Eastern Kentucky head football coach Danny Hope said it with conviction.

“We haven’t changed anything with our passing philosophy,” he said.

A look at the statistics and film of the Colonels would suggest otherwise.

Eastern Kentucky (3-2, 2-0 Ohio Valley Conference) comes into its 1:30 p.m. game Saturday against Eastern Illinois 24th in the nation in rushing offense (204.4 yards per game).

The last time EKU came to Charleston, the Colonels left with a 53-22 blowout loss in 2005. In that game, then-sophomore quarterback Josh Greco threw an OVC record 70 times.

This time, both teams come into the game tied for the conference lead and Greco isn’t expected to play much.

Greco, now a senior and the 2005 OVC Offensive Player of the Year, has been replaced at the quarterback spot by Wake Forest-transfer Allan Holland.

The duo of running backs Bobby Washington and Mark Dunn are now the focal point of EKU’s offense.

The two have combined for 763 yards and seven touchdowns this year.

“I think hands down, they’re the best duo in the OVC, maybe in I-AA,” said Eastern Illinois defensive end Pierre Walters. “It’s going to be a real big challenge for us this weekend.”

The Panthers (3-2, 2-0) come into the game 55th in the nation in rushing defense. Last Saturday, EIU held Southeast Missouri to 196 yards rushing. While that is a substantial number of yards, the Redhawks came into the game leading the conference with 222 yards per game.

Washington, a 6-foot, 215-pound senior who transferred to EKU from North Carolina State following the 2005 season, is averaging 7.5 yards per carry.

“It looks like Washington has kind of taken over the lead role there,” Eastern Illinois head coach Bob Spoo said. “He’s a powerful, strong running back with some good finesse moves.”

Dunn, a 6-0, 200-pound senior, has 2,233 career rushing yards at EKU and Spoo said he is similar to Washington, “but not quite as nifty, probably.”

The last two weeks, the Panthers have shown flashes of a dominating defense. EIU held SEMO to 256 yards of total offense and limited Indiana State to 216.

“It’s about consistency with our defense,” Eastern senior middle linebacker Donald Thomas said. “We got to stay consistent in order to continue dominating in this league.”

Eastern Illinois defensive coordinator Roc Bellantoni said the move by EKU to commit more to the run initially caught him by surprise. But he said the decision does make sense.

“They’re putting the ball in the hands of their two best players, their running backs, and trying to win games with them,” he said. “It’s smart football. Why wouldn’t you give the ball to those guys as many times as you could?”

Jacksonville State head coach Jack Crowe, whose team lost to the Colonels 31-20 on Sept. 22, said this year’s version of EKU looks like the old version legendary coach Roy Kidd used to have in Richmond, Ky.

Spoo said Kidd’s teams, who won two national championships in 1979 and 1982, had more compact offensive formations. Hope, in his fifth year at EKU, uses more spread formations with more one-back sets, Spoo said.

“I think they might do every formation in football,” Walters said. “They’re real flexible in their offense, and they can line up in various formations and hurt you.”

Holland is an adept passer, completing nearly 61 percent of his passes (57-of-93) for 572 yards and four touchdowns. The 6-1, 245-pound senior also poses a running threat. He’s carried the ball 30 times for 103 yards and had a 15-yard touchdown run to give EKU its first touchdown in last week’s win at Samford.

“He’s a different type of weapon we’ve seen run the ball,” Bellantoni said. “He’ll try and put his head down and try to run you over. We’ll have to tackle a little bit lower than against a normal-sized quarterback just because you don’t want to get run over and you don’t want to bounce off of him. You still got to wrap up those legs and have good form tackling, but man, he’s a load.”

The Colonels have used multiple quarterbacks in every game this year and Hope said he plans on doing it again Saturday. Last week against Samford, EKU used three quarterbacks for the first time in a game this year, when red-shirt freshman Cody Watts played.

This move isn’t out of poor play by Holland, who has started the last three games and will start Saturday, Hope said.

“Couple of years ago, we lost some quarterbacks over the summer either due to some lingering injuries and had an injury during (fall) camp and got to our fourth-team quarterback pretty quick,” he said. “We set a goal to where we always try to have two quarterbacks prepared and you have to play them in a game some in order to get them prepared as best you can.”

Fact Box: All tied up – Series History between the schools

Year, Result, Location

2006: EIU 28/EKU 21, Richmond, Ky.

2005: EIU 53/EKU 22, Charleston

2004: EKU 49/EIU 6, Richmond, Ky.

2003: EKU 41/EIU 0, Charleston

2002: EIU 25/EKU 24, Charleston

2001: EIU 21/EKU 14, Richmond, Ky.

2000: EIU 49/EIU 6, Charleston

1999: EIU 20/EKU 14, Richmond, Ky.

1998: EKU 28/EIU 24, Richmond, Ky.

1997: EKU 49/EIU 7, Charleston

1996: EIU 45/EKU 21, Charleston

1986: EIU 24/EKU 22, Charleston

1948: EKU 25/EIU 14, Richmond, Ky.

1947: EKU 14/EIU 13, Charleston

Notes: Junior Travorus Bess is listed as the starting running back for Eastern Illinois on this week’s depth chart. But the 5-8, 176-pound Bess has been limited with a left hamstring injury the past two weeks. Expect senior Ademola Adeniji (61 carries for 231 yards and four touchdowns) to get the start.

-An interesting matchup to watch will be between EKU’s secondary and EIU’s passing game. EKU leads the country with 12 interceptions, while the Panthers are the only team in either the Bowl Championship Subdivision or Football Championship Subdivision to have not thrown an interception this year. EKU junior free safety Zach Denton and senior defensive back Derrick Huff both have four interceptions, while senior strong safety Brandon Gathoff has three.

“Anytime you win the turnover margin, you have a much better chance of your team achieving a victory,” Hope said. “The last couple years we haven’t fared as well as far as the turnover margin goes and it’s cost us some big games and put us in a pickle where we’ve dug ourselves into a hole.”

-The last two times these teams have met, Eastern Illinois has scored 28 points in the first quarter. The Panthers led 28-0 after the first quarter last year and held on for a 28-21 win. Running back Vincent Webb Jr. had two touchdown receptions and a touchdown run for the Panthers in the first quarter.

In 2005, the defense played a large role for the 28-point outburst. Linebacker Lucius Seymour had a 12-yard fumble return and defensive back Chad Cleveland, now in his second year on Eastern’s coaching staff as a graduate assistant, returned an interception 35 yards for a touchdown. The Panthers led 28-7 after the first quarter en route to a 53-22 win.

-While EKU leads the nation in interceptions, the Colonels defense gives up an average of 464 yards per game. This is last in the OVC and 110th out of 117 teams at the FCS level.

Travorus Bess, redshirt junior runningback, looks to run past an Illinois State University defender during th Sept. 15, game at O’Brien Stadium. Amir Prellberg/Daily Eastern News

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