2021 Eastern Washington Eagles football team

The 2021 Eastern Washington Eagles football team represented Eastern Washington University as a member of the Big Sky Conference during the 2021 NCAA Division I FCS football season. Led by fifth-year head coach Aaron Best, the Eagles played their home games at Roos Field in Cheney, Washington.

2021 Eastern Washington Eagles football
NCAA Division I Second Round, L 41–57 at Montana
Conference	Big Sky Conference
Ranking
STATS	No. 7
FCS Coaches	No. 9
Record	10–3 (6–2 Big Sky)
Head coach	Aaron Best (5th season)
Co-offensive coordinators	Ian Shoemaker (3rd season; first 9 games) Pat McCann (interim; remainder of season)
Defensive coordinator	Eti Ena (3rd season)
Home stadium	Roos Field
Seasons ← 2020 2022 →

2021 Big Sky Conference football standings

v t e	Conf.							Overall
Team		W		L					W		L
No. 10 Sacramento State $^		8	–	0					9	–	3
No. 2 Montana State ^		7	–	1					11	–	3
No. 7 Eastern Washington ^		6	–	2					10	–	3
No. 6 Montana ^		6	–	2					10	–	3
No. 17 UC Davis ^		5	–	3					8	–	4
Weber State		5	–	3					6	–	5
Northern Arizona		4	–	4					5	–	6
Portland State		4	–	4					5	–	6
Idaho		3	–	5					4	–	7
Northern Colorado		2	–	6					3	–	8
Cal Poly		1	–	7					2	–	9
Idaho State		1	–	7					1	–	10
Southern Utah		0	–	8					1	–	10
$ – Conference champion ^ – FCS playoff participant Rankings from STATS Poll

Preseason

Polls

On July 26, 2021, during the virtual Big Sky Kickoff, the Eagles were predicted to finish third in the Big Sky by both the coaches and media.^[1]

Coaches poll

Predicted finish	Team	Votes (1st place)
1	Weber State	(7)
2	Montana	(3)
3	Eastern Washington	(2)
4	Montana State	(1)
5	Sacramento State	(1)
6	UC Davis
7	Northern Arizona
8	Idaho
9	Idaho State
10	Portland State
11	Southern Utah
12	Cal Poly
13	Northern Colorado

Media poll

Predicted finish	Team	Votes (1st place)
1	Weber State	(14)
2	Montana	(4)
3	Eastern Washington	(3)
4	Montana State	(3)
5	Sacramento State
6	UC Davis
7	Northern Arizona
8	Idaho
9	Idaho State
10	Portland State
11	Southern Utah
12	Northern Colorado
13	Cal Poly

Preseason All–Big Sky team

The Eagles had four players selected to the preseason all-Big Sky team.^[2]

Offense Eric Barriere – QB Talolo Limu-Jones – WR Tristen Taylor – OT

Defense Mitchell Johnson – DE

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 2	7:00 p.m.	at UNLV*	No. 11	Allegiant Stadium Paradise, NV	Stadium	W 35–33 2OT	21,970
September 11	1:00 p.m.	Central Washington*	No. 7	Roos Field Cheney, WA	SWX/ESPN+	W 63–14	4,523
September 18	1:00 p.m.	at Western Illinois*	No. 7	Hanson Field Macomb, IL	ESPN+	W 62–56	5,385
September 25	5:00 p.m.	at Southern Utah	No. 6	Eccles Coliseum Cedar City, UT	ESPN+	W 50–21	7,096
October 2	7:30 p.m.	No. 4 Montana	No. 6	Roos Field Cheney, WA (EWU–UM Governors Cup)	ESPN2	W 34–28	7,944
October 9	12:00 p.m.	at Northern Colorado	No. 4	Nottingham Field Greeley, CO	ESPN+	W 63–17	5,413
October 16	1:00 p.m.	Idaho	No. 2	Roos Field Cheney, WA	RTNW	W 71–21	5,380
October 23	1:00 p.m.	Weber State	No. 2	Roos Field Cheney, WA	SWX/ESPN+	L 34–35	5,676
November 6	1:00 p.m.	No. 4 Montana State	No. 5	Roos Field Cheney, WA	SWX/ESPN+	L 20–23	6,981
November 13	5:00 p.m.	at No. 6 UC Davis	No. 7	UC Davis Health Stadium Davis, CA	ESPN+	W 38–20	7,344
November 20	2:05 p.m.	at Portland State	No. 5	Hillsboro Stadium Portland, OR (The Dam Cup)	ESPN+	W 42–28	0
November 27	1:00 p.m.	Northern Iowa*	No. 4	Roos Field Cheney, WA (NCAA Division I First Round)	ESPN+	W 19–9	3,845
December 3	6:00 p.m.	at No. 5 Montana*	No. 4	Washington–Grizzly Stadium Missoula, MT (NCAA Division I Second Round)	ESPN+	L 41–57	24,065
*Non-conference game Rankings from STATS Poll released prior to the game All times are in Pacific time

Game summaries

At UNLV

	1	2	3	4	OT	2OT	Total
No. 11 Eagles	0	3	17	0	7	8	35
Rebels	0	6	0	14	7	6	33

See also: 2021 UNLV Rebels football team

Central Washington

	1	2	3	4	Total
Wildcats	7	0	0	7	14
No. 7 Eagles	18	28	10	7	63

See also: Central Washington Wildcats football

At Western Illinois

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 7 Eagles	28	27	7	0	62
Leathernecks	21	0	14	21	56

See also: 2021 Western Illinois Leathernecks football team

At Southern Utah

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 6 Eagles	9	21	13	7	50
Thunderbirds	7	7	7	0	21

See also: 2021 Southern Utah Thunderbirds football team

No. 4 Montana

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 4 Grizzlies	7	7	7	7	28
No. 6 Eagles	7	3	0	24	34

See also: 2021 Montana Grizzlies football team and EWU–UM Governors Cup

At Northern Colorado

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 4 Eagles	22	21	10	10	63
Bears	3	7	7	0	17

See also: 2021 Northern Colorado Bears football team

Idaho

	1	2	3	4	Total
Vandals	7	7	0	7	21
No. 2 Eagles	29	14	14	14	71

See also: 2021 Idaho Vandals football team

Weber State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Wildcats	0	13	7	15	35
No. 2 Eagles	7	7	7	13	34

See also: 2021 Weber State Wildcats football team

No. 4 Montana State

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 4 Bobcats	7	9	0	7	23
No. 5 Eagles	13	0	0	7	20

See also: 2021 Montana State Bobcats football team

At No. 6 UC Davis

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 7 Eagles	0	14	10	14	38
No. 6 Aggies	7	3	7	3	20

See also: 2021 UC Davis Aggies football team

At Portland State

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 5 Eagles	7	7	21	7	42
Vikings	7	7	7	7	28

See also: 2021 Portland State Vikings football team and The Dam Cup

FCS Playoffs

Northern Iowa–First Round

	1	2	3	4	Total
Panthers	0	7	0	2	9
No. 4 Eagles	6	3	7	3	19

See also: 2021 Northern Iowa Panthers football team

At No. 5 Montana–Second Round

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 4 Eagles	14	7	7	13	41
No. 5 Grizzlies	10	10	24	13	57

See also: 2021 Montana Grizzlies football team

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	11	7	7	6	6	4	2 (9)	2 (14)	7	5	7	5	4	7
Coaches	14	8	6	6	6	4 (2)	2 (1)	2 (2)	7	5	8	6	6	9