Increase in ranking ██ Decrease in ranking
( ) = First-place votes

	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Final
STATS	14	8 (1)	8	4	4	4	4	3 (17)	3 (18)	3 (18)	3 (19)	3 (21)	3 (14)	4
Coaches	17	8	7	5	5	5	5	3 (1)	3 (1)	3 (1)	3 (1)	3 (1)	4 (1)	4
FCS Playoffs	Not released									3	2	2	Not released