Wednesday, January 16, 2008 11:08 PM CST
Recruits say yes to EIU while Wittke keeps quiet
BY BRIAN NIELSEN Staff Writer
bnielsen@jg-tc.com
As verbal commitments from the usual Florida pipeline and new Cincinnati connections come to Eastern Illinois while an offensive coordinator leaves, one question can hardly be ignored.
How about Roy Wittke?
The well-respected offensive coordinator for 13 years at Eastern before running into consecutive years of bad luck with jobs at Arkansas, Arizona and Northern Illinois is looking for a job.
Jorge Munoz’s departure this week as EIU’s offensive coordinator for a job at Louisiana-Lafayette leaves an opening.
So has 20-year EIU head coach Bob Spoo spoken to the man he called the best assistant he had before Wittke’s departure?
“Of course,” Spoo said.
Of course the two have remained friends and speak regularly.
Spoo was not going to go into details quite yet as to whether Wittke’s return to Eastern was a possibility but be assured if the situation is right, the head coach would re-hire Wittke in a minute.
Wittke politely declined comment when contacted Wednesday other than to ask about Eastern football and Charleston High School basketball where friends remain.
Spoo also has offensive line coach Jeff Hoover, who has been an offensive coordinator at Portland State.
So is Spoo going inside or outside the program to replace Munoz?
“I’ve considered both at this time,” Spoo said. “I think it’s important to get someone in as quickly as we can.”
Spoo has already replaced defensive line coach Shannon Jackson, who became defensive coordinator at Indiana State, by promoting Forrest Jackson to linebackers coach with coordinator Roc Bellantoni taking the line.
As for Munoz leaving after three years to be quarterbacks coach, passing game coordinator and play-caller at NCAA Football Bowl Division Louisiana-Lafayette, Spoo said: “It’s again an opportunity that these guys can’t pass up. He’s done a great job for me. He brought us the no-huddle offense. We wish him well and I’m sure he will be successful there.”
Meanwhile, the current EIU coaching staff is busy recruiting.
Some verbal commitments have been added following a big group of visits to campus the past weekend.
Two are from Cincinnati where Bobby Babich, who came to Eastern as a defensive backs coach the past summer, appears to be making some connections starting with 6-foot-4, 275-pound offensive tackle Kevin Kapellas of tradition-rich Moeller High School and wide receiver Von Wise of Finneytown.
While Kapellas might have the luxury of learning EIU’s system behind five returning starting offensive linemen, the Panthers need immediate help at receiver and might help fill the void of graduating 6-6 star Micah Rucker with the 6-4, 210-pound Wise who has a 38-inch vertical leap.
Wise led the Cincinnati and northern Kentucky area with 1,073 receiving yards last season on 51 catches, 10 for touchdowns in 10 games. First-team all-conference and all-district while earning second team all-state honors in Ohio, Wise is also an all-conference basketball player.
“He is an exceptional athlete, a real big target” Finneytown coach Eric Taylor said. “He has great speed. He can stretch the field vertically. A very unselfish player. He was a co-captain and does a great job in the classroom. He was a role model for our team, just a great player. His personality is second to none.
“He’s just capitalizing on his God-given ability. He’s really excited about Eastern Illinois. He had several official visits set up and he committed before he went on any other visits. He immediately felt like he was at home there.”
The visit canceled this week was to Murray State while Miami of Ohio and Southern Illinois also expressed interest.
“Coach Babich came in day one and immediately those two made a great connection,” Taylor said.
EIU won a recruiting battle with Ohio Valley Conference rival Eastern Kentucky as well as Murray State and Youngstown State to land Kapellas, who helped Moeller to an 8-3 season.
“He is a very good athlete for his size,” said Todd Naumann, the offensive coordinator at Moeller. “He’s a smart player who played in a pretty complex system in high school. Because of his athletic ability and intelligence I think it will give him a head start over most freshmen.
“He’s very excited about Eastern Illinois. The coaches have been fantastic with him. He took his official visit this week and decided to commit.
“They (EIU coaches) are making a push to get into our area which is a really strong football area.”
For several years now Eastern like most other Midwest schools has reached into the fertile Florida area and that is the case again this year with North Miami Beach’s defensive back/wide receiver/running back Kenny Kinchen announcing his commitment.
“He’s a 4.5 (second) 40 (yard dash) kid who was basically our home run threat on offense and our physical hitter on defense,” North Miami Beach coach Jeff Bertani said. “He played safety for us but I think Eastern is looking at him as a corner.”
Kinchen caught 17 passes for 31 yards and three touchdowns and gained 144 yards on 25 rushes for a Florida Class 6A team.
But maybe what Eastern liked best was that as a safety Kinchen found his way free for six quarterback sacks among his 83 tackles while also recording three interceptions.
“He started both ways which is rare down here,” Bertani said.
Bertani sees the 5-foot-9, 175-pound Kinchen making a big impact at Eastern for Bellantoni, the EIU defensive coordinator who recruits in Florida.
“He’s a big-time hitter,” the North Miami Beach coach said. “I think one of the reasons the big schools overlooked him was because he’s 5-9. Coach Belantoni does a good job recruiting down here. Roc does a good job. He finds the kids who get overlooked. Roc came in and looked at him in the spring. Other schools came in late but really Eastern developed this from the hard work in the spring.”
Eastern has also added to its in-state recruits.
Kenny Williams, a running back/kick returner/linebacker from Elgin, has given his verbal commitment after North Dakota State also offered. Northern Illinois invited him to walk on while several bigger schools expressed earlier interest.
Williams was a three-time All-Upstate Eight Conference honoree. The 6-foot, 210-pounder rushed for 884 yards on 136 carries and had 14 total touchdowns during his senior season with the Maroons. He also caught 17 passes for 440 yards and made 16 tackles, including two sacks.
Earlier giving verbal commitments to the Panthers were Lemont linebacker Gorden Kickels and Morris two-way tackle Ben Olson.
Brian Nielsen is sports editor of the Journal Gazette/Times-Courier. Contact Nielsen at bnielsen@jg-tc.com or 238-6856.
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