After the clock struck zero on Saturday’s football game between Eastern and Southern Illinois-Carbondale, the 48-7 loss the Panthers suffered seemed to leave the team in a state of shock.

“It’s heartbreaking,” junior running back Mon Williams said. “I can’t even find the words to describe it. It’s just. heartbreaking.”

Boy, how perspectives can change in a hurry.

A few hours later, the loss was a complete afterthought as the team learned that offensive line coach Jeff Hoover was killed in a single-car accident while returning home from the game. Strength and conditioning coach Eric Cash and five others were also injured in the crash.

The death was the second in the Eastern athletic family in less than a month, and, just as women’s basketball assistant coach Jackie Moore’s death put sports into perspective, Hoover’s does as well.

But while Moore’s death helped players and coaches realize how insignificant sports can be in the larger scheme of things, Hoover’s death does the same in a slightly different way.

After the loss to the Salukis, the Eastern football players were visibly devastated, and with good reason. For all the players, their season was over. For 14 seniors, their collegiate careers were over.

But none of that mattered that night.

Like with Moore, it’s virtually impossible to understand the amount of grief the players, coaches and others who were associated with Hoover are feeling. Both deaths were sudden, shocking and untimely, to say the least.

So the disappointment from a first-round playoff loss gets swept aside. The anger the team felt from playing so poorly against an in-state rival on the biggest stage is replaced with sadness for the loss of its friend and mentor.

Hoover was seen after the game embracing several players. It was an emotional day for him, too. As the offensive line coach, he had three of his seniors leaving and five members of his unit overall.

He obviously loved the players he coached, whole-heartedly defending them when asked about his unit’s poor showing in the loss to Penn State.

The athletic department will mourn Hoover’s death just as it did – and continues to do – for Moore. The difficult circumstance the football team faces as opposed to the women’s basketball team is that the football season is over. While the players for women’s basketball have the game to try to hide their grief and pay homage to their coach, the football team does not.

But while the grieving process may be long and strenuous, the after-effects of the loss to Southern Illinois are long gone.

Sometimes the games mean nothing, and that fact could not be more apparent now.

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