The face of Eastern athletics has changed vastly since I arrived in Charleston two years ago.

The facilities have been changed rapidly, like the construction of Coaches’ Stadium, improvements at the Williams Field and the Rugby field and the new field turf at O’Brien Stadium.

The biggest changes, though have been happening on the field.

Teams and players I could once rely on for great seasons have changed and or left.

When I arrived here in the fall of 2001, Eastern’s football team was a juggernaut. Quarterback Tony Romo was coming off a great sophomore year. He had a two-headed monster at tailback with then-junior JR Taylor and sophomore Andre Raymond to chew up yardage on the ground. Romo had then-senior wide out Frank Cutolo and junior Will Bumphus to air the ball out to. Romo, Taylor, Raymond, Cutolo and Bumphus made the Panthers one of the most potent offenses in division I-AA football, but only Raymond remains at Eastern.

The football team is not the only team dealing with the loss of players.

The men’s soccer team lost one of the best scorers in Eastern’s history, Jason Thompson. It also lost starting goalie Ryan Eames.

The volleyball team spent most of last year reeling from losing six seniors from a team that went to the NCAA tournament in 2001.

The women’s soccer team doesn’t have to worry about lost players this year after winning the last two Ohio Valley Conference tournaments to earn automatic berths into the NCAA Tournament.

With most of the teams at Eastern recovering from losing players, it gives me a different feeling when I think about Eastern’s teams – uncertainty.

The uncertainty of the football team is the most interesting in my mind. After dominating the OVC for the past two years, this year it was selected to finish third in the OVC preseason coaches’ poll.

With the loss of Romo, Eastern’s offensive stronghold in the OVC will be challenged, most notably by preseason favorite Southeast Missouri State, and the key to the team’s success moves from offense to defense.

The defensive crew has been overshadowed by the offense’s accomplishments, but now senior linebacker Nick Ricks and the rest of his defensive teammates have an opportunity to prove what they can do.

The state of Eastern’s offense is not as bad as I had initially thought at the end of last year.

Eastern lost Romo, Taylor and Bumphus, but the biggest hit might have been the four departed offensive linemen.

Romo was great, but he also had a great supporting class. I’m confident Raymond can pick up most of the slack left by Taylor, and Bumphus wasn’t an every down receiver. His job was to run to the endzone whenever he was on the field.

I know Raymond has the talent to carry most of the offensive load, but I worry about his health. He is an extremely important offensive weapon averaging nearly 200 all-purpose yards a game a year ago, but he touches the ball alot. More touches equals more hits, and more hits equals Raymond will get banged up.

Andy Vincent is the heir apparent to Romo and he has inherited some good targets to throw at. Senior wide outs Dawanzelle Hopson and Devon O’Neal along with junior Alfred Osborne will provide plenty of options on the outside for Vincent (62 receptions and four touchdowns between the three).

Apparently Panther head coach Bob Spoo plans on using the height of 6 foot 5 inch freshman Ryan Voss and the speed of red-shirt freshman Jermaine Mobley fairly regularly.

Vincent’s best receiving options should be senior tight end Nick Eller (57 receptions) and Raymond (70 receptions).

The offense is clearly not as loaded as last year’s team, but if they minimize mistakes and stay healthy the Panthers should put some good numbers on the board.

Change is not always a bad thing. Sure expecting to win the OVC title every year is fun, but when winning is so much sweeter when its not fully expected.