MARTIN, Tenn. – Eastern red-shirt junior Bodie Reeder was not lined up under center a few times during the Panthers’ 29-26 loss to Tennessee Martin on Thursday night. His backups, red-shirt freshmen Luke Hockaday and D.J. Brown, weren’t on the field either.

In Reeder’s place was red-shirt senior running back Travorus Bess, as Eastern ran a variation on its traditional two-back backfield. The Panthers traditionally line up one running back and one fullback in the backfield with Reeder at quarterback. Thursday’s game was different. There was no quarterback on the field. Bess lined up at quarterback spot, and red-shirt sophomore running back Chevon Walker lined up almost far out enough to be considered a slot receiver.

The Panthers practiced the “Wild Hog” formation in the days preceding the game against Tennessee Martin, and Reeder lined up on the outside as a receiver during practice.

“They wanted to use my speed on the outside,” Reeder joked.

He said the Panthers added the option play to their playbook as an opportunity to get both Bess and Walker in the backfield together and get them the ball because they are playmakers.

Eastern offensive coordinator Roy Wittke, who used the “Wild Hog” formation as the offensive coordinator at Arkansas from 2003-05, said the main goal of the formation is to get the ball in the hands of the team’s playmakers. Walker had success on the Panthers’ first attempt at the “Wild Hog,” as he managed to gain 10 yards on a reverse around left end.

Wittke said Walker is ideal for his role in the “Wild Hog” because of his speed.

“That’s part of what it’s predicated on is threatening the defense’s edge with speed,” Wittke said. “That’s trying to take advantage of what our guys do and what our guys do best.”

Eastern defensive coordinator Roc Bellantoni said the “Wild Hog” formation is dangerous because defenses have to be able to rally to a quick player getting to the sidelines on the reverse aspect but also be strong up the middle in case the player lined up at quarterback runs up the middle.

“The way we try to do everything is we fit plays up,” Bellantoni said. “It really causes some major problems with your fits because it’s like (the offense is) playing with 12 people. It’s just like zone read, all the spread stuff, because you’ve got an extra guy. Normally the quarterback doesn’t run the ball so you have an extra guy, so you can be outnumbered when you’re trying to fit up those running plays.”

Bess had limited success when he kept the ball and rushed up the middle against Tennessee Martin. The Skyhawks’ defense was able to hold him to short gains each time.

Wittke said the Panthers’ had some missed blocks and missed execution on the keeper plays.

“We just added that hopefully to confuse the defense a little bit,” Eastern red-shirt sophomore wide receiver Charles Graves said about the Panthers’ new formation. “I think we did a few times, and sometimes they stuffed it. I think with that you’ve got to keep the defense honest, and I think that’s what those kind of plays do.”

Bellantoni said he didn’t see what Tennessee Martin’s defense did to stop Bess but based on no other teams running the “Wild Hog” formation in the Ohio Valley Conference, the natural tendency of a defense would be to focus on the primary ball carrier and not on the player that could run a reverse.

“From our standpoint nobody has run it yet, but if someone got in that formation I think our players on the field their first inclination is it’s going to be something tricky to spread you out and run the ball up the middle,” Bellantoni said. “So you would probably favor the tailback. That’s probably what (Tennessee Martin) did without knowing.”

Wittke said one tough aspect of installing the new formation was not knowing how defenses would adjust to the formation because there wouldn’t be any game film of those adjustments because no teams in the OVC run that type of option play.

“You have to project what those adjustments will be,” Wittke said. ” That’s part of the reason why we want to keep things within our base system. We feel as we continue to work and continue to add some wrinkles to it, it’ll become more and more effective for us.”

Scott Richey can be reached at 581-7944 or at srrichey@eiu.edu.

Eastern sophomore running back Chevon Walker moves past Tennessee Martin junior cornerback Markei Guy in Thursday’s game at Graham Stadium in Martin, Tenn. The Panthers lost 29-26.(Eric Hiltner

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