I<\/span>t didn\u2019t start out like a season to forget.<\/span> Yes, there were a couple <\/span>of tough losses on the road; one to perennial FCS powerhouse North Dakota State, another to FBS mid-major stalwart Fresno State. But the home campaign began with real promise: a decisive win over 19th-ranked Southeastern Louisiana, followed by a 3-point triumph over Big Sky Conference rival UC-Davis \u2014 a victory that saw Coach Aaron Best\u2019s squad return to the familiar territory of an FCS Top-25 ranking.<\/p>\n Sadly, that week-four ranking marked the high point of an autumn that <\/span>saw an Eagle team play hard, play close, but too often come up short. By the time the Eagles dropped their home finale to Northern Arizona, the win-loss tally stood at a dismal 4-7 overall, 10th in the Big Sky Conference.<\/p>\n Still, there were high points, among them a big win over Weber State that put an exclamation point on an inspiring 100th Homecoming celebration. Perhaps more to the point for Eagle fans, the team\u2019s gritty play showed plenty of reasons for optimism as it retools for next year.<\/p>\n \u201cI would challenge people to say we didn\u2019t show improvement from last year,\u201d Collins said, adding that \u201cespecially next year, I think we\u2019re set up for success.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n Athletics director Tim Collins perhaps summed it up best in a post-season interview with The Spokesman-Review<\/i>. \u201cI would challenge people to say we didn\u2019t show improvement from last year,\u201d Collins said, adding that \u201cespecially next year, I think we\u2019re set up for success.\u201d<\/p>\n One reason for Collins\u2019 optimism was the play of Efton Chism III, a junior wide receiver who racked up stats not seen since the days of Eastern superstar Cooper Kupp.<\/p>\n Chism spent the 2023 season ranked among conference and national <\/span>leaders in just about every receiving category. He ended on a particularly high note, with a 3-touchdown effort against Northern Arizona, a performance that anchored a season with 84 catches for 934 yards and 8 touchdowns. Chism now ranks third on EWU\u2019s all-time career receptions list. His achievements made him a unanimous choice for first team All Big Sky Conference honors. Chism was joined on the first team All-Conference honor list by redshirt senior Marlon Jones Jr., a standout defensive back who wraps up his EWU career with 40 career games played, 158 total tackles and 9 interceptions. Redshirt senior tight end Blake Gobel and junior kick returner Michael Wortham, meanwhile, were named to the All-Conference second team, while starting quarterback Kekoa Visperas, a redshirt sophomore, snagged an honorable mention.<\/p>\n Conference honors aside, Head Coach Aaron Best told Learfield\u2019s <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After a disappointing 2023, Eagle Football appears poised to bounce back big next year. It didn\u2019t start out like a season to forget. Yes, there were a couple of tough losses on the road; one to perennial FCS powerhouse North Dakota State, another to FBS mid-major stalwart Fresno State. But the home campaign began with…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":484,"featured_media":2620,"menu_order":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-2614","stories","type-stories","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","stories_categories-athletics","stories_categories-campus","stories_categories-sports","stories_tags-fall-winter-2023-24"],"acf":{"subheading":"","featured_image_format":"cover","display_featured_image":true,"display_byline":false,"display_date_published":false,"featured_video":"","Links":false,"Resources":false,"page_hide_sidebar":false,"page_enable_page_nav":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories\/2614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/stories"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/484"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories\/2614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2630,"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories\/2614\/revisions\/2630"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\nEagle Flight<\/i> podcast that the lack of wins was difficult to take \u2014 as was a season where, despite his team\u2019s very real effort, the Eagles just couldn\u2019t seem to turn the corner. \u201cThere were a lot of close games, a lot of tough moments, throughout the course of the season,\u201d Best said. \u201cWe overcame some of them, but not enough of them. But I was proud of those guys \u2014 especially the way they ended the season \u2014 even without the win.\u201d<\/p>\n