The Eastern Illinois Panthers wrapped up their spring practice Saturday morning at O’Brien Field.

The Panthers offense solidified the 43-42 win, with redshirt junior Jesse Lajes scoring the final touchdown, and redshirt freshman kicker Drew Schiller getting the extra point.

While the offense took the victory, it was an overall effort as the team continues to prepare for the 2025 season.

“We’ll go back and we’ll look at the tape, and certainly there will be some things that we can correct off of and moments that you can coach off of,” head coach Chris Wilkerson said.

One of the biggest things Wilkerson said he will take from this game and correct are the turnovers that happened.

The defense was more active on the ball, compared to the 2024 season.

“The penalties were one thing that stood out,” Wilkerson said. “There were still too many penalties. We’ve got to clean that stuff up. That’s things we can control. The turnovers offensively, you want to certainly take better care of the football, but it’s good to see the defense take it away. We’ll use it as a learning tool, but we know there’s a long way to go. We’re looking forward to trying to take advantage of every opportunity as we prepare for that opener”

Despite the mistakes, Wilkerson noted clear signs of progress, especially up front.

The offensive line showed noticeable improvement, providing more consistent protection and opening up running lanes that weren’t there earlier in spring practices.

“Our o[ffensive] line got way better than last year,” redshirt junior running back Jay Pearson said. “The wide receivers are picking up more, and there are blocks coming from the perimeter. The [offensive] line just got better from last year, blocking wise.”

The defense came with a shaky start, after the first quarter the score was 27-9, but despite that they came back, and communicated a lot better.

Graduate student safety Tienne Fridge said the defensive line made it easier on the backend and the linebackers filled the holes, when needed.

Fridge also said the biggest improvement he saw was the communication from his position group.

“The biggest thing is just communicating,” Fridge said. “I think us moving as a unit, as a cohesive group, and really just trying to have fun and play football.”

Redshirt junior linebacker Noah Williams transferred from Dodge City Community College, played a significant amount of time during the spring game.

From the linebackers room, Williams said they got faster, mentally and physically.

Williams commented on the 15 practices they had during the spring season, and how from day one to today’s game, there were big improvements.

“First day, we were out here, going over the easy stuff, missing hand placements and everything like that,” Williams said. “But now, we’re out there flying around.”

Williams said a strength the defensive has is communication and how they fly around the ball. However, he also said a few things the defense needs to work on.

“We definitely need to work on tackling,” Williams said. “But I think we have that brotherhood and we have that camaraderie and we’re ready to play for each other, and I think that’s the biggest strength you could have.”

Throughout today’s spring game all quarterbacks played a good amount of time.

Redshirt sophomore quarterback Blainey Dowling, and redshirt junior quarterback Kevin Conway got a lot more snaps than the other three quarterbacks.

There was a good rotation between the quarterbacks and the linemen from both sides of the ball.

Dowling was in the rotation with all strings of linemen, and he feels like they all will protect him.

“I mean, I trust any lineman on our team to protect us back there,” Dowling said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s ones, twos, or threes. I think they’re all gonna have my back and they’re all gonna give it their best shot to keep me protected.”

Speaking of players having each other’s backs, Wilkerson said coming out of spring practice the best thing he feels confident about is the team chemistry.

“Talent matters, and you have to have some talent to be successful as a team,” Wilkerson said. “But culture and chemistry do matter, and these guys have done a phenomenal job getting to know one another, being respectful of one another, working hard together, and really developing that. They hang out together. They go to class together. They play football together. They lift weights together. They spend a lot of their free time together. The guys that have come in, nobody’s really come in and said, ‘Hey, I’m just better than somebody else because of where I came from.’ They haven’t been very entitled. That part of it makes this group a really fun group to coach”

At the conclusion of the spring football game, Wilkerson announced the 2025 captains that the team voted on.

Sophomore offensive lineman Nic DiSanto, redshirt senior linebacker Jesse Garza, graduate student safety Tienne Fridge, and graduate student wide receiver Cooper Willman were all named captains.

Fridge wants to take his role as captain, and help produce leaders on the team.

“I think just try to step in where I can fill any holes where needed, and connect any dots,” Fridge said. “I just want to lead by example, but also encourage others to lead themselves.”

Payton Liggins can be reached at 581-2812 or at paliggins@eiu.edu.