Bodie Reeder said he has to slow the game down.

Which might be hard for Eastern’s quarterback to do against a young and sometimes reckless Murray State defense this Saturday at 3 p.m. at Roy Stewart Stadium.

The Racers (1-4, 0-2 Ohio Valley Conference) start 10 freshmen or sophomores on a defense that is eighth in conference in yards allowed (399.4).

“The thing you have to respect about Murray is they play as hard as anybody we’ve seen,” Reeder said. “Up front, they’re not as big as some teams we’ve seen, but they get after it. They’re young, maybe they’re naive, or just don’t know any better to go hard every play.”

Reeder is coming off what he said was “an awful first half” in the Panthers’ 28-21 loss last Saturday against Eastern Kentucky. The loss bumped Eastern (3-3, 2-1) to fourth place in the conference and dropped the team from 16th in the Sports Network Poll to 23rd.

Another loss costs the Panthers any chance of making their third straight Football Championship Subdivision playoff berth.

“We can’t afford not to be ready for any game the rest of the way,” said Roc Bellantoni, Eastern’s defensive coordinator. “Like we’ve been telling them all year, we are the team with the bulls-eye on our back and everybody’s going to give us our best shot. If we do win, it’s because we’re ready and we play well, not because we snuck by anybody.”

Reeder finished 20-of-33 for 247 yards against EKU, but said he understands he needs to play better this weekend.

“I played well down the stretch,” he said. “But for us to win, I need to play better from the first snap. Especially, when you’re playing a team that’s going about 90 mph like Murray.”

The rebuilding process is still undergoing for Matt Griffin’s team.

The Racers are 2-14 and winless in 10 OVC games in Griffin’s first two years at the school.

But records haven’t mattered in recent meetings between the two teams. Last year, Murray led Eastern 10-0 at halftime, before the Panthers rallied in the second half for a 20-10 win.

In 2005, Murray led 28-21 before Eastern scored two defensive touchdowns in the fourth quarter to win 35-28.

“If we flounder and allow them to stay in the game, then it’s going to be one of those types of games again,” Eastern head coach Bob Spoo said. “Hopefully our defense can create some turnovers and our offense can take advantage of those opportunities. But we haven’t put together a complete game here in a while and we need to be able to do that.”

Murray is also coming off a bye week, giving the Racers an extra week to prepare for Eastern, which Griffin said was needed.

“They’re the most consistent program in our conference here the last five or six years,” said Griffin, who faced Eastern for three seasons while head coach at Tennessee-Martin from 2003-05. “I think there’s some mistakes (we’ve) made that create big plays for the opponent, there’s no doubt about that. I think everybody who’s seen us on tape has seen that.”

In the Racers’ 40-24 loss to Jacksonville State earlier this year, the Racers allowed an 89-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and had a punt blocked that was returned for a touchdown.

In Murray’s 48-24 loss to Tennessee Tech, four of Tech’s six touchdowns were longer than 20 yards.

The Racers are led defensively by sophomore linebacker Tamar Butler (39 tackles, four loss) and on offense by red-shirt freshman quarterback Jeff Ehrhardt (1,057 passing yards and 113 rushing yards).

The 6-foot-4, 210-pound Ehrhardt is not the most athletic quarterback, Eastern senior linebacker Matt Westrick said.

But he has the ability to escape defenses, something EKU’s Allan Holland did twice last week against the Panthers before he threw touchdown passes.

“They come out in some formations where they kind of try to fool you,” Westrick said. “The biggest thing is they try to establish the run but it looks like they’ve gotten down so then they’ve continued throwing to catch up.”

Bellantoni said the Racers will “formation you to death” in an effort to create mismatches for their offense.

Ehrhardt is second in the conference in passing (211.4 ypg) while the Panthers are eighth in the OVC in pass defense (227.3).

“We’re concerned about their passing game,” Spoo said. “They’re very effective. They know what they’re doing and we can’t allow teams to pick us apart.”

Notes:

-Expect Eastern Illinois junior Zach Yates to handle the place-kicking duties against Murray, Spoo said.

Yates was the team’s place-kicker last year but lost the job to junior Tyler Wilke before the season. Wilke missed two field goals last week against Eastern Kentucky, a 45-yard attempt and one from 20 yards out, and is 4-for-8 on the year.

Yates went 12-for-16 in field goal attempts last year and was 9-of-13 in 2005.

“It’s still a competition,” Spoo said. “But we’re last in the conference in field goal percentage. That’s not tolerable.”

-Junior free safety Adrian Arrington did not play much in the second half of Saturday’s game against Eastern Kentucky after suffering a concussion making a hit. Arrington said after the game he did not remember playing in the second half but was back out practicing on Wednesday.

“He’s supposed to be fine,” Bellantoni said.

-Sophomore running back Ron Jordan practiced at full speed on Tuesday and is expected to be used more this week. But, Spoo said, he’s still not 100 percent. Senior Ademola Adeniji is expected to get the majority of the carries this week again.

-Some notable head coaches at the Football Bowl Subdivision and FCS levels have coached at Murray. Virginia Tech head coach Frank Beamer (1981-86) and Arkansas head coach Houston Nutt (1993-96) both were head coaches at the school. Former Eastern assistant Mark Hutson, now at Tulane, was an assistant under Nutt.

Also, Illinois State head coach Denver Johnson was the head coach from 1997-99 and Illinois head coach Ron Zook and Maryland head coach Ralph Friedgen were assistants at Murray at one time in their career.

Pierre Walters, junior defensive end, attempts to complete a sack against Eastern Kentucky University Saturday afternoon at O’Brien Stadium. The Panthers (3-3) play at Murray State (1-4) this Saturday.

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