Nine months after their 2003 campaign ended against McNeese, the Colonels retake the “Bayou Bermuda” turf of Guidry Stadium for the first time in 2004 tonight against Big Sky Conference member Eastern Washington Eagles.Now that training camp practices and preseason preparations are complete, the Colonels are now ready for action against a different team.

“We’ve been working hard,” senior tight end David Leboeuf said. “We’ve been looking to play football for a while, and it’s been a long time coming. We are very excited, and we’re ready to go.”

Colonels head coach Jay Thomas said the Colonels want to take full advantage of the South Louisiana home field advantage against Eastern Washington.

“We’re hoping the heat might help us a little bit,” Thomas said. “That might be the 12th man for us along with the crowd and the humidity. We’re looking for the mosquitoes to be out buzzing around and all that south Louisiana stuff. We’re going to need every advantage we can have.”

The Colonels, who have won the past two home season openers by a combined score of 133-6, said they do not plan to overlook Eastern Washington. The Eagles were picked to finish second in the Big Sky Conference behind Montana. They were 6-5 overall and 3-4 in the Big Sky Conference in 2003.

Eastern Washington also returns with 16 starters and a league high 11 all-conference performers.

“These guys are really good,” Thomas said. “Eastern Washington has a good football team. I think they are predicted to finish in the upper two or three in their conference preseason poll. They are a well-coached team with a lot of good athletes, and it’s a huge challenge for us right now.”

“The main goal this week is that we are going to go out there and put a good product on that field,” Thomas said. “We want to limit our mistakes offensively and defensively and be sound in our kicking game.”

When the Colonels are on offense, they will face a multiple 4-3 set from Eastern Washington. The Eagles lead defensively with linebacker Doug Vincent, defensive tackles Brandon Myers and Harrison Nikolao and defensive end Tom Finnerty.

LeBoeuf said EWU plays a type of defense the Colonels have seen before and that there are no surprises.

“They play a defense that we have seen before,” Leboeuf said. “We feel good about our match ups. They have some quickness and some good players up front, and I think we match up good with them. If we do what we’re supposed to do, we are going to be all right.”

The Colonels defense hopes to stop an offensive attack that features a 2,301 yards passer in Eric Meyer. Meyer averages 209.2 passing yards per game with 20 touchdowns.

Eastern Washington will also bring offensive firepower with triple threat junior Eric Kimble. Kimble lined up at running back, wide receiver and kick returner. He averaged a touchdown every 9.3 times he touched the football with 11 total touchdowns in 2003.

“Eastern Washington has a pretty good offense,” senior defensive back David Willis said. “You never really know what to expect from them, but you have to play them very well from what you see on tape.”
Willis said the Colonels plan to be physical and make their presence felt early in the game against Kimble.

“We are just going to go at him and give him something to know we ain’t backing down,” Willis said.

Because Eastern Washington comes from the highly explosive Big Sky Conference, Willis said the Colonels could expect to see the same type of offense they saw against the other Big Sky opponent, Portland State, last year.

“That West Coast offense is similar to Portland State’s,” Willis said. “It’s not that big of a difference, but Portland State was more jumbo and a big package running back team. Eastern Washington runs a lot of screens.
They have the same type of offense, but you have to be alert on what they’re doing.