It is rivalry week for the Panthers, as the team will compete against the Illinois State Redbirds this Saturday in Normal.

Saturday’s matchup will mark the 112th time these two teams will face off in the Mid-American Classic.

This rivalry started back in 1901, making it the oldest college football rivalry in the state of Illinois. Illinois State has led this rivalry with a total of 59 wins, 43 losses and nine ties.

In last year’s matchup between the two teams, Eastern escaped with a 14-13 win over Illinois State to capture the Mid-American Classic trophy in Charleston. That was the first time the Panthers won the trophy since 2016.

“The trophy is great thing to have in the building,” redshirt senior tight end Anthony Manaves said. “It’s a huge game recruiting wise for Eastern as a whole, and obviously, I love this place, and I want the best recruits in the near future, so this game means a lot to me.”

Manaves isn’t the only player who wants to bring the trophy back to Charleston for another year. Eastern’s head coach Chris Wilkerson said this win is extremely important for the team. Like any other game, Wilkerson wants the team to come out with another game in the win category, but with this being a rivalry game, there will be some expected tension between the two teams.

“There’s 90 minutes between the two schools, and there’s not a lot of love lost between the two schools and the students and student athletes,” Wilkerson said. “We would love to have the bragging rights. We’d love to have the recruiting bragging rights too. Certainly, there’s conference reputation as well, and we want to do our part in representing the Big South-OVC Conference.”

Senior defensive lineman Nicholas Oliveira-Chace said this Eastern team has been the same team all year but one of the aspects that they need to improve on is the amount of mental mistakes the team has made thus far.

Coming off a 31-7 loss against Northwestern University, the team is still optimistic to turn the season around.

Since the loss on Saturday, the main improvement in practices have been the communication between players. Senior defensive back Zay Gentry said throughout the last couple of practices, the team has come together more as a whole rather than offense and defense separately.

“Defensive wise, we’ve all been able to come together and be on the same page,” Gentry said. “Offensive wise, they’ve been coming together on the same page. That’s really our biggest problem because it seemed like we were split, the defense and offense, but we’re more of a team now.”

Redshirt sophomore running back MJ Flowers said this week is all about physicality and execution. Both Flowers and redshirt senior offensive lineman Sebastian Pares think this game is a pivotal game that can give the team momentum throughout the rest of the season.

“Because they’re ranked, it would help us when it comes to playoff contention,” Pares said. “It’ll help us in the long run, and we want to keep the trophy at O’Brien.”

Graduate quarterback Pierce Holley said the team is preparing for Saturday’s game the same way they prepare for every game: by working on communication and being in sync with each other.

Redshirt junior offensive lineman Drew Wilder agrees that there is more communication throughout the team but specifically on the offensive line.

“[The offensive line] has to talk a lot this week to see all the different fronts and pressures,” Wilder said.

Wilkerson has emphasized this rivalry to the team, and the players are excited about playing against the Redbirds this season.

Gentry, who has not played against the Redbirds throughout his time at Eastern, is excited for the opportunity to step on the field and play against Illinois State.

“Personally, this win is really important to me,” Gentry said. “It would be a big goal of mine because freshman year, I didn’t play them. Sophomore year, I didn’t play them. Junior year, I didn’t play them, so I feel like it builds up emotions for me to do my job and hopefully come out victorious.”

The Mid-American Classic trophy is a part of this rivalry that has added an extra touch to a win, and the Panthers want to be the ones that get to take the trophy back to Charleston.

“The trophy is major to our program, and to keep it, we know we have to play 60 straight minutes of hard hat, lunch pail, EIU football to make sure we’re the ones raising the trophy at the end of the night,” Flowers said.

Eastern (1-2) will travel northwest to Illinois State (2-1) on Saturday to possibly take the trophy back to Charleston once again.

Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m.

Zaria Flippin can be reached at 581-2812 or at zhflippin@eiu.edu.