Saturday’s Homecoming game against Southeast Missouri will push Eastern’s football season in one of two directions.

Coming off of last weekend’s 40-7 drubbing at San Diego State, a win puts Eastern (3-1, 2-0 in the OVC) in the driver’s seat in the race for its first Ohio Valley Conference Championship.

A loss would drop the No. 10 ranked Panthers in the national polls, and more importantly, would place them back with the pack in conference standings.

“I think we really have to rebound well and show people that last week we were just out-matched, but we’re still a very competitive football team,” Panther head coach Bob Spoo said. “We have to regain our momentum.”

And they’ll have to do it against a remarkably improved Southeast Missouri squad. The Indians (3-3, 1-1) lead the conference in total offense and tout the nation’s 11th best running back in Curtis Cooper, this week’s conference player of the week.

“They’re throwing the ball well and their running back, Cooper, is averaging 133 yards per game,” Spoo said. “We’ve got to be prepared for both because they’ve been so effective with both. They are a much improved football team.

“This will be a great test for us. In all aspects of the game, they have vastly improved.”

The Panthers come into Saturday’s game with a little hitch in their stride. Defensive back John Williams and All-American cornerback Kourtney Young are both doubtful for the game. Williams suffered a dislocated shoulder in last week’s loss and Young was forced to leave the game with an ankle injury.

Linebacker Jacob Maurer, defensive lineman Damien McCottrell and offensive lineman Marcus Lorick are all coming off injuries, but are listed as probable against Southeast Missouri.

“We’re just trying to get everyone healthy. We’re doing everything we can to limit contact,” Spoo said. “We’re trying to pick up moral by not practicing in pads. That will hopefully get a lot of the guys pretty healed up.

“I don’t foresee us being in pads at all this week. It’s not something we’ve done frequently, but it’s not bad at times.”

Indian head coach Tim Billings said his team enters the game with injuries of its own.

“Believe it or not, we played Tennessee-Martin last week and we’re pretty beat up ourselves,” Billings said. “We’ve played six straight weeks. I don’t think them being beat up will play a factor in the game.”

What will be a factor is Southeast’s ability to slow down Panther running backs J.R. Taylor and Andre Raymond.

“They’ve got two running backs that run the ball very well. So they’ll get you all worried about the running game and then they do a great job with the play-action pace and with a quarterback like Romo – he does everything right,” Billing said.”That just makes things so difficult. We’d like to stop their run and force them to pass.

“It’s a lot easier to defend against the pass when you know it’s coming. But stopping their running game, that will be the big key for us.”

Spoo said Eastern will key in on the running game early.

“I hope we can get the running game going,” he said. “That will be significant in keeping their offense off the field. It will be very significant to drive the ball and control the clock.”

The Indians will be trying to take control of their season, as another conference loss would make SEMO’s chances at conference championship slim.

“This is an important game for us. We’ve already lost one conference game,” Billings said. “Everyone knows Eastern Illinois is an outstanding team.

“They have good offense, good defense and a good kicking game. The conference championship goes through Charleston; there’s no question.”

The second-year coach said Saturday’s game is an opportunity for his team to see just how much it has improved.

“I think for us, looking at Eastern Illinois – they’re where we’d like to be,” Billings said. “Eastern is a quality program. They’re what everyone else wants to become.

“Last year we weren’t a very good football team and they beat us up on the field and beat us up even worse on the scoreboard. This is our chance to see how much we’ve improved and how we stack up against the best. Hopefully it will be a lot better.”