The Eastern football team begins its season traveling to the Big Ten’s Minnesota and first-year head coach Kim Dameron knows the Golden Gophers are certainly big.

Minnesota’s five starting offensive linemen have an average height and weight of 6-foot-5, 314 pounds. The biggest of the big is red-shirt sophomore Jonah Pirsig, who is 6-foot-9, 320 pounds.

Eastern’s revamped defensive line goes up against an offensive unit that produced a 1,200-yard rusher last season in senior David Cobb.

“The biggest challenge is standing in there up front physically against this style of coming down hill at you kind of offense,” Dameron said. “That has to do with just how big of a boy you are, you know. We’ve got some big guys that we could put in there that are physical players.”

Minnesota’s power run game is the strength of its offense, with Cobb coming off his first year as a starter. He rushed for 1,202 yards, the first time a Gopher has run for more than 1,000 yards since Amir Pinnix in 2006.

Eastern has its own weapon at running back in red-shirt junior Shepard Little, who rushed for 1,551 yards last season along with 15 rushing touchdowns. He earned preseason All-Ohio Valley Conference honors as a running back and a special-teams specialist.

At quarterback, red-shirt sophomore Mitch Leidner will start for Minnesota.

Similar to what Eastern’s quarterback Jalen Whitlow is capable of, Leidner has the ability to run and do it often.

Last year, he played in 10 games, while starting four; Leidner tied Cobb for the team lead in rushing touchdowns at seven. He also finished the season with 407 rushing yards, which was second behind Cobb. The quarterback also completed 43-of-78 passes for 619 yards and three touchdowns and an interception.

Eastern senior defensive back Deonte Jackson said the Panthers’ defense is focusing on stopping the run game to make Minnesota have to go to its passing game.

“If we stop the run and make them pass – it’s something they weren’t too good at last year, which they put a lot of emphasis on improving this offseason, so we’ll see some of that but we have to stop the run first,” Jackson said.

Eastern’s 2013 season ended with Towson running back Terrance West scoring five rushing touchdowns, while eluding the Panthers’ defense for an FCS playoff record 356 rushing yards.

Jackson was on the field, as West led Towson past Eastern in the quarterfinals 49-39, but the defensive back said Cobb is the best running back he has witnessed in recent seasons.

“He’s a great running back, probably the best running back I’ve seen in the last couple of years that we have played against,” Jackson said.

That does not mean to say Jackson is taking any credit away from West, as he added that both running backs are comparable in size and skill. Jackson hopes that on Thursday Cobb will not be better than West, though.

“I don’t know, I guess we’re going to find out,” he said.

Eastern begins its 111th season of football, as kick off is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday at TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minn. The game will air on the Big Ten Network.

Aldo Soto (@AldoSoto21) can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].