The Eastern Kentucky football team might be the lone undefeated school in the Ohio Valley Conference that includes four road wins this year, but Colonels head coach Dean Hood is not overlooking Eastern, which is 1-4 coming off its bye week.

With losses to Minnesota and Ohio, respectively, and two more against top-25 teams in the FCS, Hood said the Panthers are similar to his 5-0 Colonels despite their records.

“We’re very evenly matched,” he said. “You can throw out their overall record – they played Minnesota, Ohio University and two FCS schools that are probably going to be in the playoffs. What matters is that they’re undefeated in the OVC and we’re undefeated in the OVC.”

The 5 p.m. kickoff Saturday in Richmond, Ky., pits both teams that have been extremely successful in the OVC during the past decade, combing to win eight of the last nine conference regular-season titles. Looking at film, Hood said this year’s teams are comparable once again.

“There’s a lot of similarities across the board, as far as our players,” Hood said. “It’s a very evenly matched game. I’m sure it’s going to be a game that goes down to the last possession.”

Junior transfer Dy’Shawn Mobley leads the Eastern Kentucky offense. Through five games, he is the only running back in the OVC averaging more than 100 rushing yards per game with 106. Mobley leads the conference with 530 rushing yards and is tied with two other players for most rushing touchdowns with five.

Mobely transferred from Kentucky, where he played his first two years of college. Hood has been very familiar with Mobley, who he recruited out of high school.

“We knew well of him and as a matter of fact we offered him (a scholarship) we might have been the first team to before some of the bigger fish came in,” Hood said.

The Panthers have their own Kentucky transfer, who is putting up great statistics as well in quarterback Jalen Whitlow.

After sharing time in Eastern’s first three games, Panthers’ head coach named Whitlow the outright starter. The quarterback is ranked No. 3 in rushing yards in the OVC, with 395, scoring four rushing touchdowns, while ranking No. 2 in total offense, averaging 237.6 yards per game.

Eastern Kentucky also has quarterback Bennie Coney, who is a Cincinnati transfer. In the Colonels season opener at Robert Morris, Hood decided that Coney was the starting quarterback over senior Jared McClain, who started 11 games last season.

Coney threw three interceptions against Robert Morris, while McClain completed 11-of-17 passes and rushed for a touchdown. Following a couple more mediocre performances by Coney, Hood said he has been using both quarterbacks during games.

“What we’ve done is waived the white flag and just decided to play them both,” Hood said.

At 5-0, Hood is no longer being questioned who should be the starting quarterback.

“I haven’t had anybody say, ‘hey, I like the two-quarterback system,’ but they’ve stopped asking questions about it,” he said with a laugh. “I guess we’re kind of in the middle ground right now.”

The Colonels are off to their best start since 1990, and not only do they feature the OVC’s premiere running back, they have the conference’s only win against an FBS opponent this season.

Their 17-10 win at Miami (Ohio) improved the Colonels’ record to 2-0 at the time, but Hood said it also gave his team more confidence.

“There’s no question that when you win a game, especially the way the media hypes up the FBS/FCS thing, it definitely is a help for our guys mentally,” he said.

Aldo Soto can be reached at 581-2812 or asoto2@eiu.edu.