Eastern football coach Kim Dameron does not like to focus a defensive game plan around one player, but with a trip to Eastern Kentucky on Saturday, Colonels’ running back Dy’Shawn Mobley altered his mindset just a bit.

“You’re talking about not only him, but defending the quarterback and the receivers, their whole offense and you can’t just zero in on one guy, but if you’re going to he’d be the one,” Dameron said.

Mobley is coming off a subdued performance for his standards this season against Austin Peay, where he rushed for 55 yards, while scoring his fifth rushing touchdown. Despite that, he leads the Ohio Valley Conference with 530 rushing yards and is averaging 8.2 yards per carry, which is two yards more than the second-best average.

For Dameron’s defense, he said it simply comes down to tackling.

“As a defensive coach my whole career, when you tackle well you’re going to play well,” Dameron said. “When you don’t tackle it doesn’t matter where you line them up or who blitzes, if you don’t make a play you don’t make a play.”

Mobley, who transferred from Kentucky before the start of the season, has three 100-yard games, including a career-high 183 yards and three rushing touchdowns against Tennessee-Martin on Sept. 20. The junior running back scored touchdowns of 68, 14 and 75 yards against the Skyhawks.

Mobley also took the first play against Morehead State 61 yards for his first touchdown with Eastern Kentucky on Sept. 13.

“He’s a physical back, he’s got some break-away speed, and that’s the thing you can’t let him get going,” Dameron said. “You gotta make sure you bottle him up early, which is awfully tough to do.”

If Dameron wanted anymore insight on Mobley all he had to do was ask his quarterback Jalen Whitlow, who played with the running back at Kentucky for two years.

“He’s a powerful, downhill runner,” Whitlow said.

But the Panthers’ quarterback can’t pinpoint any other running back that Mobley is similar to. He does know one thing – Mobley is physical.

“He kind of reminds me of, really nobody, he’s just a Mack Truck,” he said.

Dameron is well aware of Mobely’s talent and ability to break tackles. The first-year coach also knows that the Panthers have had their struggles with physical runners this season.

“You gotta get people in the right place and you gotta get him on the ground because he’s shown that he’s hard to get on the ground,” Dameron said.

After Eastern’s 38-21 loss to Southern Illinois-Carbondale, Dameron was disappointed with the tackling performance that led to 147 rushing yards and three touchdowns by running back Malcolm Agnew.

Before its bye week, Eastern lost to Ohio 34-19, in a game where freshman running back A.J. Ouellette had a 65-yard touchdown and quarterback JD Sprague scored two rushing touchdowns.

“In the games we’ve not played as well defensively it’s been because of the tackling,” Dameron said.

Eastern’s defense also goes up against a wide receiver duo that has an average height of 6-foot-4.5.

Anthony Standifer, who transferred from Ole Miss this year, said the Colonels like to throw it to their tall receivers, but that he does not mind because it creates more chances for him to make plays.

“They like to throw the ball up a lot,” Standifer said. “That play is good for us corners because we like to go up and get the ball. They throw it up, we’re thinking pick.”

Standifer has two interceptions this year, which leads the Panthers.

Jeff Glover and Devin Borders lead the Colonels in receiving with 16 and 15 catches, respectively, while both scoring two touchdowns. Glover, who is 6-foot-4, caught a 42-yard touchdown against Austin Peay that came off a Hail Mary before halftime.

Standifer, who is 6-foot-1, said the challenge when going up against big receivers is not backing down because of the size differential.

“You have to get in the right position, not letting them stack me, or not letting them out-physical me,” he said. “You gotta be physical with them.”

The Ole Miss transfer has a lot of experience defending bigger receivers, including his close friend and former teammate Laquon Treadwell, who Standier got to see in person play Saturday in Oxford, Miss.

“I kind of do well against big receivers just because my best friend, who is a big receiver, so I feel that any big receiver I face I have a great chance against him,” Standifer said.

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