Vincent Webb Jr. is the most important player on the Panthers.

When teams prepare for Eastern, their game plan has begun to include and focus a little bit more on new wide receiver Micah Rucker.

But Webb is the guy that coaches know they have to stop.

“Webb is a great running back,” said Eastern Kentucky head coach Danny Hope.

That is true.

He continuously runs up the record books.

In Saturday’s game against Eastern Kentucky, he moved up the Panthers’ career touchdown record list.

He scored three touchdowns in the first quarter, including two touchdown receptions.

Next week, he should move up the career rushing yardage list. He’s just 13 yards shy of J.R. Taylor for third place on the list.

The week after that, it might be the receiving yards list and then maybe the list of most pass blocks by a running back.

But they don’t keep that statistic.

He has had a great career at Eastern and his first year as a red-shirt freshman seems to have helped him immeasurably.

The balance of this year’s team makes it easy to overlook Webb’s contributions.

The passing game has opened up and is just about 600 yards shy of last year’s total of 1,763 yards. Sophomore Norris Smith has just seven rushes less than last season’s second leading rusher, junior Travorus Bess, had last season.

But Webb is still on pace to easily eclipse his career high of 1,129 yards, which he reached last year.

He has 864 yards through 7 games and has been in the national Top 20 all season in yards per game.

It speaks volumes about him that every week, even though the Cole Stinson/Mike Donato to Rucker show is a big story, Webb continues to be talked about.

If it were not for his running, as well as the running of Smith, there would be no Rucker show.

The defense could prepare for the pass and be done with it.

But they can’t do that.

Webb’s tools are too much to not prepare for.

When Webb ran through the line and saw nothing but green in front of him, he used his speed and actually seemed to be pulling away from the defensive back en route to a 55-yard touchdown run. It was the third game in the last four that he had broken a run of more than 50 yards.

He used his patience and speed burst to turn a simple screen into a 20-yard touchdown catch. Webb sat behind his blockers before he saw the opportunity to make a run for the outside and turned on his speed.

He used his hands when he got wide open on the end around pass from senior Justin Duhai and caught a pass that seemed to take 20 seconds to come down.

And not to limit his tools to just those on the field, he used his prognostication skills to give the Panthers a vision of their future after Webb.

“Once Norris is in that starting role, he’s going to be a great running back,” Webb said. “Know that I said that first.”

But until that happens, opposing coaches still have to prepare for Webb.