After coaching EIU safeties last fall, Andrew Strobel now coordinates the Panther defense. (Photo by Barry Bottino, PrairieStatePigskin.com)
By Dan Verdun
CHARLESTON – Andrew Strobel described his spring as a whirlwind. Yet, the first-year Eastern Illinois defensive coordinator said growth emerged from that flurry of activity.
Strobel, who coached EIU’s safeties last fall, was promoted to defensive coordinator in March when Collin Geier left to join the University of Pittsburgh staff. Strobel spent six seasons at Morehead State prior to joining the EIU staff in 2024. He was the defensive coordinator for his last three seasons with the Eagles.
Head coach Chris Wilkerson’s team has been led by a different defensive coordinator in each of his four years guiding the Panthers. The previous three – Adam Gristick, Clay Bignell and Geier – moved to jobs in the NFL or with FBS programs.
Veteran linebackers Phoenix Porter and Jesse Garza called the transition from Geier to Strobel a smooth one.
“I couldn’t be more excited to have ‘Coach Strobe’ as our defensive coordinator,” Porter, a redshirt senior, told Prairie State Pigskin.
Garza, a team captain, said, “The transition has been great. I trust Coach Strobel so much. I love him.”
Strobel took over the position about two weeks before spring ball started.
“It was a whirlwind,” Strobel said. “We had to hire a linebackers coach and get him in place while also trying to figure out what we were going to do defensively.”
That hire turned out to be a familiar face. EIU added Rodman Noel, who had previously coached with Strobel at Morehead State. Noel, a former linebacker and team captain at FBS North Carolina State, coached at FCS West Georgia last fall.
“Coach Noel has come in and he’s expecting nothing but the best in me. He’s pushed me. Even though he didn’t recruit me, he’s acting like he did,” Garza said.
Strobel said that continuity is a staff strength.
“It makes things pretty easy,” he said. “We’ve all been able to collaborate and keep the things that we had success with in the past and now we’re adding things we need to improve on.”
Spring outcomes
Strobel and his staff watched video from each of the Panthers’ 12 games last season.
“The big thing at the start (of spring practice) was fundamentals,” Strobel said. “There were things that we didn’t fundamentally execute well.
“So the first couple of days we didn’t even talk about scheme. It was a lot of going back to tackling. We worked on things like having good balance and learning gaps.”
Strobel said the team didn’t spend much time installing the team’s likely fall defense.
“It was more of playing base football with the expectations of how we’re going to do that,” he said. “We looked at can we be efficient with what we’re doing. By the end of it, I’m really pleased with where we’re at and what we did throughout the spring.”
Summer plans
The Panthers will open fall camp in late summer as the team prepares to kick off its season Aug. 28 against Dayton at EIU’s O’Brien Field.
“The program is going to continue to evolve throughout summer and we’ll keep adding to what we’ve done (in the spring),” Strobel said.
Garza likes the mixture of the experienced Panthers and younger players.
“There’s some really impressive younger guys,” he said. “I’m excited to see what we look like in fall camp.”
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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