Eastern head coach Mark Hutson may get mad at me because I’m going to tell the public his game plan for Saturday’s Family Weekend match up – Hand the ball to No. 29 again, again and again.

Vincent Webb Jr., truly knows Missouri is the Show-Me State and continually does just that.

He loves playing Southeast Missouri and while Panther fans may not know it, the other Ohio Valley Conference coaches are aware.

At the first pre-game press conference, he came to the table and it was at that moment that I realized “thank God, he’s still here.”

Webb has to be the most underrated offensive player in Panthers history. The 5-foot-10, 206-pound tailback is going to be Eastern’s third leading rusher and while every Panther fan is drooling over the Mike Donato-Micah Rucker combination on Family Weekend, it’s Webb that makes this offense go. Not to mention he loves playing SEMO.

It’s like the St. Louis native continually goes into the “I’ll show you zone” when Southeast Missouri is on the other side. Webb picked Eastern over SEMO and Southern Illinois after being named an All-District running back by the St. Louis Post Dispatch out of Ladue High School.

Webb had 148 yards on 30 carries in last season’s 48-24 blowout EIU win. 30 carries? You don’t run a tailback 30 times in college football anymore, you just don’t. Not only did that game mark the beginning of the end of Tim Billings’ run at SEMO but also began Webb’s dominance at Eastern.

Can’t you imagine Tony Samuel staying up at night in his office watching film of last year’s game with SEMO, thinking “what did I do to deserve this?”

Not that it’s Samuel’s fault, because as a first-year head coach he hasn’t had a chance to sign a class.

But by dominating the Redhawks with a Missouri prospect, the Panthers are mocking SEMO’s recruiting effort. Not only can we beat you nine of the last 11 times with Florida recruits, a kid named Romo and big Illinois farm kids, but we’ll take one of your guys too just for good measure. And how would like that salt with your open wound?

This must have been how Bobby Knight felt when he stole, okay signed, (you say potato) what seemed like Illinois prospects (hello my name is Quinn Buckner, Isaiah Thomas and A.J. Guyton), brought them to Bloomington and proceeded to dominate the Illini basketball program for years.

Samuel couldn’t make his plan more public: stop the run, make Donato throw and get a turnover and the problem for every other coach in OVC that comes in with that plan is part one doesn’t work out. Part one relies on Webb having an off day and the one team that will not happen against is Southeast Missouri.