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Thursday, November 12, 2009 10:01 AM CST
UT Martin's video gets EIU's blood boiling
BY BRIAN NIELSEN, Sports Editor
bnielsen@jg-tc.com
CHARLESTON -- “N-O-T-H-I-N-G, that’s what Panthers mean to me.”
Eastern Illinois football Panthers heard that chant this week on a video found on the Internet from last year when UT Martin players celebrated their 29-26 win over EIU.
“It was like they won the Super Bowl,” EIU defensive end Colin Luczynski said. “That’s just another motivation. It gets your blood boiling. It’s definitely payback time.”
Coaches made the video part of the EIU players’ film study preparing for a 1:30 p.m. Saturday Ohio Valley Conference game against the Skyhawks at O’Brien Field.
This was as if the Panthers, 7-2 overall, 5-1 in the OVC and 13th and 14th in Football Championship Subdivision polls, needed more motivation than the chance to clinch at least a share of the conference championship Saturday against UT Martin, which is 4-5 and 3-3 with still a chance to tie for the league title.
Rebounding from last year’s 5-7 season, Eastern is shooting for its fourth NCAA playoff berth in five years and seventh this decade.
But UT Martin has beaten the Panthers three out of the last five years.
“I think our players know the past,” EIU coach Bob Spoo said. “If you discount the past, you hurt yourself. We’ve hopefully learned lessons. We know what happened last year and I don’t think we want that to happen again.”
That does not mean revenge will be easy against a UT Martin team that has the momentum of a 38-24 win over Murray State and 28-7 win over Tennessee State the past two weeks.
The Panthers’ defense remains shorthanded.
Hopes were to have linebacker Cory Leman back after a bye week. But the sophomore whose 55 tackles still lead the team despite missing the last three games is not expected to play Saturday.
Also out for at least one more game is safety Carlos Reyna with a ribs injury, while senior safety Adrian Arrington this week was ruled out for the season with his shoulder injury.
Leman and Reyna may be back for the regular season finale set for a week from today against Tennessee State.
“Cory wants to go now,” defensive coordinator Roc Bellantoni said. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in uniform this week.
“Adrian is done for the year. It’s a loss because he was a starter and a good leader. Hopefully, he will still be a leader for us. He just can’t do it on the field.”
Bobson Mercier and Nick Martinez have played in place of Arrington during his injury-riddled season and are to continue in that role with James Cooper also to see some time in the secondary.
“It’s not like they’re rookies anymore,” Bellantoni said.
Starting the season calling themselves “Nobodies” following last year’s disappointing season and now piecing together a lineup hurt by injuries, Eastern’s defensive players are looking to maybe change that motivating nickname as well as well as keeping UT Martin from spelling “N-O-T-H-I-N-G” this year.
“We’ll try to beat them like gentleman,” Lucczynski said. “We won’t say anything. We’ll just play between the whistles.”
Contact Brian Nielsen at bnielsen@jg-tc.com or 238-6856.
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