After a 5-6 season that could have easily been an 8-3 season had it not been for some untimely special teams mistakes, Eastern football made a step in the right direction when they got a special teams coordinator.

However with offensive coordinator Jon Carr’s resignation and the hiring of Steve Brickey as quarterback’s coach, it looks like the Panthers may be taking a step back.

With gigs at Iowa State and Indiana State as an offensive coordinator, Brickey certainly has an impressive resume`. So why wouldn’t Eastern hire him as offensive coordinator on top of being quarterback’s coach?

It appears that the Panthers won’t pursue any further hirings on the coaching staff, and it’s possible they’ll have assistant head coach Mark Hutson and wide receivers coach Brian Flynn split the coordinating roles.

There’s no doubt that Hutson and Flynn are coaches capable of coordinating the Panther offensive attack, but Eastern could lose some focus in the process.

The Panthers will have 10 starters returning from last year’s offense that was second in the Ohio Valley Conference, and it will add Florida transfer Justin Midgett at quarterback and running back Norris Smith to an already strong running attack.

So, Eastern can’t miss its chance to put together what could be the conference’s best offense.

But even if it doesn’t happen next year, Eastern will have another shot to put together a great offense. Eight of last year’s starters were sophomores, so Eastern’s offense is pretty well locked up until 2006.

But that’s why it seems strange to have multiple coaches handle offensive coordinator duties.

If you have that much talent on offense and 10 coaches on your staff, why not let one guy focus just on offensive coordinating?

Well, no matter what the situation is on offense, the most important thing is that Eastern has identified and hopefully solved their biggest shortcoming from last season.

Dan Renick is a junior journalism major. If you want to tell him he’s “that guy” you can do so by e-mailing him at [email protected].