If Eastern can do it in Cheney, why can’t ISU in Pocatello?

It’s a basic human response to imagine someone else’s success derives from an innate natural ability or some kind of an external advantage that you, yourself lack.

If a coworker gets the raise, it’s not because she deserved it but that your talent was somehow overlooked.

Or back in high school, your destiny to star for the basketball team never came true but not because there was a missing work ethic. No, that other guy was just born with more God-given talent.

Excuses for failing to reach one’s expectations are as abundant as touchdown passes from Drew Brees.

The same type of rationalization applies to Idaho State’s football program. The Bengals are unable to field a competitive football team because the university lacks the appropriate football facilities or stadium that other Big Sky members have.

The only options, therefore, either move to a lower-tier division or spend money to upgrade or replace Holt Arena. Then and only then, the flawed thinking goes, can Idaho State begin to attract top level recruits.

Well, that’s hogwash.

And the proof is Eastern Washington, the best football program in the Big Sky Conference.

Eastern sits in Cheney, Wash., a town with a population of 10,500 that resides about 25 minutes outside of Spokane.

For a time, I lived just outside of Cheney’s city limits. Besides the university, the obligatory fast-food and grocery store chains, there’s nothing there.

During the football season in the fall, Eastern Washington itself is largely overlooked by Spokane because of Washington State’s proximity — an hour away in Pullman — and during basketball season, it’s all about the nation’s favorite Cinderella team, the Gonzaga Bulldogs.

Besides Southern Utah, Eastern has the Big Sky’s lowest enrollment and one of the smallest endowments too.

From an outsider’s perspective, EWU is a commuter school. Every morning there’s a long line of cars as people slowly snake their way from Spokane to Cheney to attend class. Then they quickly shuffle back to their cars and drive straight back.

Let me impress upon you the point that Eastern Washington has no inherent advantages over Idaho State — unless football recruits somehow find a red field inexorably enticing.

With a relatively small enrollment and a third-tier status in its own area, the Eagles’ football team has managed to win or share four Big Sky Championships since 2004.

And Eastern has made the FCS playoffs six times in the last nine years.

Along with team success, few programs have had more individuals with as much hardware. Quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell won the 2011 Walter Payton Award, the FCS version of the Heisman, and he was the second Eagle to claim that trophy — Erik Meyer won back in 2005.

On the defensive side, two Eastern players won the Buck Buchanan Award for the nation’s top defensive player.

Eastern players have been selected as the Big Sky Conference Offensive

MVP in eight of the last 12 seasons.

For years and years, Montana was the class of the Big Sky, but no more. Eastern is the top program, and now the Eagles are into the 2012 FCS semifinals after beating Illinois State 51-35 in Cheney Saturday night.

EWU is the only Big Sky team still standing and hosts last year’s runner-up, the Sam Houston Bearkats, in the semifinals.

Just remember Bengal fans, Eastern Washington hasn’t achieved its success with state-of-the-art locker rooms or some special formula ISU is incapable of duplicating.