November 7, 2015 • Eastern Illinois vs. Jacksonville State • Page 1 • www.eiupanthers.com • #EIUBleedBlue EASTERN ILLINOIS PANTHER FOOTBALL Contact: Rich Moser • [email protected] • (217) 581-7480 • Fax (217) 581-7001 • www.EIUpanthers.com GAME 9 Battle For OVC Lead At O’Brien Field EIU Hosts No. 1 Ranked Jacksonville State Eastern Illinois vs. Jacksonville State O’Brien Field (10,000) • Jacksonville, Ala. November 7, 2015 • 1 p.m. • TV: ESPN3 THE GAME COACHES: Kim Dameron (Arkansas, 1983) • Eastern Illinois remained undefeated in the Ohio Valley Conference at 5-0 as the EIU Record ...................10-10 (2nd year) Panthers beat Murray State 34-20 to go 5-0 in the month of October. The win set up a OVC Record ...................10-3 (2nd year) first place showdown with No. 1 ranked Jacksonville State this Saturday. JSU is also 5-0 vs. Jacksonville State ........................ 0-1 one of 14 teams that are still unblemished in FCS conference action this season. • The 5-0 start by Eastern Illinois marks the sixth time the Panthers have started OVC John Grass (Jacksonville State, 1990) play with a 5-0 record. The last time was in 2013 when EIU ran the table going a perfect JSU Record .....................17-3 (2nd year) 8-0 in conference play. OVC Record ...................13-0 (2nd year) • Eastern Illinois and Jacksonville State will play on ESPN3 as the Ohio Valley Conference Overall Record ...............................Same Game of the Week. It is the second time this season that EIU has appeared as the OVC vs. Eastern Illinois ............................. 1-0 Game of the Week with the previous appearance a 33-28 win over Southeast Missouri on SERIES Oct. 10. This is EIU’s seventh televised game this season and third on ESPN3. 13th meeting - series tied 6-6 • Senior Dino Fanti had six solo tackles with four tackles for loss and two sacks in the 34- Last: @JSU 27, EIU 20 on Nov. 15, 2014 20 win over Murray State. During the game Fanti became the Panthers career leader in tackles for loss with 46 passing former EIU greats Pete Catan and Nick Ricks. Fanti has RANKINGS 13 tackles for loss this season which ranks 11th in the FCS and 3rd in the OVC. He now Eastern Illinois ......................... RV / RV has 167 career tackles with nine sacks, five forced fumbles and five fumble recoveries. Jacksonville State .............................1 / 1 ................................. STATS Media/FCS Coaches THE SERIES • This will be the 13th meeting between Eastern Illinois and Jacksonville State with the RADIO series tied 6-6. JSU won 27-20 last season in Jacksonville State snapping a two game win Panther Radio Network streak by EIU in the series. The Panthers and Gamecocks have won the last four OVC Hit Mix 88.9 FM, WSVZ 98.3 FM, WHOW 1520 AM & WMKR 94.3 FM regular season championships and nine of the 12 league titles since JSU joined the league www.network1sports.com/station/wsvz in 2003. JSU last won at O’Brien Field in 2010. Only once in the series has a team won www.weiu.net/hitmix/ by more than 14 points, that was an EIU 52-14 win in 2013 in Charleston. Play-by-Play ........................ Mike Bradd Analyst ............................. Jack Ashmore Eastern Illinois (5-3, 5-0 OVC) Jacksonville State (7-1, 5-0 OVC) TELEVISION Date Opponent Score/Time Date Opponent Score/Time ESPN3 Sept. 3 at Western Illinois L 5-33 Sept. 5 at Chattanooga W 23-20 Play-by-Play ..................... Kevin Ingram Sept. 12 at Northwestern L 0-41 Sept. 12 at Auburn L 20-27 (ot) Analyst ................................. Bob Belvin Sept. 19 ILLINOIS STATE L 31-34 (ot) Sept. 19 • TENNESSEE STATE W 48-13 Oct. 3 • at Austin Peay W 40-16 Sept. 26 • at UT Martin W 48-41 FOLLOW-US Oct. 10 • SOUTHEAST MISSOURI W 33-28 Oct. 3 • MISSISSIPPI VALLEY ST W 49-7 Live Stats ...................... eiupanthers.com Oct. 17 • at Tennessee State W 25-22 (ot) Oct. 17 • at Tennessee Tech W 42-13 Live Video ..... OVCDigitalNetwork.com Oct. 24 • TENNESSEE TECH W 51-20 Oct. 24 • at Austin Peay W 27-7 Facebook ........................... /EIUPanthers Oct. 31 • at Murray State W 34-20 Oct. 31 • EASTERN KENTUCKY W 34-0 Twitter ...........................