This week, the Eastern football coaches were put on the spot with a question regarding recruiting football players.

Defensive coordinator Roc Bellantoni was asked how the coaches recruit with a 0-6 record – a valid question to ask a coach, who is used to winning and having the team’s success as an available selling point.

Bellantoni gave a pretty standard answer. Right now, he said, coaches talk to prospects more often about how the player’s high school team is doing, rather than Eastern.

Bellantoni said the offseason is the period when the Eastern coaches have to worry about selling the team.

When December and January roll around, Eastern will still have its program’s recent history and a long-time head coach as bargaining chips.

But maybe more importantly, as the long-time head coach Bob Spoo said, will be the coaches ability to tell the prospects that they will have an opportunity to play right from the get go.

In a 0-6 season marked by injury problems, Spoo could not have a better point to lead with than that. Believe it or not, there will be plenty of open competition next year at every position.

Spoo pointed to the offensive line as a definite position of need. He explained that at the beginning of the season, he and his coaches thought they had five solid, experienced linemen up front.

Quickly, injuries plagued the offensive line to where all five players they thought they were unable to play.

Ryan Grossman saw his career end due to injury this season. Mike Garrity suffered a season-ending ACL injury.

Also, co-captain Willie Henderson is in a situation that worries the coaches. He has been unable to play for the majority of the season, because of a neck injury. Spoo said a team doctor has told him that playing with the injury could be career threatening.

Henderson, who is a redshirt junior, still has a season of eligibility left. So, he would potentially be one of the players returning next season, but Spoo reiterated that his injury is a very careful thing.

Now, Eastern has a new, revamped offensive line, but there is not a coach who is saying the young group of linemen is going to be stalemates for the rest of their careers.

Due to injury, the Panthers have become a much younger team than they already were to start the season.

The quarterback was one of the main positions to worry about at the beginning of the season. While it still is on the list, it might not be the No. 1 concern.

Spoo said everything starts at the line, always, and he is correct. The Panthers offensive and defensive lines are both young, but they are growing.

The problem with rapidly improving youngsters, Spoo said, is that everybody else in the Ohio Valley Conference is improving, too. So it is not like Eastern is catching up.

The Panthers are still an offseason away from reaching the competition. Sure, Tennessee Tech head coach Watson Brown said this week that Eastern is not a 0-6 team.

He said teams looking at the Panther game film should still be scared.

Yes, the talent Eastern is made up of is not 0-6 material. But it is not 6-0 either.

The talent on Eastern’s roster still has a lot of growing up to do. The players are getting a head start this season, as a lot of young players are able to play more due to injuries.

However, nobody’s starting spot is going to be guaranteed, except maybe a few rare cases.

So it will be interesting to see what happens from here on out, as Eastern tries for its first win and as the season ends and the offseason begins.

Recruits are not going to shun Eastern just because it is 0-6 for this one season. A lot of talent will probably still like the prospects of being a Panther.

I have a feeling that a lot might change on this team during the offseason, but let’s try not to get ahead of ourselves.

Alex McNamee can be reached at 581-7944 or admcnamee@eiu.edu