Everyone seems to be holding their breath right now around the Eastern football program, waiting to finally see what new head coach Adam Cushing’s team will look like on the field.

The Panthers’ season opener is Thursday against Chattanooga, and what is to be expected of Eastern in that game is still a question that looms large in Charleston right now.

The amount of anticipation that comes with the opening of any football season is always high, but particularly in Eastern’s case, 2019 comes with an extra dose of anticipation, mixed with nerves, uncertainty and hope for the future.

And the reason for all of it is simple: Eastern’s coaching staff is new, a majority of the starters will be new and come Thursday, the veil will be lifted and this team will start to reveal itself to the world.

Even Cushing, when asked last week how ready to go the new players were going to be, responded with a smile and said, “We will find out Aug. 29”.

Cushing of course may know more about his team than he is leading on, but with the offense replacing nine starters, and with the fact that Cushing has never seen his players in a live game situation, there is probably a great deal of truth in his words.

He too, like the fans, journalists, opponents and even the players, are waiting for Thursday’s game to offer some indication to what Eastern football will look like in 2019.

For obvious reasons, the coaching staff has revealed little about how the team will function on offense and defense from an X’s and O’s standpoint, but Thursday will finally also give at look at what this team does scheme-wise.

At this time last year, former offensive coordinator Scott Parr was touting his air-raid offense; this season the staff has been a lot more reserved in talking about what the game plan will look like. And this has been a strategic move by the coaching staff: The less people who know what you’re going to do, especially the opponents, the better.

Based on the depth chart Eastern released Sunday, the defense will deploy in a 4-3 scheme, with Terrell Greer anchoring the defensive line, Dytarious Johnson and Joe Caputo returning at linebacker and Mark Williams patrolling the secondary. That group is a pretty familiar and well-experienced one.

The offense on the other hand will, for the most part, be introducing itself to college football Thursday.

The offensive line will be entirely new. Cole Hoover will take over for Josh Doyle at left tackle, and Aaron Miller will replace Aaron Callaway at right tackle. Two freshmen, Elkhanan Tanelus and Anthony Sottosanto, will start at the guard positions. Redshirt-sophomore Ben Solomon will be at center.

Senior Darshon McCullough will be the lead running back for Eastern this season. He is returning to the position after being moved to the defense last year.

Senior Matt Reyna will be at receiver along with Isaiah Hill and Xander Richards. That trio has big shoes to fill in replacing Alexander Hollins, Aaron Gooch and Nick Atoyebi.

JJ Bullock can be reached at 581-2812 or jpbullock@eiu.edu.