The head coach, defensive coordinator and offensive coordinator of the Eastern football team make up a combined 47 years of coaching experience at Eastern alone.

But that does not mean the Panthers do not have some fresh faces roaming the sidelines as they enter the 2009 season.

Three new coaches were added to the staff for the season, including 2008 Eastern grad Jason Fisher, who served as the offensive quality control coach last year, but has since moved to a full-time offensive assistant coach, with his primary responsibility being coaching the tight ends. Matthew Smiley was also hired as the team’s new special teams coordinator.

Fisher – who played wide receiver for the Panthers in 2006 and 2007 – said he was at first a little hesitant about coaching a position he was not as familiar with, but he’s given an added comfort level since he already knows the system he is coaching in.

“I know our expectations and know how things are done,” Fisher said. “It also gives me a level of pride in what we’re trying to do here. I really care about how the football team does and how EIU does, not just as a sports team but as a university.”

Fisher’s biggest challenge as coach is teaching a position that is for the most part inexperienced. The Panthers currently have five tight ends on the roster, but zero seniors.

“The big thing we try and teach with young players is technique and footwork,” Fisher said. “It’s really good to do that because it makes up for any inexperience or lack of physical attributes they might have.”

Eric Cash is the new head coach of strength and conditioning for Eastern athletics. While Fisher’s responsibilities lie solely with the football program, Cash oversees the strength and conditioning program for all of athletics.

Cash comes to Eastern after spending two years in the same position at Presbyterian College in Clinton, S.C. He said the biggest difference between the two schools is that at Presbyterian he was responsible for all the sports, but at Eastern they divvy up the sports between all the staff.

“It makes it easier for me, but more importantly it benefits every other sport,” he said. “The sports are what benefit the most from it.”

Collin Whitchurch can be reached at 581-7944 or cfwhitchurch@eiu.