2026 Week 10 - WIU at EIU

[ST_Lawson]

 AT 

Opponent: Eastern Illinois Panthers
Game Time: Saturday, November 7 at 2 PM
Location: O'Brien Field, Charleston, IL

Last Year: Last year, EIU went 3-9 overall and 2-6 in the OVC. They won our matchup with them, 31-23.
This Year: The Panthers are 3-6 overall with a 2-2 OVC record. They have wins over Murray State, Gardner-Webb, and UT-Martin (all on the road). Losses to FBS Minnesota, Indiana State, Illinois State, South Dakota State, Lindenwood, and Southeast Missouri State.
History: Our second most-played series (behind the Redbirds) at 69 total meetings, beginning back in 1930. WIU holds a 42-23-4 overall record aginst EIU, although EIU has won the last two meetings: 38-35 at EIU in 2024, and 31-26 at WIU in 2025.

EIU Players to Know:

• Junior QB Cole LaCrue has 1362 passing yards (151.33/game) with 12 TDs and 3 INTs, for a QB rating of 130.31. He's also run for 33.33 ypg with 5 rushing TDs
• Top recieving targets are Junior WR Samuel Gonzalez (30.33 ypg w/ 1 TD) and Sophomore WR Jeremy Reeves (32.75 ypg w/ 3 TDs
• For the run game, Senior RB Charles Kellom rushes for 64.44 ypg w/ 7 TDs
• Sophomore RB Jacarre Fleming-Page runs for 24.56 ypg and has caught 4 short-yardage passes for 2 TDs
• Senior LB Ja'Wuan Nickson leads the team in tackles with 61 total (26 solo) including 6 for loss, 2 INTs, and 1 forced fumble
• Junior LB Lonnie Burt has 59 total tackles (33 solo) with 8 for loss
• Senior Safety Brandon Worsley and Senior DB Jerry Addo-Boateng have 2 and 3 INTs respectively
• Grad Punter Cade Cox averages 43.43 yards per punt on 61 punts, with 15 for 50+ yards and 10 inside the 20
• Sophomore PK Drew Schiller is 4/5 on FGs with a long of 41

Projections: 

• Massey Ratings has us at a 55% chance of winning, with a projected score of 31-28.
• Sagarin has essentially the same, with WIU favored by ~2 points.
• FCS Sportsbook has us with a 6 point advantage

 
 

[34blast]

3 games left sitting at 5-4.   IF we win,  it will be the first time since 2017 that we had a non losing season.  Let's Go!  Unlikely,  but the OVC championship is still in play.  We have win all our games and SEMO lose one right?

[ST_Lawson]

3 games left sitting at 5-4.   IF we win,  it will be the first time since 2017 that we had a non losing season.  Let's Go!  Unlikely,  but the OVC championship is still in play.  We have win all our games and SEMO lose one right?

If we win out and SEMO wins out, then we tie for the conference championship, but SEMO wins the playoff autobid because they won the H2H matchup.

If we win out and SEMO drops one more, then we get sole possession of the conference championship and the autobid.

Obviously we need to take care of our own business, but another loss by SEMO would be nice.


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[rocki]

3 games left sitting at 5-4.   IF we win,  it will be the first time since 2017 that we had a non losing season.  Let's Go!  Unlikely,  but the OVC championship is still in play.  We have win all our games and SEMO lose one right?

If we win out and SEMO wins out, then we tie for the conference championship, but SEMO wins the playoff autobid because they won the H2H matchup.

If we win out and SEMO drops one more, then we get sole possession of the conference championship and the autobid.

Obviously we need to take care of our own business, but another loss by SEMO would be nice.


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And just when we have a game like UTM and I think we can take it all, we regress like last week and barely manage a win. They're killin' me, smalls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

[ST_Lawson]

3 games left sitting at 5-4.   IF we win,  it will be the first time since 2017 that we had a non losing season.  Let's Go!  Unlikely,  but the OVC championship is still in play.  We have win all our games and SEMO lose one right?

If we win out and SEMO wins out, then we tie for the conference championship, but SEMO wins the playoff autobid because they won the H2H matchup.

If we win out and SEMO drops one more, then we get sole possession of the conference championship and the autobid.

Obviously we need to take care of our own business, but another loss by SEMO would be nice.


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And just when we have a game like UTM and I think we can take it all, we regress like last week and barely manage a win. They're killin' me, smalls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We're a solid team that just happens to make some bad mistakes at inopportune times. If you compare stats for the Charleston Southern game, we pretty much dominated:
21 total first downs vs their 12
358 rushing yards and 5 TDs vs their 140 yds and 2 TDs
209 passing yards and 1 TD vs their 84 yards and 0 TDs
We punted 4 times vs their 7 times
We held the ball over 36 minutes vs their just under 24 minutes
We had 4 sacks for 22 yards vs their 0 sacks

The only thing that made it close was: 2 INTs and 1 fumble all taken for TDs.
We don't make those three mistakes, and we hold them scoreless in the second half and win in a blowout.

The loss at North Alabama was similar...down by 3, all ready to take the lead (or at least tie it if we don't get in the end zone) with 12 seconds left at the 1 yard line...and we flub the snap, QB gets sacked, and we lose by 3.

If we don't make those mistakes, we win the game at UNA and blowout CSU. We also had 2 INTs against SEMO. Now neither of those were directly returned for points, but it probably would have been a closer game.

It's the same refrain from the early season...mistakes are holding us back from our full potential.

[rocki]

If we win out and SEMO wins out, then we tie for the conference championship, but SEMO wins the playoff autobid because they won the H2H matchup.

If we win out and SEMO drops one more, then we get sole possession of the conference championship and the autobid.

Obviously we need to take care of our own business, but another loss by SEMO would be nice.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk



 

And just when we have a game like UTM and I think we can take it all, we regress like last week and barely manage a win. They're killin' me, smalls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We're a solid team that just happens to make some bad mistakes at inopportune times. If you compare stats for the Charleston Southern game, we pretty much dominated:
21 total first downs vs their 12
358 rushing yards and 5 TDs vs their 140 yds and 2 TDs
209 passing yards and 1 TD vs their 84 yards and 0 TDs
We punted 4 times vs their 7 times
We held the ball over 36 minutes vs their just under 24 minutes
We had 4 sacks for 22 yards vs their 0 sacks

The only thing that made it close was: 2 INTs and 1 fumble all taken for TDs.
We don't make those three mistakes, and we hold them scoreless in the second half and win in a blowout.

The loss at North Alabama was similar...down by 3, all ready to take the lead (or at least tie it if we don't get in the end zone) with 12 seconds left at the 1 yard line...and we flub the snap, QB gets sacked, and we lose by 3.

If we don't make those mistakes, we win the game at UNA and blowout CSU. We also had 2 INTs against SEMO. Now neither of those were directly returned for points, but it probably would have been a closer game.

It's the same refrain from the early season...mistakes are holding us back from our full potential.

 

Mistakes and penalties. It seems like every game I hear "Western is the most penalized team in the OVC" voiced by the broadcasters. I'll admit I'm not a ref, but some things we get called on (when it looks like the other team does the same thing with no flag) - I'm wondering if the team is being watched so closely for mistakes that they automatically get called for anything.