@EIU_Panthers Nov. 7 • JACKSONVILLE STATE 1 pm Nov. 7 • at Eastern Illinois 1 pm Instagram ......................eiupanthernation Nov. 14 • at UT Martin 2 pm Nov. 14 • SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 1 pm Nov. 21 • EASTERN KENTUCKY 1 pm Nov. 21 • MURRAY STATE 1 pm Nov. 28 FCS Playoffs Nov. 28 FCS Playoffs • Ohio Valley Conference Game • Ohio Valley Conference Game #EIUBleedBlue All Times Central All Times Central EASTERN ILLINOIS FOOTBALL • 15 NCAA FCS Playoff Appearances • OVC Champs 2013, 2012, 2009, 2006, 2005, 2002, 2001 November 7, 2015 • Eastern Illinois vs. Jacksonville State • Page 2 • www.eiupanthers.com • #EIUBleedBlue FCS TOP 25 • Tray Mitchell became the first EIU player to return a kickoff for a touchdown since the 2011 season as he returned the second kickoff of the game 94 yards for a score. Mitchell’s 2015 STATS FCS MEDIA return was the sixth longest in school history. The last player with a return for touchdown (WEEK 10) was Tavares Crawford in 2011 at Southeast Missouri. Mitchell is averaging 30.8 yards per Rk. Team 2015 Record return and is one of two OVC players with kickoff return to touchdown this season. 1. Jacksonville State (139) 7-1 2. Illinois State (18) 7-1 • Ben Odugbesan hauled in an 80-yard touchdown pass from Jalen Whitlow in the third 3. Chattanooga 7-1 quarter at Murray State on Saturday. It was the first career touchdown pass for the junior 4. Eastern Washington 6-2 5. Richmond 7-1 tight end as he now has six catches this season. The 80-yard catch was the sixth longest in 6. North Dakota State 6-2 school history. It was the second longest thrown by Whitlow as he connected for a 90-yard 7. Sam Houston State 6-2 touchdown with Adam Drake in 2014 at Tennessee Tech. 8. Coastal Carolina 7-1 9. McNeese State (1) 8-0 10. Portland State (1) 7-1 • Jalen Whitlow moved into the Panthers career top ten for passing touchdowns on Saturday 11. South Dakota State 6-2 at Murray State as the senior now has 24 career touchdown passes. Whitlow is tied with 12. William & Mary 6-2 Pete Mauch for 10th on the career list. On Saturday Whitlow did pass Mauch on the career 13. Harvard 7-0 passing yards list moving into 13th with 3,525 yards. 14. James Madison 7-2 15. Charleston Southern 7-1 16. Fordham 7-2 • Jalen Whitlow finished the Murray State game with 275 yards of total offense as he moved 17. Northern Iowa 4-4 into seventh on the Panthers career list for total offense with 4,618 yards. Whitlow is the 18. Eastern Kentucky 5-3 only player in EIU history to have passed for more than 3,000 yards and rushed for more 19. North Carolina A&T 7-1 20. Southern Utah 6-2 than 1,000 yards in his career. He is 25th on the career rushing list with 1,093 yards. 21. Youngstown State 4-4 22. Montana 4-4 • Shepard Little rushed for 109 yards against Murray State as he moved into the EIU career 23. Indiana State 4-4 top ten for rushing yards. Little moved up two spots to ninth on the career charts as he has 24. Dartmouth 6-1 25. The Citadel 6-2 2,679 career yards. Little needs 11 yards to catch DuWayne Pitts in eighth place. It was Receiving Votes (OVC & 2015 EIU opponents): the 12th 100-yard rushing game for Little and first since the final game of 2014 against UT Eastern Illinois, Western Illinois, UT Martin Martin. Little’s career high is 245 yards against Jacksonville State in 2013. • Shepard Little found the end zone twice on Saturday against Murray State with runs of one and 40 yards. Little increased his career rushing touchdown total to 23 as he moved 2015 FCS COACHES into seventh on the EIU career list. It was the second straight week Little had two rushing (WEEK 10) touchdowns and the seventh time in his career he has scored two or more touchdowns. Rk. Team 2015 Record 1. Jacksonville State (23) 7-1 • Shepard Little’s 109 yard rushing day at Murray State marked the third straight game an 2. Illinois State (3) 7-1 Eastern Illinois running back has rushed for 100 or more yards. It also marked the third 3. Chattanooga 7-1 straight week that a different Panthers running back had passed the century mark. On 4. Eastern Washington 6-2 T5. North Dakota State 6-2 Oct. 17 at Tennessee State Devin Church led the way with 125 yards. At EIU’s Oct. 24 T5. McNeese State 8-0 homecoming win over Tennessee Tech Malik Harrison rushed for 123 yards. 7. Richmond 7-1 8. Coastal Carolina 7-1 • EIU’s offensive line had a clean sheet in terms of sacks allowed for the fourth straight T9. Portland State 7-1 T9. Sam Houston State 6-2 game as the Panthers did not allow Murray State to sack the quarterback. EIU has allowed 11. South Dakota State 6-2 only one sack in Ohio Valley Conference play, that was on the second play from scrimmage 12. William & Mary 6-2 at Austin Peay. EIU has now gone 361 straight plays without allowing a sack. The Panthers 13. Charleston Southern 7-1 rank 19th in the NCAA in fewest sacks allowed.