At the podium during the introductory press conference, Dino Babers’ first day on the job, Eastern’s new head football coach promised changes in the team’s culture and attitude.

Since then, there has been a lot of talk about these changes.

Would they happen?

I’ve believed in Babers since he got the job last winter, but I didn’t know how drastic a change the team would go through–until after the Panthers’ week one win against Southern Illinois-Carbondale.

Sure, the team gained 522 total yards and scored 49 points–two things I can’t remember happening in the last three years–but more than their statistics, I was surprised to see how the team acted, and what Babers and his players said.

In the weight room for the postgame press conference, Babers took a couple minutes to look at the final statistics on paper before opening up to questions.

“Psh, nine punts,” Babers said under his breath, shaking his head.

Of all the stats he could’ve read out loud, Babers chose punts.

Eastern ran 92 plays, picked up 22 first downs, but punted nine times.

Babers wanted 31 first downs and zero punts.

This quick, seemingly meaningless line caught my attention more than anything else because some part of him expected more–or rather, fewer punts.

The same tone carried into the players’ interviews, with quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo and wide receiver Erik Lora.

They scored a lot of points, but not enough.

Both Garoppolo and Lora thought they’d score more.

The final stamp of the team’s culture and attitude change came while I was walking home after the interviews.

As I walked down the path by the soccer field, linebacker Antonio Taylor and a teammate pulled their car over. Taylor rolled down the window and started shouting at me – knowing exactly who I was.

“It’s a new era, baby! No more bad articles about us in the paper,” Taylor shouted as he laughed.

I had to give it up for what I’d just seen on the field –a shellacking of an otherwise good Carbondale football team.

“I didn’t expect that, man,” I said as I went up the window and shook his hand. “So are you guys going to promise to do that every game know?”

It’s one thing for a coach to make promises, but it’s quite another when his players start to make them, too.

“You know it, baby! All day! All day,” Taylor answered.

That’s all that needed to be said.

When players start to believe the promises a coach has been making, the culture and attitude of the team is changing.

Taylor definitely had his swagger that night.

Alex McNamee can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].