The Panther football season contained enough substance for a Charles Dickens novel.

At the best of times the Panther offense could throw, run and catch the ball at will. The offensive corps ranked No. 5 in the country (35.3 points per game).

At the worst of times — many of which came in Saturday’s season-ending 48-9 loss to Western Illinois — Eastern struggled to simply hold on to the ball and couldn’t keep the defense off the field, which nearly went the entire season without being ranked in the nation’s top 100.

Saturday’s bitter ending to an otherwise sweet season left Panther head coach Bob Spoo sounding like a scrooge.

“I’ll reflect on this game as an indication of how far we need to go,” Spoo said after Saturday’s loss.

Tuesday Spoo said that assessment was too harsh. While there were plenty of hard times Saturday, there was some sort of silver lining in the dark Macomb sky.

“Turnovers really made a remarkable difference,” Spoo said. “We did some good things, but we just turned the ball over too much.”

During the season Spoo has never focused on individual accomplishments. He puts little solace in records, although many were set this year.

Two of those record setters — Tony Romo and J.R. Taylor – have post-college football aspirations and for good reason. Romo set almost every school passing record this season and said he hopes to make the NFL Draft’s top three rounds. Scouts have shown interest in Romo throughout the season, including the New York Giants, where previous Eastern record-holding offensive coordinator Sean Payton is on the coaching staff.

Romo was named Tuesday as a top three finalist for the Walter Payton Award, which is awarded to the nation’s top I-AA player. The winner will be announced Dec. 19.

Taylor, No. 4 on Eastern’s all-time rushing yardage list, also has NFL aspirations and an agent to represent him.

“They’ve accomplished so much in their time here,” Spoo said. “I don’t think they’re done yet.”

But the players aren’t the only one to receive national notice.

Eastern’s coaching staff has received many accolades in recent years and this year was no exception.

The American Football Coaches Association named Panther offensive coordinator Roy Wittke “Assistant Coach of the year.” He received the same honor from the Sports Network last week.

“He is the most competent, professional and loyal man I’ve ever worked with,” Spoo said. “I’ve been in this business for 40 years so I think I’m qualified to say that. I’m grateful and happy to have him as a coach.”

Wittke and Spoo were taken on an epic journey — the stuff novels are often made of.

Eastern started out its season with a trip, a big payday and a 0-2 record. The trip to Hawaii in Week 1 gave the Panthers a chance to experience paradise with a painful shellacking mixed in. The trip to Manhattan, Kan., two weeks later ended with more bumps and bruises and a 63-13 loss.

The Panthers went on to win their next eight straight, including five Ohio Valley Conference wins, with their biggest game of the season remaining.

But Eastern fumbled an opportunity to win back-to-back OVC titles after a 37-35 loss on a last-second field goal at Murray State.

“I’m sure there have been other seasons like this where we’ve gone up and down,” Spoo said. “But none really stick out, but I guess that’s how it goes sometimes in this sport you have up-and-down years.”

While the Panther offense pummeled opponents this season, the future doesn’t look as promising. With only one returning starter in the backfield — junior tailback Andre Raymond — the Panther offense won’t be likely to scare the dickens out of any team the way it did this year.

Soon to be redshirt-freshman quarterback Ben King will have enormous shoes to fill. The 2001 Wisconsin high school Player of the Year could see some competition from whoever the Panthers bring up in this year’s recruiting class. Quarterback Steve Walker of Lockport, a member of the Chicago Tribune’s all-area high school team is among the players Eastern has spent time on recruiting.

Spoo hopes he can sing a Christmas carol in celebration of a solid recruiting class that will be unwrapped within the next two months.

“The time is now,” Spoo said. “This is very crucial. This is where it’s at.”

The defense shows promise, as eight of the 11 players who started in the Western game will return next season.

“We’ve got some young guys on the team that showed some improvement this year so that feels really good to know we’ve got them coming back next year,” junior defensive tackle Damien McCottrell said. “I think we did some good things this year, but at times we were just too inconsistent.”

Juniors Nick Ricks and Fred Miller will carry the corps next year as they did this season.

Ricks led all players with 127 tackles and is a candidate for the Buck Buchanan Division I-AA Defensive Player of the Year award.

“That’s definitely a good thing,” Spoo said. “But we need to be much better in that area. I look forward to that next year and we have to get some depth there. We really hope we’ll be better on defense next year.”