Eastern Washington University 2016 recruiting class

Including the quarterback his coaching staff coveted, Eastern Washington University head football coach Beau Baldwin announced the signing of 19 high school players on Wednesday (Feb. 3) to letters of intent to attend EWU and play for the Eagles.

The class features 13 All-State players from five Western states, including five from Washington, three from Oregon, three from California, and one each from Idaho and Arizona.

Pronunciations
Eric Barriere – “Bare-ee-aa” . . . rhymes with Perrier
Calin Criner – “Cal-uhn” “Cry-nur”
Antoine Custer Jr. – “An-twawn”
Benaiah Ellington Jr. – “Beh-nie-ah”
Talolo Limu Jones – “Tay-low-low” “Lee-moo”
Rudolph Mataia – “Muh-tay-ah”
Tamarick Pierce – “Tuh-mare-rick”
Kyle Olson-Urbon – “Ur-bun”
The headliner is quarterback Eric Barriere from La Habra (Calif.) High School where he accounted for 130 career touchdowns with 9,304 passing yards and 1,718 rushing yards. More importantly, he led the Highlanders to a collective 30-8 record and a perfect league record in three championship seasons.

“There was no question we wanted to sign a quarterback, but we wanted to make sure we signed the right player,” said Baldwin. “We did that with Eric. He was the top quarterback since we started the recruiting process, even before his senior season. He’s going to fit into our program and offense extremely well.”

Eastern also signed three running backs who combined for more than 12,000 rushing yards and 180 total touchdowns in their careers, as well as winning 85 percent of their games (105-18). They include California two-time All-State selection Antoine Custer Jr. out of powerhouse De La Salle High School, as well as All-State selection Tamarick Pierce from Oakland, Calif., and Saint Mary’s High School.

The third running back is Jason Talley, an All-State running back from Oregon State 6A champion Jesuit High School. Talley’s brother, Jordan, was a running back and linebacker for Eastern from 2011-14.

“He was a little brother to Jordan, but he’s not little when you look at him,” said Baldwin. “He’s a big, physical running back who also has some breakaway ability. He was just a workhorse at Jesuit. We’re excited to sign somebody who comes from a family and background of somebody we know, but with that Jason will pave his own way and make his own mark. That is really important to him.”

With five senior starters and two other seniors lost from EWU’s offensive line this year, Eastern signed a large class of offensive linemen for the second-straight year. The five signees include All-State selections D.J. Dyer from Kennewick (Wash.) High School, Conner Crist from Tigard (Ore.) High School and Brett Thompson from Olympia (Wash.) High School.

“We were able to sign a lot of offensive linemen again, which was key,” Baldwin explained. “I know we signed a great o-line class last year, but we needed great back-to-back classes to keep that depth and the numbers where they need to be. We did that in back-to-back years, which is huge with where we are going to be in the next few years at that position.”
The rest of the class fulfilled Eastern’s goal of finding depth at other positions, including wide receiver where the Eagles will lose a trio of All-Big Sky Conference performers next year – Cooper Kupp, Kendrick Bourne and Shaq Hill.

“Outside of quarterback and offensive line, we hit some needs here and there that are essential every year,” added Baldwin. “We ended up filling in other positions with a lot of quality players.”

“We are going to lose three senior receivers next year. So Kyle, Xavier and some of the other younger players from last year will fit into that next wave of receivers for us.”

The Eagles also signed an Idaho product with some interesting connections. All-State safety Calin Criner is the son of long-time collegiate assistant coach Mark Criner (currently at Lamar) and the grandson of former Boise State head coach Jim Criner. Calin led Rocky Mountain High School near Boise to the State 5A title.

“He was one of the few skill players to sign with Division I schools out of the state of Idaho, so signing what we thought was maybe the best skill player in that state was huge,” said Baldwin. “On top of that, his father is a great collegiate coach who has been in and out of this area in different times of his career. Calin is not only one of the best all-around football players in this recruiting class, but he’s incredibly sharp. Sometimes you are going to get that work ethic and intelligence when you grow up in that type of family.”

