In Eastern’s 43-14 trouncing of Samford on Saturday, there were a number of things to be happy about compared to the loss a week before.

Eastern controlled the ball with the offense on the field nearly twice as much as Samford. The defensive line stepped up putting consistent pressure on the quarterback and shutting down the Bulldogs’ running game, allowing just 61 yards.

On the flip side, the Eastern rushing game had its first big game of the season, amassing 211 yards on the ground.

However, the most impressive performance I saw came from the Panthers’ special teams, especially when you consider where they were a year ago.

“We’ve made considerable progress for one particular reason, and that’s our special teams coordinator Jeff Choate,” Eastern head coach Bob Spoo said. “When you hire a guy like that, that is that dynamic, he makes the kids that dynamic.”

Last season the punt team had a number of problems getting kicks off, but this season it could possibly be one of the strongest special team units. Eastern’s special team coordinator Jeff Choate is doing a great job adapting the Panthers to the roll-out rugby style punt that senior Tom Schofield has used to drop 11 punts inside the 20 this season.

On Saturday, Schofield put a punt down right inside the five into the waiting hands of junior receiver Ryan Voss. It pretty much looked like a long ball perfectly placed for Voss to run under.

On the next play, sophomore defensive tackle Tim Kelly broke into the backfield and stuffed up the run for a safety.

On the other side of the kicking game, freshmen Tyler Wilke and Zach Yates are having no trouble filling in for the injured Steve Kuehn. Wilke nailed a 45-yard kick to open the scoring for Eastern, and the boot looked like it would have been good from five yards back.

Eastern’s kick returners racked up big yards for the Panthers, setting them up with good field position all day.

Freshman wide receiver Adam Kessler came out of nowhere as an additional spark on Eastern returns. Kessler had a 57-yard kick return and jumped up after every one of his returns, clapping his hands and pumping up the Panthers.

In all, the Panthers averaged 28.5 yards on kick returns.

With the way the Panther offense and defense were playing yesterday, the special teams flew under the radar.

But at one point this season there will come a time, there will come a game when Eastern’s special teams will win a game, and that’s the sign of a team that’s a contender.

Dan Renick is a senior journalism major. If you want to discuss why he often feels special you can do so at [email protected].