With some college football teams less than a week away from their first game – most, like Eastern Washington – are still 11 days from their first contest of the 2025 season – hope generally abounds.
So does pressure.
Among the Big Sky’s 12 football programs, just two are heading into this season with a new head coach. Thomas Ford Jr. took over for Jason Eck at Idaho, while Brennan Marion is now in charge at Sacramento State after Andy Thompson led it the previous two years.
But just three of the league’s head coaches have been at their post more than five years, including Eastern Washington’s Aaron Best who is entering his ninth as the Eagles’ head coach.
“It’s very unique,” Best said of his longevity at Eastern, which dates back to 1996 as a player and assistant coach. “I pinch myself a lot, to be able to do what I do in a volatile profession, to not have moved and to have a senior (son) in high school.”
His tenure has included an FCS title game loss and two other playoff appearances, netting an overall record of 52-40. But the Eagles have also finished with losing records each of the last three seasons.
EWU’s slump corresponds with a time when the transfer portal is more active than ever. According to an article published by NBC Sports in January, the number of FBS players who transferred during last year’s cycle was 3,700, more than double the 1,561 who transferred in 2018-19.
Those transfers naturally trickle down into the FCS level at which the Big Sky competes, though Eastern has been better at retaining players than most in the Big Sky. During the 2023-24 transfer cycle, Eastern lost just two players to an FBS or FCS program, fewest in the league. Last cycle it lost five.
But all the movement that has become the norm in college football begs the question as to…
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Publish date : 2025-08-19 02:05:00
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