To put it bluntly, Eastern was far too happy after its 30-17 loss to SEMO Saturday.

Starting quarterback Andrew Harris loves the media spotlight and seemingly wanted to talk for hours about the positives his team showed and the amount he’s improving (and to be honest, he is). Harris’ three fumbles and one interception totaled Eastern’s four turnovers.

“I take all the blame for those turnovers because without them, we’re probably still in the game,” Harris said.

At least the junior college transfer was brave enough to say his fumble on the SEMO 41-yard-line, and then playing Hot Potato with the football, was his fault.

Harris’ first comment on the game was, “we played well.” It was like no one understood that this SEMO was nothing like the preseason rankings led fans and players to believe. Eastern lost to an above average football team with a confidence problem.

It wasn’t just Harris that was overly excited for no reason.

Defensive Tackle Marcus Lorick seemed like the season can be turned around at any point. Well, now that that has been confirmed, Panther fans can come down from the balcony.

“We just have to keep getting better every week and we know we can win conference,” Lorick said.

For the Panthers to win conference, they are going to have to beat much better teams than SEMO.

Even head coach Bob Spoo, who is known to all of the media as the most boring post game interviewee, seemed just a little too happy.

“I thought it was a good effort by all our guys,” Spoo said. “This definitely gives us something to build on.”

I would love if Spoo could explain how a 13-point loss is something to build on when you have one of the best defenses in the Ohio Valley Conference.

A first-year head coach at Slippery Rock knows you circle the wagons after a win, not a disappointing loss. See the Chicago Bears as an example.

Spoo even said the offensive line blocked pretty well (in fact, Harris was only sacked twice), but the starting quarterback is our leading rusher-and yes, that’s a very bad thing.

Andre Raymond rushed for seven yards in the last two games. The senior tailback hasn’t been able to hit the holes when they have existed and/or been met with defensive tackles three yards in the backfield.

News flash, Eastern is going through what’s termed a rebuilding season and hopefully they can reload for future seasons.

The fact is, Eastern, at 1-4, isn’t a very good football team right now and Spoo had a feeling the 2003 season would go this way, but didn’t tell anyone. Any positive sign will send the 66-year old man into doing cartwheels on the sidelines.

The only question is how bad will Eastern be this season and can they learn from their mistakes by the summer workouts of 2004?