Jeff LePak transferred to Eastern in 2012 from Baylor, where he built a relationship with a familiar face in Charleston.

LePak walked on to the campus in Waco, Texas, and then walked on the Baylor football team where Dino Babers served as the special teams coordinator and coached the wide receivers.

Three seasons later, one season after Babers’ first year as Eastern’s coach, the two men reunited in Central Illinois.

“He was excited to contact me and I was happy to have him because I knew the kind of work ethic he has and I knew he would be a positive role model not only on the football team but in the community as well,” Babers said.

While at Baylor, LePak appeared in one game as a red-shirt freshman. Despite not having much game experience in Baylor, LePak said it was Babers who gave him the hope to grow into a polished receiver.

He attended several football camps during the summer between his final year of high school and first year of college, which included a Baylor camp.

“Coach Babers came up to me after the camp and told me if I walked on there I would have an opportunity to learn and grow and get better and get on the field sometime in the four years that I could play.”

That opportunity presented itself in 2013, with his new team: Eastern.

But nothing was handed to red-shirt junior, who at 6-foot-6, stands above all of the Panthers’ wide receivers this season. 

Even after Eastern lost five of its six leading receivers from 2012, Babers said LePak had to earn his spot on the roster.

“It meant a lot that he came here after spending three years at Baylor, but I couldn’t promise him anything,” Babers said. “He came here as a walk-on and I wouldn’t give him any aid. I told him, ‘no promises, you have to come here and prove that you can play.’ He did that.”

To LePak, coming to Eastern meant more playing time and to be once again under the tutelage of Babers.

Babers runs an offense most similar to the one Baylor has and although it may not be at the same level as the Bears, it does have the same principles. LePak’s transition under Babers did not come as easy, though.

“I started the spring as a No. 2 and coach Babers told me that he wanted to see some improvement in my game, some things that I lost from the time he left from Baylor,” LePak said. “I had lost of the fundamentals and techniques that he had taught me.”

But LePak refined his skill set, the “tool belt” that the receivers learn, equipped with various techniques not privy to the public. 

Babers said LePak’s development since he arrived in Charleston deals more with what the receiver has learned in games than in watching film or practicing.

Heading into Saturday’s road game against Tennessee State, LePak started seven straight games as a part of Eastern’s starting four wide receivers. Those sevens games were the first starts of LePak’s collegiate career.

“You have to remember at Baylor he didn’t have a lot of opportunities to play in football games,” Babers said. “So, now he’s a starter, he’s playing in games and his responsibilities to the team have grown immensely and he has to meet those responsibilities.”

In an offense that leads the FCS in yards per game (592) and passing yards per game (408.9) LePak is fourth on the team in catches (24) receiving yards (361) and receiving touchdowns, (three) but he said he is willing to do whatever it takes to help Eastern win games.

“A lot of my job is getting other people open and sometimes I put my hands on the dirt and block for the running backs,” LePak said.

In Nashville, Tenn., against the No. 2 defense in the FCS, LePak was the one getting open. Wide open.

Before Eastern’s game against Tennessee State, LePak had one touchdown on the season, coming against Eastern Kentucky in the Panthers’ OVC opener on Sept. 28. Against the Tigers, who allowed 154.1 passing yards in their first eight games, LePak had a career-high 112 yards and two touchdowns.

This is where the “tool belt” came in handy for LePak.

“You have to have specific tools, specific tricks of the trade to get open against man-coverage and that’s what we’ve been trained for,” he said.On his first touchdown against the Tigers, LePak was able to get open against their cover-zero, where man-coverage was put on all Eastern receivers and a blitz was unleashed upon Panthers’ quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.

Sterlin Gilbert, Eastern’s offensive coordinator and quarterback’s coach, and Garoppolo recognized the Tennessee State defense and called a play on fourth down and four yards to go that ended up with the Panthers’ third touchdown of the half.

“It was just a rub play between me and Erik (Lora),” LePak said. “I took two steps up, vertical, and then went to rub Erik’s man and both Erik’s man and my man came off on Erik and left me wide open.”

Even as LePak was running down the field open, he said he saw Garoppolo look at Lora first.

“I was just praying (Garoppolo) got the ball to me in time before someone got to him,” LePak said.

Garoppolo did and LePak ran in, untouched for a 34-yard touchdown.

LePak’s second touchdown of the game involved a little bit of acting on the field. A fake-switch screen was run near the sideline to Keiondre Gober. Once the Tigers’ bit on the fake LePak ran down the field, where Garoppolo once again connected with the tall wide receiver for a 25-yard touchdown.

“Coach Babers always talks about how we have to sell it, how we have to be the best selling group in the country to get open sometimes,” LePak said. “So, we sold the switch screen and Jimmy (Garoppolo) found me in the seam.”

LePak and the rest of the Panthers remain focused on the remainder of their OVC schedule and are hopeful for a deep run in the FCS playoffs. 

If Babers, who has coached five NFL wide receivers from Baylor, is busy and cannot answer a question from LePak, then he can knock on the door of his roommate, who just happens to be the OVC’s all-time leader in receptions for some advice, that being Erik Lora.

Aldo Soto can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].