Former Wisconsin Badger Matt Schabert will be under center on Saturday night when Eastern travels to Ypisilanti, Mich., to take on Eastern Michigan in the battle of schools that start with Eastern.

“It’s exciting,” Schabert said. “I got a chance to start against Northwestern last year (while at Wisconsin) and I got beat around a little bit. But I came here for a second chance and now it’s time to make the best of it.”

For Eastern’s coaching staff, it was a tough decision to change over from the incumbent starter who had been leading the team as the starting quarterback in the first two games of the season.

“It was a difficult decision,” head coach Bob Spoo said. “The decision was based primarily on this week of practice. We just feel like Scabert’s got the edge right now.”

Spoo also said Andrew Harris broke a team rule, which further affected who would be the starter this weekend.

However, he wouldn’t elaborate on what team rule it was that Harris broke.

Harris started the first two games of the season and last week took the Panthers 80 yards for a touchdown on the game’s opening drive. But after that, he was 1-5 with 12 yards passing and three fumbles.

Offensive Coordinator John Carr said Schabert getting the start doesn’t take anything away from Harris.

“We play Southeast Missouri next week and we want to see what we have,” Carr said. “Last year it was Vincent, Harris, Vincent, Harris back and forth. We don’t want to go into conference like that again.”

As for how Harris is taking the recent demotion, the coaches sense that something has changed but that he won’t let it effect him.

“When you’re a competitor like Andrew (Harris) you’re going to be a little disappointed,” Spoo said. “But he’s taking it okay.”

Getting his first start of the season, is something that Schabert was hoping for considering he is using his last year of eligibility to play at Eastern as a transfer.

Schabert transferred to Eastern over the summer. Last year he was a back-up for the Badgers and came in against Ohio State, who was ranked third at the time, and threw only three passes completing two.

One of those completions was the game winning touchdown pass. Schabert ended up with 104 yards passing that game and 16 yards rushing on three carries.

“I love night games and from the moment we woke up we had a feeling,” Schabert said referring to the game versus Ohio State. “We had an upset bug. I know Eastern prides itself in beating Division I-A schools and I hope we can win this weekend.”

Schabert saw his first action of the year against Illinois State last Saturday evening.

“It took a while for me to get my bearings but as the game went on the receivers that I was overthrowing early, I eventually hit with those passes,” Schabert said.

Schabert completed 14 of his 28 passes against the Redbirds. He had two touchdowns, one passing and one rushing while throwing one interception.

“He has really fine leadership skills and has a good report with the team,” Spoo said. “He’s a positive guy and a team player. He’ll do anything to win.”

Spoo said Schabert took most of his snaps this week in practice with the first team to get him acclimated with the players and the situations.

Harris had taken the majority of the snaps with the first team in the previous two weeks, but after last week’s performance against Illinois State, Schabert had to get some more looks Spoo said.

Being from a Big Ten school, Spoo knows Schabert has had his share of competition in his days.

“The major competition he faced at Wisconsin makes him poised at his position,” Spoo said. “I expect him to read the defense and make the necessary adjustments.”

Spoo expects Schabert to play well this weekend at Eastern Michigan but he said he wants to see Schabert be a little more proficient than he was last game.

Along with a little added proficiency, Spoo feels Schabert’s physical attributes could be a little more enlarged.

“I suspect Matt thinks he could be a little taller and have a little more arm strength,” Spoo said.

Those attributes are something that Schabert says he gets some grief about from his teammates.

“The guys rag on me for not having a strong arm, but I think I can get it there just fine,” Schabert said.