At 6 a.m., he’s up and running. He won’t stop until he’s reached the 2-mile mark. Some days he’ll run farther.

Then he hits the gym hard and doesn’t stop training until the sun goes down, sometimes longer.

Welcome to Mr. Raymond’s neighborhood.

Junior tailback Andre Raymond, who is, for all intents and purposes, Eastern’s go-to guy on the ground, leads the Ohio Valley Conference in all-purpose yardage and is No. 2 in the nation in that category (220.4 yards per game).

But it took months of training in his hometown of Hialeah, Fla., to get back to strength so he could run. Raymond is this week’s Top Cat.

Raymond suffered a leg injury in his own neighborhood last season at Florida Atlantic and has had to battle back ever since.

“I feel that I’m ahead of where I was last year because of all the work I did over the summer,” Raymond said.

The statistics he’s put up so far this season seem like something from the Land of make-believe.

Raymond had 23 carries for 134 yards last week against Tennessee Tech and compiled 303 all-purpose yards.

“I go in every week with a goal to get over 200 all-purpose yards,” Raymond said. “If I get over 300, that’s just great too.”

There’s no trade secret to Raymond’s success. Speed is his weapon and he has plenty. He said he was clocked at running the 40-yard dash in 4.32 seconds as a sophomore and believes he has improved since then, but hasn’t been tested.

His speed on game day is all the testing Panther head coach Bob Spoo needs.

“When we were recruiting him, I just saw a guy that ran north and south,” Spoo said. “I was looking for a guy that honked it up in there and didn’t worry about any of that. I was just impressed with that. He just ran so hard straight ahead.”

But while his speed hasn’t changed, his image has.

Raymond chopped off his long locks of hair and changed his jersey number from 31 to 5 this season. The gold caps in his teeth are also gone – he’s a little superstitious.

“When I was injured last year that was right in front of my friends and family,” he said. “I know that it could’ve happened anywhere, but to have that happen in front of all of them really hurt. I needed to make some changes.”

Together, the tandem of tailbacks including Raymond and senior J.R. Taylor has given opposing defenses plenty to worry about. Raymond wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Last year we said we felt we were the two best running backs in the nation,” Raymond said. “We still feel that way.”

Don’t confuse that attitude as cockiness. During a game, Spoo said Raymond doesn’t say much.

“He’s just a very bright guy,” Spoo said. “He would have to be to do all the things he’s doing.”