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Tuesday, September 5, 2006 1:12 AM CDT
Adding injury to insult, Eastern’s Sellers out indefinitely
BY BRIAN NIELSEN, Sports Editor
bnielsen@jg-tc.com
CHARLESTON -- At best, the news on Clint Sellers is not good.
Eastern Illinois’ start linebacker is to miss at least Saturday night’s home football opener against Indiana State and is listed as out indefinitely following a shoulder injury sustained in the past Saturday’s 42-17 loss at Illinois.
“He’s really down about having to miss this game, and if he has to miss more he’ll be even more down,” EIU defensive coordinator Roc Bellantoni said.
The 2005 Ohio Valley Conference Defensive Player of the Year and a preseason candidate for the Buck Buchanan Award going to the nation’s top defensive player in NCAA Division I-AA, Sellers suffered an injury to the brachial plexus bundle in his right shoulder after he made a tackle during the opening kickoff at Illinois.
He was taken to a Champaign area hospital following the game and was to be released on Monday afternoon following additional tests.
Illinois took advantage of Sellers’ absence to rack up 519 yards of total offense, 345 of those on the ground, in a 42-17 win over the Panthers.
Now returning to I-AA competition for the next three weeks before an Oct. 30 game at Hawaii, EIU probably still needs to tighten its defense without the linebacker who ranked second in I-AA last year with 7.33 solo tackles per game.
“I’ve just got to go with the assumption he’s not going to be there this week and I have to come up with a plan,” Bellantoni said.
The fact that EIU now gets to play an Indiana State team that went 0-11 last year is not all that comforting as the Sycamores showed signs of improvement in their season-opening 60-35 loss at Purdue where the score was 26-17 at halftime.
“They are a lot better than last year, watching them on film,” Bellantoni said. “(Indiana State coach) Lou West’s son has transferred from Western Kentucky and he makes a big difference. We’ve got our hands full this week.”
Coach Lou West’s son Tony West rushed for 125 yards and two touchdowns while junior college transfer Reilly Murphy passed for 235 yards with 23 completions in 36 attempts for Indiana State last week.
EIU junior Stephen Washington stepped into Sellers’ linebacker position after the kickoff Saturday, but Bellantoni said he was still deciding his lineup for this week.
At least the Panthers have time to prepare for Sellers’ absence this time after the startling start of their marquee player lying on the turf seconds into the game at Illinois.
“Certainly Clint will be missed, a preseason All-American, OVC Player of the Year and team captain.” EIU assistant head coach Mark Hutson said. “Where we go from here, we close ranks. One of the other linebackers will step up. One of the younger players will get playing time.”
Hutson is running the team because Eastern had already suffered a blow in the preseason learning that 20th-year head coach Bob Spoo was to miss 4-6 weeks following surgery a week ago today.
“It’s been a rough month,” Bellantoni said. “They say adversity brings out the best in you or crushes you. I believe with our guys it’s going to bring the best out of them and we’ll have a much-improved performance.”
Contact Brian Nielsen at bnielsen@jg-tc.com or 238-6856.
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CLICK TO ENLARGE
 Stephen Haas (JG/T-C)
Eastern’s athletic trainer, Mark Bonnstetter, tends to linebacker Clint Sellers after an injury on the opening play against Illinois Saturday. Sellers suffered a shoulder injury.
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Angie Miley wrote on Jul 17, 2006 8:05 PM: