Every coach dreams of having a running back duo that he can call thunder and lightning, and Eastern’s Dino Babers has found that duo in Shepard Little and Taylor Duncan.

Together, the two have combined for 1,110 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns on the ground this season.

Saturday at O’Brien Field, Little, the lightning of the two, exploded for 125 yards and three touchdowns against Southeast Missouri, which was Little’s best game of the season, helping the Panthers to a 55-33 win.

On a team with a lot of new faces, Little is not one of them. Little has been on the team since Bob Spoo was still the team’s head coach in 2011, but red-shirted. In fact, Little had not even seen the field until this season’s first game against San Diego State.

The 5-foot, 10-inch, 198 pound running back out of Schaumburg was a member of the scout team for the 2012 season, the first under Babers.

Last season, Little got to watch from the sidelines as the Eastern football team made its way back to the Ohio Valley Conference championship and to the FCS playoffs. This season, he has the best seat in the house, right in the backfield of the nation’s top offense.

“I’m just playing my role,” Little said. “I’m doing whatever the team needs me to do. Whatever we need to do to win, whatever coach tells me to do, I do it.”

Little’s had his personal setbacks, but its something that Babers said he has turned around that’s helped him both on and off the football field. From missing his junior season in high school for disciplinary reasons to not seeing the field at all his first two years at Eastern, a lot has changed for Little.

“He’s made a lot of changes in his life academically and in other areas which has contributed to his contribution on the football field, and those are the things that I’m most proud about with Shep,” Babers said.

Little said during those two years at Eastern, when he did not play, he missed the field. He said he felt motivated by his family to go back to where he needed to be.

“I think it was just being immature,” he said. “I didn’t want to ask for help. Asking for help is probably one of the easiest things you can do. I missed the field.”

Babers said Little is one of the team’s most improved players.

“Shep has done a lot of great things,” he said. “He’s really given us a one-two punch, a thunder and lightning type situation, and the things that he’s done on and off the football field has been nothing but positive since last year.”

On Saturday, Little was back on the field, splitting time with the quarterback-turned running back Duncan. The two combined for 236 yards and four touchdowns.

“I think we’re a real good tandem together,” Duncan said. “We bring different characteristics to the backfield.”

Little said it was the offensive line that allowed him to break out against Southeast Missouri.

“(The offensive line) made some big holes for the running backs to go through and did a great job protecting for Jimmy (Garoppolo),” he said.

He said when there is good blocking, it makes for good running.

“The o-line does a good job making holes, so it’s fun to run,” he said.

Duncan said Little’s work ethic is part of what makes the two such a successful team together.

“Shep’s a real good guy,” Duncan said. “He’s one of the hardest workers that I know. He’s going to give 110 percent out there on that field. He’s bringing his own game, I’m bringing my own game. It’s working thus far.”

Little said he was in tune to what the Redhawks were doing defensively, allowing him to make the right adjustments and find the open holes.

“Defensively we knew what (Southeast Missouri) was doing,” Little said. “I was taking the right steps and making the right reads.”

Duncan said a combination of his size and strength, mixed with Little’s speed allows the duo to perform well, something they will need to do this weekend against the nation’s second best defense at Tennessee State.

“I’m a little bit bigger back than he is, he’s a little bit smaller, but at the same time, he’s bringing a little bit more of the speed element, and I can bring a little more of that physicality in that short yardage or goal line or what not,” Duncan said. “You put those two together and you get a nice little tandem in the backfield.”

Dominic Renzetti can be reached at 581-2812 or dcrenzetti@eiu.edu.

Anthony Catezone and Aldo Soto contributed to this article.