Eastern’s football team finished the 2024 season with an overall record of 3-9 and a Big South-Ohio Valley Conference record of 2-6.
This record is a shock compared to last year’s season as the Panthers finished the 2023 season with an 8-3 overall record and a conference record of 4-2.
The big question is what happened?
Eastern still had graduate quarterback Pierce Holley and redshirt sophomore running back MJ Flowers on the offensive side. On the defensive side, the Panthers kept redshirt senior linebacker Anthony Shockey and redshirt senior defensive lineman Joel Barrows.
Most people thought this team would have another winning record, coming off the biggest turnaround in Football Championship Subdivision history. So back to the main question, what happened to this team?
The short answer: injuries.
Injuries hit Eastern hard starting in fall camp. Defensive linemen Peyton Wilkerson and Colby Smith suffered injuries within fall camp and missed significant time due to the severity of their injuries.
This all happened before Eastern’s first game against the University of Illinois-Champaign, so that made the defensive line lose two players that added depth to the position room.
After the Panthers’ 45-0 loss to the Fighting Illini, the wide receiver room had a significant player go down in week two against Indiana State: DeAirious Smith.
Smith, a starting wide receiver who made significant plays last season for the Panthers and was projected to have even more playing time this year, got injured in the first quarter against the Sycamores. The injury Smith suffered resulted in him missing the rest of the season.
After the Indiana State game, there were multiple players on the defense that were ruled out before the Northwestern game due to being banged up against the Sycamores.
Because of the lack of depth due to those injuries, the Panthers had a rough night as they lost to the Wildcats, the second Football Bowl Subdivision program they faced in the season. The final score was 31-7.
Another game where injuries hurt the Panthers was against the Southeast Missouri State Redhawks in week six.
Three significant players on the offense got injured in the game: redshirt senior tight end Anthony Manaves, and senior wide receivers Eli Mirza and Terrance Gipson. With these three targets of Holley out for what was the remainder of the season, receiver Quenton Rogers and tight ends Alex Ginnever and Alex Herrera stepped up in big moments throughout the rest of the season.
Anyone can say injuries happen to every team, but with the Panthers, numerous starters and second-string players suffered injuries that kept them out for at least one game. This season, people saw multiple third-string players step up. In total, Eastern had 22 players on the team that suffered injuries that sat them out for at least one game.
Along with injuries, the Panthers had what could be considered a difficult schedule, facing two B1G 10 teams in Illinois and Northwestern. Besides those two games, the rest of Eastern’s opponents were teams in the FCS. Indiana State and Illinois State were the Panthers’ other two non-conference games.
Eastern won the game against Indiana State 27-20 in week two but lost to Illinois State 31-7 in week four.
Although the record didn’t show it, for the Panthers the 2024 season wasn’t a total loss, as multiple Panthers put their names in the record book:
After the last game of the season against Tennessee Tech, Holley surpassed 10,000 passing yards in his collegiate career. Holley also recorded 3,125 passing yards within the 2024 season, making him the fourth quarterback in program history to surpass 3,000 passing yards in a singular season.
Who are the other quarterbacks to do this? Tony Romo, Sean Payton and Jimmy Garoppolo.
After the last game of the season against Tennessee Tech, Shockey recorded over 100 tackles in a single season, making him the 40th player in program history to do so.
After Eastern’s game against Gardner Webb, senior wide receiver Cooper Willman surpassed 1,000 receiving yards, making him the 35th player in program history to do so.
Along with these three names in the record books, six players made conference teams: Flowers, Willman and senior defensive lineman Nicholas Oliveira-Chace made the first conference team. Shockey, senior offensive lineman Drew Wilder, and sophomore punter Jacob Horvath made the second conference team.
Although the season is over, players will still have time to improve and focus on their overall strength and conditioning in the offseason.
Zaria Flippin can be reached at 581-2812 or at zhflippin@eiu.edu.
