Washington football: Home opener preview

Washington football opens their season this Saturday, August 31st against the Eastern Washington Eagles

Washington football has a tough FCS opponent in Eastern Washington, who made the FCS Championship game last season before losing to North Dakota State.

The Eagles are coming into the season ranked #3 in the FCS Coaches Poll. They have always given Pac-12 teams fits over the years in non-conference matchups, so I expect this won’t be any different against an in-state rival.

This game will give the Huskies a good test before playing the California Golden Bears the next week at Husky Stadium too. The Huskies will be introducing Jacob Eason at quarterback after the graduation of Jake Browning, who started for each of the last four seasons. Eason is finally eligible after transferring home from the University of Georgia, where he started as a true freshman.

Junior Eric Barriere is expected to be the Eagles’ starting quarterback. Last year, his first as the starter, he threw for 2450 yards, with 24 touchdowns and nine interceptions. Barriere is a duel threat, who ran for 613 yards and eight touchdowns last year.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Eagles lack experience at cornerback as their top five all graduated last season. Eason could have a field day with them, however, they do have experienced safeties, and experience up front. It will be important for the linebackers and the defensive line to put pressure on Eason.

The biggest key to the game for the Huskies will be making sure all runs smoothly on offense and defense. This will be a tough matchup, facing one of the best schools in the FCS, but if things get out of hand scorewise, we should see some young players, like new backup quarterback Jacob Sirmon, get some time on the field.

This will no doubt be an interesting game to watch, and will give us a great idea of what the Huskies want to do over the course of the season.