For a guy with motion sickness, Lucius Seymour can really move. Just ask Eastern Kentucky about the Panthers’ junior linebacker.

Against the Colonels, Seymour recovered a fumble and scampered 12 yards for the Panthers’ first score. He recorded 11 tackles, nine solo, to lead his team. Two tackles were for a loss of yards. And, he intercepted a pass and returned it 16 yards.

On the whole, it wasn’t too bad of a day for a player who can’t handle too much motion.

On planes, he needs to take Dramamine to combat motion sickness. He even had to quit playing his favorite video game, Grand Theft Auto, because the panoramic views bothered him.

Ironically, when Seymour’s on the field, he’s anything but stationary – he’s a blur.

Defensive coordinator Roc Bellantoni said Seymour possesses intangibles. Combine them with his athleticism, and he becomes a special player.

“He’s just a football player. He’s got instincts; he knows the game,” Bellantoni said. “He could probably play any position on the field, with the exception of the defensive line -he’s got that kind of speed.

“He finds the ball. And, when you’re around the ball, good things happen.”

But when he arrived in Charleston from Del Ray Beach, Fla., Seymour had a lot to prove. And he had to do it with an unfortunate-sounding name.

See, Lucius Seymour was Lucius Pusey. In Florida, he was the only Lucius in town, and people knew him.

But, it wasn’t until he arrived on campus at Eastern when the joking began.

“You get mad about it, but then get you over it,” Seymour said. “If people know you, why would they tease you about your last name? Why would they sit there and say something about you when they don’t even know you or talk to you?

“Instead, they just look at your last name.”

So, he gave them a different name to look at. “I always had two last names because I had two birth certificates,” he said. “My Social Security card says Seymour. The hospital really screwed up all the paper work.

“So when I went home this summer, my mom was like ‘Go ahead and change it.'”

And he did, taking his mother’s last name for his own. But the name wasn’t Eastern head coach Bob Spoo’s concern. Seymour’s size, though, was an issue. At 5-foot-10, he’s shorter than most linebackers. And when he began his career at Eastern, he weighed just 183 pounds.

“The concern was always ‘is he big enough to play at this level?'” said Eastern head coach Bob Spoo, who was quickly convinced Seymour’s size was not an issue.

“It’s the heart of the guy,” Spoo said. “People say, ‘Well, you’re too short to be a linebacker.’ But, he refutes that by simply saying he plays with his heart.

“He’s got great courage out there.”

While Seymour couldn’t get taller, he did get bigger, gaining 30 pounds to make him a strong 213 pounds.

To gain the weight, Seymour would spend hours in the weight room, eating four or five meals per day. And in between meals, he’d drink shakes.

Seymour also had to adjust to Midwestern weather, something he learned about the first time the temperature dropped below zero. “My nose froze, and I never experienced it before,” he said. “I walked right back into the dorm and said ‘I cannot go to school today.'”

He learned to like the cold, and as he continued to settle in, he moved up Eastern’s depth chart.

Seymour made an impact as a sophomore, recording 80 tackles, 18th-best in the Ohio Valley Conference.

And in his junior season, Seymour has made a bigger impact, both on the field and as a leader.

On the field, he’s Eastern’s second-leading tackler with 56 – third in the OVC. His seven tackles for losses leads a near-dominant Panther defense.

And now that he’s a year older, he’s relishing the chance to set a positive example for his teammates.

“It’s just more I know about football and my position that I can teach to people under me and let them follow me and learn from me as a leader,” Seymour said. “I try to teach them everything I know.

“When I leave, I know I want them to be better than me.”

But he’s not ready to step aside yet. Seymour loves playing linebacker, scrambling between rushing and passing assignments.

He said his spot in between the defensive line and the secondary, gives him room to make play.

“It’s like being the heart of the defense.”