PROVE, Utah – Following his team’s 45-10 loss to BYU Saturday, Eastern junior linebacker Clint Sellers sat and began to remove his football cleats.

The shoulders on his white road jersey, now were a mixture of green and black, with dirt and grass stains covering his number. Sellers didn’t look like a player who could have done more.

But by the first words out of his mouth, it was clear he thought he should have.

“Too many missed tackles,” he said.

Sellers has become an impact player for the Eastern defense after just two games. In the Panthers’ debut, a 24-13 win over Indiana State, Sellers recorded 12 tackles, nine unassisted and one tackle for a loss, to go along with an interception. The performance earned him Ohio Valley Conference Newcomer of the Week honors.

In the loss to BYU, Sellers numbers were even gaudier -16 total tackles, nine solo, two for a loss and one sack. Oh, and he also forced a fumble on a tackle of BYU junior running back Curtis Brown.

But despite the performance, Sellers still focused on too many missed tackles.

“I’m hard on myself, and I think every player on defense is,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if you come out and get 23 tackles and five sacks if you don’t get the win.”

Whether after a hit that causes a mix of groans and “oh’s” in the press box (which he had one) or after recording his first sack of the year in the second quarter, Sellers has made one thing clear in his short Panther career – he will be noticed.

“I think one of the big things is I try to do is bring energy and excitement to whatever I do,” he said. “When you’re down 31-0, it’s hard to be like ‘Hey, we’re in this; let’s go.'”

Panther head coach Bob Spoo said he sensed some of his players were rattled playing a major Division I opponent in front of 52,630 people packed into LaVell Edwards Stadium.

But Sellers wasn’t one of them.

“I think we were intimidated. It just didn’t look like we could stand up to those guys in the first half,” Spoo said. “Clint Sellers is a guy who isn’t phased by that. He just plays the game hard, and he played well.”

Eastern defensive coordinator Roc Bellantoni said he saw Sellers miss a few tackles as well, but it didn’t stop him from being a factor for the Eastern defense for the second-straight week.

“Once he settled down, he played very well,” Bellantoni said. He’s going to be a great difference-maker for us. He makes big plays.”

And some of those big plays are simply big hits, an image Sellers is helping to brand the Panthers’ defense with.

“It’s not that we’re out there looking to kill someone on every play, but when you have a chance to make a play, we make it,” Sellers said. “It’s being as physical as you can because when an offense gets that tape, they’ll be like ‘Wow, those guys really hit.’

It was great last week, and I thought we were really physical today.”