Coming off its first win over a ranked opponent since the 2009 season, Eastern’s football team is now faced with a new challenge: avoiding a letdown against a team that is winless in the Ohio Valley Conference.

The Panthers will travel south to Cookeville, Tenn., to take on the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles on Saturday. The reigning OVC champions are 0-5 in conference play, but have been on the losing side of several close games that could have them in the middle of a conference championship race if a few breaks went their way.

Tennessee Tech held fourth quarter leads in games against Tennessee State, Jacksonville State and Eastern Kentucky, but was unable to close the game, losing each of the three games. The Golden Eagles were also involved in a 41-38 double overtime loss to Southeast Missouri in the OVC opener.

Eastern head coach Dino Babers stressed the importance that his team respects the Golden Eagles and prepares for them as if they were a championship contender.

“(Tennessee Tech) is as dangerous as an opponent as we could play,” Babers said. “As coaches, we have to get it across to our kids that these guys are a lot better than their record. They could be a 4-2 team in our conference, a 5-1 team in our conference, and if we don’t get that across we are going to be in trouble and we won’t come back here with dry eyes.”

Babers also said he would rather be playing Tennessee State (8-1, 4-1 OVC) than Tennessee Tech because the Panthers know that Tennessee State is capable of beating them.

“We just have to stay hungry,” junior quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo said. “We can’t overlook anyone at this point. We have two games left in conference and we are looking to finish out strong and keep doing what we have been doing.”

Despite the Golden Eagles’ struggles in conference play, they boast a quarterback who is capable of making game-changing plays.

Senior quarterback Tre Lamb leads the Tennessee Tech offense as he ranks in the top five among OVC quarterbacks in total offense, passing yards, pass efficiency, completions, completion percentage and touchdowns.

Although Lamb has been one of the best statistical quarterbacks in the conference, he suffered an injury against Eastern Kentucky on Oct. 20 that forced him to miss the following game against in-state rival Tennessee State on Oct. 27.

Lamb’s status for the game against Eastern is questionable, but Babers was quoted saying that Lamb told Tennessee Tech head coach Watson Brown that he will be playing this weekend.

“Coach Brown said that Tre (Lamb) told him he would be ready to go,” Babers said. “(Lamb) is one of the guys who has so much experience that he really doesn’t need to practice all week to walk in and be their starter on game day.”

The uncertainty of Lamb’s playing status poses a difficult scenario for the Eastern defense as it will have to prepare for two quarterbacks heading into the game against Tennessee Tech.

“We don’t know if (Lamb) is going to play or not,” Babers said. “We have to prepare for both quarterbacks, and that is going to deter a little bit with what we do defensively. “

Babers also said the defense has a tougher task than it had against Eastern Kentucky because it doesn’t know which quarterback it will be playing against.

Fortunately, the Panthers are coming off their best defensive performance of the season against OVC-leading Eastern Kentucky, and will look to take that defensive effort over to the game against Tennessee Tech.

“We need to build on the (defensive performance against Eastern Kentucky), and make sure we are not a one-shot-wonder,” Babers said. “We want to make sure we aren’t Vanilla Ice. We don’t want to have a one-shot-wonder. We want to build on that and see if we can bring that performance back every single week.”

The Homecoming showdown between Tennessee Tech and Eastern is set to kickoff at 1:30 p.m. in Cookeville, Tenn.

Jordan Pottorff can be reached at 581-2812 or jbpottorff@eiu.edu.