Red-shirt senior wide receiver Chavar Watkins has had an up-and-down career at Eastern. He was on the 2009 Ohio Valley Conference championship team, but he was also on the 2010 and 2011 teams that combined to win four games.

Fortunately, Watkins’ career looks like it will be ending on a high note as the Panthers are just one win away from clinching a share of the OVC championship in Watkins’ final year on campus.

“It’s great to go out in your senior season knowing you have a chance to be a conference champion,” Watkins said. “We really worked for it, so I feel like it is earned.”

This season, the Sunrise, Fla., native has teamed up with fellow wide receivers Chris Wright and Erik Lora to create one of the most prolific receiving cores in program history, combining to total 2,470 yards and 22 touchdowns in just nine games.

Watkins credited their success as a receiving core to the amount of work they put in this offseason to improve their chemistry with junior quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.

“It was a lot of hard work throughout the spring and throughout the summer,” he said. “Me and Jimmy (Garoppolo) and the other wide receivers did a lot of work. We did one-on-one drills to build chemistry and to improve our timing.”

Individually, Watkins has totaled a career-best 463 yards and four touchdowns on 42 receptions, including a career-best 140-yard performance in the Panthers’ win over Tennessee Tech on Saturday. Watkins also added a touchdown on a 61-yard reception.

“My numbers are pretty close to where I want them to be,” Watkins said. “We still have a couple games to go and the postseason, but I’m really not a number guy. As long as we are winning and I’m contributing to the team, that’s all that matters to me.”

The winning ways were absent the last two seasons, but Watkins credited the new coaching staff and their family-like bond as the main reason the Panthers are contending for a conference championship in 2012.

“The main thing is team chemistry, it’s like a family now,” Watkins said. “When Coach Babers and his coaching staff came in, they really focused on putting us together as a team and making it family-based. We have put in a lot of work, but just to be in the position we are in right now, it feels great.”

Along with the family-like bond, the Panthers have developed a winning mentality and recommitted to football, something Watkins also noted was a major reason why the Panthers have had the biggest turnaround in the OVC.

“The biggest change has been being more focused this season,” he said. “We were focused in other years, but not as focused as we are this year. Everyone was focused on partying and the outside stuff, but this year we are all focused and keyed in on the season.”

This recommitment has the Panthers in position to start the New Era of Eastern football with at least a share of the conference title with a win over Southeast Missouri on Saturday.

“Winning a championship my senior year would be great,” Watkins said. “I just want to be remembered and know that I was here to start the New Era.”

Watkins and the Panthers will look to clinch a conference championship when they host Southeast Missouri at 11 a.m. Saturday at O’Brien Field.

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