The Eastern football team opens its season Thursday night on the road against Chattanooga in what will be the head-coaching debut of Eastern’s Adam Cushing. The game will air on ESPN 3 at 6 p.m.

Here are five key things to watch for in the matchup.

1. Two new head coaches make their debuts

Cushing will not be alone Thursday night in making his first appearance as a head coach: Chattanooga’s Rusty Wright will be opposite him on the sideline also making his head-coaching debut.

It’s safe to say that both coaches Thursday night will spend as much time trying to feel out their opponent, as they will their own team. Both coaches are dealing with rosters that feature a lot of freshman, and both will face the challenge of playing against a scheme that has not been seen before.

Cushing has never seen a team coached by Wright, and Wright has never seen a team coached by Cushing.

Cushing has been able to do background research on Wright based on his previous stops, the most recent of which was as the linebackers and special teams coordinator for Georgia State, and said he expects the Mocs to come out playing hard for their new coach.

“I am expecting them to play really, really hard and be really sound scheme and fundamentally,” Cushing said. “Just as you have watched the other places that those coaches and staff have been, (the team) has been well coached. (Wright) has done a great job putting a staff together, but the first thing that jumps off is how hard they play and how sound they are.”

2. Chattanooga’s cornerbacks against Eastern’s wide receivers

Chattanooga’s strength on defense is in its secondary, where it boasts two all-conference cornerbacks in Jerrell Lawson and Brandon Dowdell.

The duo will offer a pick-your-poison scenario for Eastern’s starting quarterbacks when deciding which guy to deal with. Dowdell has a knack for finding a way to get the ball in his hands (he led the team with three interceptions last season), and Lawson is a big (6 foot 2, 195 lbs), physical defensive back who can move up and play linebacker for the Mocs when called upon.

What makes this matchup interesting, for Eastern, is the Panthers will be rolling out a brand new receiving corps Thursday night as Eastern’s top three receivers from last season all graduated.

Eastern’s top three recievers this season, per the depth chart released Sunday night, are Matt Reyna, Isaiah Hill and Xander Richards/Robbie Lofton.

It’s a relatively inexperienced group: Hill is a transfer from South Dakota, Lofton made just one catch for Eastern last season and Richards made two catches. Reyna is the most experienced of the unit, as he had 21 catches for the Panthers last year.

Cushing said Chattanooga’s defense, specifically the defensive backs, will provide a great challenge for the offense, but said that the best way for Eastern to combat that is to focus on controlling what they can control in the game.

3. Eastern’s offensive line

The Panthers are replacing all five of their starting offensive linemen from last season.

Freshmen guards Elkhanan Tanelus and Anthony Sottosanto will get their first tastes of college football Thursday night.

Redshirt-sophomore Ben Solomon will start at center against Chattanooga. Solomon played in 10 games last season, as a member of the field goal unit, making Thursday night the first start of his career at center.

The tackle positions for Eastern will be manned by players with more experience than the rest of the line, but one of those players will be playing out of position.

Redshirt-junior Cole Hoover will start at left tackle, but Hoover has previously started games at center for the Panthers. On the right side of the line will be redshirt-junior Aaron Miller, who missed all of last season with an injury, but he did start nine games at right tackle for Eastern in 2017.

4. What to do about Bryce Nunnelly 

Perhaps the biggest playmaker on Chattanooga’s roster is junior wide receiver Bryce Nunnelly.

Limiting his touches Thursday night is going to be huge if the Panthers want to be competitive in the game. Nunnelly was second in the Southern Conference last season in yards per game (112.5), and his 1,237 receiving yards were the second-most in school history for a single season.

Eastern’s Mark Williams will most likely be the one to shadow Nunnelly in the game, but do not be surprised if Eastern uses more than just Williams on the dangerous target.

5. Eastern’s two starting quarterbacks

It drove much of the season narrative last year and headed into week one of this season: The quarterback battle between Johnathan Brantley and Harry Woodbery is still an unsettled discussion for Eastern’s offense.

Last season the two split time at quarterback, with head coach Kim Dameron never naming one over the other as the No. 1 guy, and Cushing is doing the same. Both quarterbacks will play on Thursday, so keep an eye out for one to outplay the other.

Brantley and Woodbery performed neck-and-neck for all of last season and it very well could happen again this year. Thursday night will be a big indicator of which direction the two quarterbacks go.

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