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Monday, November 23, 2009 9:38 AM CST
Thankful Panthers to play at Southern Illinois
BY BRIAN NIELSEN/Sports Editor
CHARLESTON – William & Mary. No, make that Southern Illinois.
ESPN News could have told Eastern Illinois about anything Sunday afternoon just so no one took away the Panthers’ Ohio Valley Conference championship and spot in the NCAA’s Football Championship Subdivision playoffs.
The Panthers are to go to Southern Illinois for a 1 p.m. Saturday first-round game, news that Athletic Director Barbara Burke told head coach Bob Spoo who relayed the correction to players and fans gathering at the Student Recreation Center.
Those watching ESPN News first saw the erroneous bracket sending the Panthers to William & Mary.
“I don’t care who we play any time, anywhere,” EIU defensive coordinator Roc Bellantoni said. “We could have gone to William & Mary. That would have been a shorter trip for my mom.”
While ESPN News may have fumbled the ball on its selection show, Eastern was just glad it got a mulligan from Thursday’s 21-10 loss to Tennessee State as Jacksonville State beat Eastern Kentucky 34-26 Saturday afternoon.
Listening to that Saturday game on the Internet was the real stress for the Panthers, who after their Thursday loss needed an Eastern Kentucky loss to win the Ohio Valley Conference championship and automatic playoff berth.
“We’re just thankful to Jacksonville State,” senior defensive tackle Trevor Frericks said. “We were following it on Eastern Kentucky’s Web site. We had groups at different houses. We were getting pretty excited. There was a fumble and they took about a minute to decide who had the ball. That was pretty hard on us.”
Things were no easier for coaches.
“I didn’t want to watch it,” Bellantoni said of the Eastern Kentucky-Jacksonville State game. “I’ll be honest. I listened to it and I was checking other scores too in case Eastern Kentucky won. I didn’t want to be glued to it but I was. I was like a caged animal. I wore out a hole in the carpet pacing so my wife is mad at me.”
Several other top 25 teams also lost to where Eastern might have received an at-large berth, a possibility that was not a concern once Eastern Kentucky lost.
“You can say whatever you want,” Bellantoni said. “You can say we backed in. I don’t care. We deserve it. I’m just glad to be in it. You’ve got to be in it to win it as they say.”
At 8-3 overall, EIU has the Ohio Valley’s automatic playoff berth at 6-2 because Jacksonville State, finishing 6-1, was ineligible for the postseason and league title because of Academic Progress Report penalties.
Now the Panthers, 19th in the Sports Network’s final regular season poll released Sunday morning, are going against a Southern Illinois team that received the No. 3 seed in the 16-team tournament while being ranked No. 1 in the nation for three weeks in the media poll.
Southern is 10-1 losing only its season opener to the Football Bowl Subdivision’s Marshall 31-28 and then sweeping through the Missouri Valley Conference 8-0 before beating the OVC’s Southeast Missouri 42-24 in Saturday’s non-conference regular season finale.
“They’re No. 1 in some of the polls,” Frericks said. “We’ve heard a lot about their running back. We were excited about the chance to play William & Mary and now we’re excited about this. To be the best team you have to beat the best.”
The Salukis include Mattoon’s Connor James, a sophomore linebacker who has 38 tackles, while their feature player is running back Deji Karim, who ranks second among the nation’s FCS running backs averaging 137.45 yards per game.
As a team Southern ranks fourth in the nation with 224.27 rushing yards per game and fifth in scoring averaging 38.55 points.
“It’s going to be a great challenge for us,” EIU coach Bob Spoo said. “Our coaches kind of felt it would be Southern. I think every school has film exchange and we’re on top of it.”
This marks the third time in five years Eastern and Southern have been paired in a first-round playoff game.
Southern won 21-6 at Charleston in 2005 and two years ago the Salukis won 30-11 at Carbondale.
Spoo had to miss the most recent playoff meeting after undergoing an emergency appendectomy that week.
So this chance means plenty to the coach who has guided his Panthers to eight playoff appearances in his 22 seasons not counting the 2006 postseason berth when he missed the entire season because of illness.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Spoo said. “I really am.”
Contact Brian Nielsen at bnielsen@jg-tc.com or 238-6856.
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