Panthers have

desired

game plan

Two workdays are in the books on the practice field and buzz is starting to build the Panthers heading west to play No. 9 Iowa in Kinnick Stadium.

A great week of practice is almost in the books for the Eastern football team as they prepare for the Hawkeyes, who are ranked in the top ten in both the AP Poll and USA Today Poll.

The Panthers had a walk-through Sunday and put good film work in, as they study the tapes on their top-ten opponent.

Eastern offensive coordinator Roy Wittke said the team did a lot of good work Tuesday, which is the Panthers’ busiest working day of the week.

Eastern defensive coordinator Roc Bellantoni said practice has been going great, while the week is still young.

“We are definitely on track with what we have installed in practice and have the gameplan that we want,” Bellantoni said.

After practice Tuesday, Wittke said the team is in good spirits and excited for their Saturday date with the highly ranked Hawkeyes.

The team is ready play to get the season underway, but some players might be in over their heads come Saturday, in the environment of Kinnick Stadium, Iowa’s home field that holds 70,585 fans.

“Guys who didn’t play against Penn State will be in shellshock,” Bellantoni said. “The upperclassmen can definitely help the underclassmen.”

The experience of playing in that environment is good for the players, according to Bellantoni, but the Panthers also want to play their best.

To do that, the team has worked on the little things to begin this week; especially during the simulated game they had Saturday.

“Saturday was just to make sure that we were good transitioning personnel on and off the field,” Wittke said.

Also, the offense practiced plays such as two-point conversions and situations where the offense was backed up into its own endzone.

According to Wittke, everything went well. Now, the team will work for the rest of the week before they make the trip to Iowa City, Iowa.

The game will mark the first time Eastern has met Iowa, but not the first time the two head coaches – Bob Spoo and Kirk Ferentz – have met.

While being assistant coaches in the Big Ten, Spoo with Purdue and Ferentz with Iowa, the coaches met six times. Ferentz’ side won five times from 1981-1986.

They’ll meet again as head coaches at 11 a.m. Saturday right back where it all started – Kinnick Stadium.

Alex McNamee can be reached at 581-7944 or

[email protected].