The Eastern football team finished its first season with coach Kim Dameron with a 5-7 overall record and 5-3 mark in the Ohio Valley Conference.

Although the Panthers were in position to make a third straight postseason appearance before their trip to Jacksonville State, they fell short losing the last two games of the season.

Finishing below .500, Dameron said Eastern did not underachieve or overachieve. Instead, he likened the Panthers’ season to the philosophy of former NFL coach Bill Parcells.

“I’m a big believer in what Bill Parcells always has said is that, ‘you are what your record says you are,’” Dameron said. “So, Being a team that won five games we have to find a way to win more games than that especially in the conference. I don’t think the team underachieved or overachieved. We were what we were.”

The Panthers began the season under an umbrella of question marks. With an entire new coaching staff than the previous regime that won two OVC titles in a row, a new offense and a new defense was implemented. Eastern saw its most successful quarterback go to the New England Patriots in the second round of the NFL Draft in early May and later that month Jalen Whitlow transferred to the Panthers, fueling a quarterback battle.

For the first three games of the season, Dameron had red-shirt senior Andrew Manley and Whitlow split time at quarterback. It wasn’t until Eastern hosted Austin Peay on Sept. 20, that Dameron decided to make Whitlow the full-time starter.

“Once we did say, ‘it’s your job,’ his confidence level rose,” Dameron said. “He wasn’t worried about looking over his shoulder and all that.”

Whitlow led the Panthers to a 5-2 conference record, before getting injured against Jacksonville State that forced him to sit out Eastern’s season finale against Tennessee-Martin. In OVC play, Whitlow was the fourth-rated passing quarterback, averaging 205.9 yards per game.

In his first season at Eastern, Whitlow threw 14 touchdown passes, while only throwing three interceptions against conference opponents. He was also the No. 6 ranked rusher in conference play. Whitlow scored 10 rushing touchdowns, which was the third most by anyone in the OVC and led the Panthers. The Kentucky transfer finished with 534 rushing yards this season in conference and 792 overall.

Whitlow earned All-OVC second team honors at the end of the season.

It was a slow start for Whitlow and the Panthers, though, as they lost three straight games and began the first half of the season 1-5.

Dameron said he was most proud of the players not quitting after tough first half of the year.

“It showed a lot of fight, a lot of character,” he said. “It showed to me also that these players responded to us as a staff and never gave up on us and continued to believe and work.”

Eastern rattled off four straight conference wins before losing 27-20 to the Gamecocks on Nov. 15.

“The biggest thing was that we stuck together,” Dameron said. “We never let go of the rope. These kids continued to believe and work hard and it paid off winning five conference games.”

Following a record-setting season in 2013 offensively, Eastern followed it up with another big season under offensive coordinator Greg Stevens. In his pro-style offense, the Panthers’ running game flourished, ending the year with the second best ground game in the OVC. Against their conference foes, the Panthers averaged 286 rushing yards, led by red-shirt junior Shepard Little and red-shirt senior Taylor Duncan along with Whitlow.

The Panthers had three offensive linemen earn All-conference honors, as red-shirt senior Collin Seibert was on the first team. Joining him on the second team were Nick Borre and Evan Kanz.

Although the Panthers leaned more toward the run, red-shirt senior Adam Drake ended the season as one of the top receivers in the country, having ended his collegiate career ranked in the top-five in every receiver stat category in the FCS.

Drake was selected to the OVC first team, leading the conference with 93 receptions and 1,321 yards. He also had 12 touchdowns, which were the second most in the conference.

The Panthers will be without Drake next year as well as three other receivers in Joe Powell, Stephen Bravo-Brown and tight end Jeff LePak.

“The guys who catch the ball are going to be our biggest losses going into next season,” Dameron said.

But, for Dameron this year’s defense, which allowed the second fewest points in OVC play at 19.9, had the third best overall defense giving up 364.2 yards per game and surrendered the second fewest touchdowns at 16 has the potential to become more dominant.

“It was a marked improvement from the defense from the year before statistically and I think next year even more so we’ll continue to get better,” Dameron said.

Eastern had two players earn first team All-OVC honors in linebacker Kamu Grugier-Hill and safety Jourdan Wickliffe, while defensive lineman Dino Fanti and linebacker Robert Haynes were named to the All-OVC second team.

Entering his first full offseason with the Panthers, Dameron wants to establish a clear mindset for his players and get Eastern back to the top of the OVC.

“Winning the Ohio Valley Conference is the No. 1 goal,” Dameron said. “We don’t need to be talking about anything else. We don’t need to be talking about playoffs, we don’t need to talk about a national championship. We need to have as our main objective and main goal that we put our program in position to win the conference championship.”

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