Eastern Illinois bye week offers respite before season’s final three games

Players like junior defensive back Zay Gentry (27) are expected to get more practice repetitions during the bye week than usual. (Photo by EIUPanthers.com)

By Dan Verdun

In the midst of the latest bye week in Chris Wilkerson’s coaching career, Eastern Illinois football will catch its breath – somewhat.

“There’s a ton of stuff we’ve got during the bye week,” the second-year EIU head coach said. “Certainly, we will practice. The practices are very much focused on fundamentals and reteaching some things. It will also allow for some younger guys to get repetitions.”

Wilkerson – who began his coaching career at EIU in 1995 as an assistant under then-head coach Bob Spoo – added that most of the players who “receive a high volume of snaps” will receive time to “recover mentally, emotionally and physically.”

Also on the EIU coaching staff’s docket are more in-depth self-scouting and analysis.

“Are we becoming a little too predictable in certain situations? Certainly we want to double-check that,” Wilkerson said.

Preparation will also begin for EIU’s next opponent Lindenwood, the St. Charles, Mo.-based Big South-OVC Alliance member.

“We do a little fund-raising. Me as the head coach, and as a staff, it’s recruit, recruit, recruit, recruit,” Wilkerson said.

EIU opened fall practice 12 weeks ago. With the bulk of their schedule gone, the Panthers (5-3, 1-2) have three games remaining.

“Certainly our players need to recover a little bit and get ready for the stretch run,” Wilkerson said.

Postseason possibilities

After winning just two games a year ago, EIU is one of the most improved FCS teams nationally.

The Panthers close out their season with three conference games: Nov. 4 at Lindenwood (3-4, 2-1), Nov. 11 hosting Tennessee State (5-2, 0-1) and Nov. 18 at Robert Morris (2-5, 0-2).

If EIU could manage to win out, the Panthers would post an 8-3 record. Would this get Eastern back into the playoffs for the first time since 2015?

“We are still very focused on Eastern Illinois,” Wilkerson said. “We can’t control what other teams do. We can’t control who other teams play. We can’t control what polls say.

“All we can control is our attitude and our approach and our response every single day. And this is what we’re going to focus on. Every week, it’s Eastern Illinois versus Eastern Illinois here. That’s what we’ve got to do.”

Sam Herder is the senior FCS analyst for HERO Sports. He is also a Top 25 voter.

On Tuesday, Herder posted his FCS bracketology predictions for the upcoming playoffs. He listed EIU, Illinois State, Abilene Christian, and Holy Cross as “other teams who I’d consider on the bubble of the actual bubble.”

Furthermore, Herder stated that EIU and Tennessee State as being hurt by “a lack of ranked wins and their strength of schedules.”

The combined record of the teams Eastern has beaten this season is 7-27.

The Missouri Valley’s Illinois State (4-3, 2-2) is one of the teams the Panthers have defeated. The Redbirds’ combined record for teams it has beaten this season is 5-24.

The Twitter/X-based @RedHerringBets began posting “analytics-based FCS coverage” in Sept. 2022.

Each week, it publishes an “FCS playoff predictor,” which uses a model simulation to determine “the odds of an at-large bid based on the (selection) committee’s past behavior” adding that “records, conference, strength of schedule and head-to-head results” are used as factors.

@RedHerringBets posted playoff percentages on the 12 FCS conferences, including the Big South-Ohio Valley Alliance, which Eastern Illinois is a member.

Here is this week’s post:

Let’s play (for) two

Twice this season, the outcome of an EIU game has been determined by the Panthers going for a two-point conversion in overtime.

Eastern lost Oct. 7 when its attempt failed against UT Martin; the Panthers prevailed last Saturday on a successful conversion against Bryant.

Kyle Schwartz, Ohio Valley Associate Commissioner for Strategic Communications, pointed out that two-point play attempts are more prevalent now than during Wilkerson’s EIU playing days (1991-94).

“It has changed a lot,” Wilkerson said, adding that the collegiate overtime rules have also been revised.

“You’ve got a chance to go for two anytime you choose, but in the second overtime you’ve got to go for two. And if you’re still tied at the end of that (second) overtime, you’re going to do nothing but run two-point plays,” Wilkerson said.

This has added to each team’s practice preparation.

“There are weeks that we go into the gameplan with six or seven two-point plays,” Wilkerson said. “The same thing on defense. We spend a ton of time analyzing what teams have done and what their two-point plays are.

“You’ll go back and look two or three years and try to find something. Even when a coordinator was at another school and see a play that he ran. They’re critical situations.”

Dan Verdun is a co-founder of Prairie State Pigskin. He has written four books: NIU Huskies Football, EIU Panthers Football, ISU Redbirds Football and SIU Salukis Football.

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