Pop quiz Panther sports fans – head football coach Bob Spoo left senior tail back J.R. Taylor and the rest of the first-string offense in for almost the entire game Saturday because: A) He wanted Taylor to break school rushing records, B) He didn’t think his team’s big lead would hold with the second squad in, or C) He didn’t believe anyone would get hurt against Florida Atlantic.

Answer: None of the above.

Spoo doesn’t play games to break records. He plays games to win them. He has said if records happen to break in the process of winning – that’s cake.

Spoo’s ho-humness toward breaking the all-time win record for a coach at Eastern against Eastern Kentucky didn’t break character. He seemed as if he couldn’t care less about earning win No. 100 last weekend against Tennessee Martin.

And Spoo downplayed senior quarterback and Walter Payton Award Candidate Tony Romo’s efforts to break the single-season touchdown record. His three touchdowns Saturday moved him to 31 this season with one game remaining. Sean Payton set the previous mark of 28 in 1986.

So surely Spoo wouldn’t care if Taylor got the 50 yards needed to become Eastern’s No. 4 rusher.

Don’t call him surely.

He wouldn’t give two hoots about Taylor scoring four touchdowns in the Panthers’ 47-6 drudging of Florida Atlantic Saturday. The four scores edged Taylor ahead of Poke Cobb’s 50 career touchdowns, a school record that stood for one score and three years (23 years).

Spoo wouldn’t have pulled the second-team defense Saturday and no one could blame him. All confidence in the scrubs flew away with the Skyhawks’ 30-point fourth quarter last week.

But the second-string offense faired much better. The purpose of the not-ready-for-game-time players is to simply kill clock. Senior quarterback Kyle Kissack, who has seen almost as much game time as Rudy Ruettiger, minus the movie deal, not only successfully ran plenty of time, he scored a rushing touchdown in the process.

Kissack did enter the game in the fourth quarter, but most of the rest of his second-team cohorts remained idle.

In the spirit of senior day, why not let Kissack engineer a drive downfield for his first (and likely his last) career touchdown pass?

The belief Florida Atlantic Owls couldn’t inflict any bodily harm on the Panthers isn’t wise and one Spoo would quickly shun.

Florida native and junior tailback Andre Raymond broke his leg in ProPlayer Stadium against the Owls in last year’s meeting.

It would be silly to take the same risk with Raymond and Taylor this year. Or would it?

Simply put, Spoo and Taylor were showing off. This was the Panthers’ way of promenading themselves in front of the NCAA Tournament selection committee. Eastern was showing it’s prowess and showing it can pounce on teams the way it was trampled in the first two games of the season.

Second-year program Florida Atlantic likely doesn’t have the horses to be I-AA team right now, let alone the I-A school it had planned to be in a few years, so anything less than a lopsided win wouldn’t be impressive.

But what if Taylor, Romo, Raymond or any other first-stringer was injured, then whom would the Panthers be able to impress in the postseason?

You don’t need multiple choices to figure out the answer to that question.