But Baldwin was most pleased with getting a quarterback the caliber of Barriere to continue Eastern’s legacy at that position. Interestingly, La Habra is just five miles from La Mirada, which is the former home of former Eagle quarterback Erik Meyer. Meyer, the 2005 Walter Payton Award winner, was a two-time All-American and Big Sky Conference Offensive Player of the Year after leading the Eagles to Big Sky Conference titles in 2004 and 2005.

“Hopefully it can turn out something like Erik from La Mirada,” Baldwin smiled. “If they end up with similar careers, we’ll be very happy.”

“Our assistant coaches did a great job on being on this class very early,” Baldwin praised. “One of the reasons we were able to sign a lot of these players was because of the efforts they put forth to develop relationships. I compliment our assistant coaches who do much of the groundwork for that.”

More about the 2015 & 2016 Eagles . . .

Eastern, which has compiled a 40-14 record overall and 27-5 league mark in the last four years, lost 14 seniors to graduation from its 2014 team. The Eagles are expected to return 54 letter winners from last year’s team, including five starters on offense and nine on defense.

For a program that has made deep playoff runs in recent years and was looking for a Big Sky Conference championship “four-peat,” a winning record wasn’t exactly what the Eastern Washington University football team expected in 2015. But a hunger to return to national and league prominence in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision will be the off-season quest for the Eagles after they finished 6-5 overall and 5-3 in the league.

There were many positives, though, that other schools would hunger for – Eastern led FCS in passing offense with an average of 353.3 yards per game, and were eighth in total offense (478.5). In the last 12 seasons (2004-15), EWU has now ranked in the top 10 in passing 10 times and in total offense on eight occasions. It was the second time EWU has led FCS in passing, matching the 2011 squad, which also was 6-5.

The Eagles also finished with the school’s 18th winning season in the last 20 years (1996-2015). That includes a current string of nine-straight (2007-15) and another stretch of seven straight (1999-2005), feats that hadn’t been accomplished since the Red Reese era when Eastern had a string of 11-straight winning seasons from 1931-1941.

After falling to 0-2 on the season with difficult road losses and Oregon and Northern Iowa, the Eagles had their six-game winning streak and 5-0 league start stopped Nov. 7 in a rare home loss, falling 52-30 to surging Northern Arizona. At the time, Eastern was ranked a season-high fourth in FCS in the STATS Top 25 poll. The Eagles ended the regular season ranked 23rd – the 57th-consecutive time the Eagles have been ranked.

Eastern expects to return 14 starters in 2016, plus the team’s kicker, punter and long snapper. Five starters will return on offense, including three wide receivers (three-time All-American Cooper Kupp, Kendrick Bourne and Nic Sblendorio). Wide receiver Shaq Hill, a starter at wide receiver in 2014, is expected to return as an injury hardship after suffering a knee injury in EWU’s opener against Oregon and missing the rest of the season. However, all five starting offensive linemen – plus two backups – were seniors in 2015.

All but two starters return to the Eagle defense. Defensive end Samson Ebukam will return for his senior season after receiving second-team All-Big Sky honors in both 2014 and 2015. Nose guard Matthew Sommer earned honorable mention All-Big Sky honors both of those seasons.

Other returning all-league selections include Kupp, a three-time first-team selection, and Bourne, a second-team choice in 2015 and honorable mention in 2014. Hill has been honored three times previously – third team wide receiver in 2014, honorable mention wide receiver in 2013 and honorable mention return specialist in 2012 when he also earned Freshman All-America honors.

Kupp capped his 2014 season by being selected as the FCS Offensive Player of the Year by both STATS and the FCS Athletic Director’s Association, and he was also presented the 2015 Walter Payton Award as selected by Mickey Charles LLC.

Kupp became only the second wide receiver in 42 years to win the Big Sky Conference Offensive MVP Award, and continued a long legacy of Eagles to win the award. Eastern players have now won the honor 11 times in the last 15 seasons, and 12 times overall.

Press release courtesy of Dave Cook – Eastern Washington Athletics. All Rights Reserved.