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Friday, October 16, 2009 11:07 PM CDT
Will EIU's running game make it to Homecoming?
TENNESSEE TECH (3-2) AT EASTERN ILLINOIS (4-2)
Kickoff: 1:30 p.m. today at O’Brien Field
Television: WEIU Channel 51 (Channel 6 on Coles County cable)
Radio: Panther Radio Network (WEIU Hit Mix 88.9 FM
By BRIAN NIELSEN, Sports Editor
bnielsen@jg-tc.com
CHARLESTON -- Some plans are set.
Tony Romo, the guy letting the world know about Eastern Illinois football, is to be here on his Dallas Cowboys’ bye week. Henry Domercant, EIU’s record-setting basketball scorer, cannot get away from his job playing pro basketball in Europe.
Still unknown is whether what many alumni have come to expect from coach Bob Spoo football teams will make a return for today’s EIU Homecoming and Hall of Fame Day all rolled into this 1:30 p.m. Ohio Valley Conference game today against Tennessee Tech at O’Brien Field.
“The ground game is what concerns me,” Spoo said.
Concerns go beyond just managing 59 yards on 32 rushing plays as might be expected when running into a brick wall defense named Penn State, which held up its national ranking while beating the Panthers 52-3.
The 44 net yards on 26 rushes with Eastern Kentucky’s six quarterback sacks figuring into that anemic total might not be beyond explanation either when losing 36-31 in the showdown of nationally ranked Football Championship Subdivision teams.
But the week before that, the Panthers only had 51 yards on 29 rushes while managing a 30-20 win over not so formidable Austin Peay.
This has an EIU team that was once an OVC leader after running for 231 yards at Southeast Missouri now an unSpoo-era-like sixth among nine conference teams and 63rd out of 118 FCS teams averaging 137.5 rushing yards per game.
With this downward trend, the Panthers might be doing well to stand 4-2 overall, 2-1 in the OVC and No. 25 in the FCS Coaches Poll national rankings going into this game against a resurgent Tennessee Tech team that is 3-2 overall and tied with EIU for third in the league at 2-1.
But Mon Williams may have had bigger things in mind when transferring from Football Bowl Subdivision national champion Florida to FCS Eastern Illinois this year than to be ranked third in the OVC averaging 84.2 rushing yards per game.
“I’m doing pretty good,” said Williams, who has six touchdowns, at least one in each game until facing Penn State. “I could be doing better.”
The Panthers are doing their best to diagnose the problem and fix it.
“It starts up front,” Spoo said. “I hate to put the onus on the offensive line but it is.”
Williams is willing to share some blame.
“Everybody makes mistakes every now and then,” the 6-foot-2, 220-pound junior said. “The line can miss the block or the running back can miss the hole. Just mistakes.”
The Panthers are not necessarily looking to be a three-yards-and-cloud-of-dust team.
If they were, they would not have gotten former Iowa starting quarterback Jake Christensen to transfer and spend final year of college eligibility at the school where his father, Jeff, set EIU passing records in the early 1980s on his way to the NFL.
Even Christensen has gone from an early-season OVC passing efficiency leader and No. 5 in the country to third in the conference and 23rd in the FCS.
Some freshmen receivers who were in junior high back when Christensen was leading Lockport to an IHSA Class 8A state championship have immediately helped spark Eastern’s passing attack.
But missing lately has been sophomore Lorence Ricks. After his game of three catches for 101 yards at Southeast Missouri, where another long gainer was nullified by a penalty, Ricks has gone without a reception the past two EIU losses keeping him standing at nine catches for 185 yards and two touchdowns this season.
“We’ve got to make a concerted effort to get Lorence Ricks back in the offense,” offensive coordinator Roy Wittke said.
The Panthers may need all their weapons when facing a Tennessee Tech defense led by junior safety Dustin Dillehay, who is the Sports Network’s national Defensive Player of the Week along with OVC Player of the Week after getting 14 tackles and a returning an interception for a touchdown in the Golden Eagles 35-28 win over UT Martin.
“We’re trying to spread it around,” Williams said. “You motivate the line to be doing their job the best we can. We’ve got to balance it out more.”
Contact Brian Nielsen at bnielsen@jg-tc.com or 238-6856.
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