GAME NOTES | IOWA GAME NOTES
No. 18/16 (FCS) Eastern Illinois at No. 9/10 (BCS) Iowa
Kinnick Stadium (70,585) • Iowa City, Iowa
September 4, 2010 • 11 a.m. • TV: Big Ten Network
THE GAME
Eastern Illinois will open the season on the road for the fourth time in the last six years when the Panthers kick off the 2010 season at Iowa. EIU is 3-2 in its last five openers with two of those wins at home. The last road win to open a season was in 2005 with a 24-13 victory at Indiana State.
EIU head coach Bob Spoo will be entering his 24th season as the Panthers head coach and his 23rd on the sidelines. Spoo missed the 2006 season following a surgery just prior to the start of the year. Spoo has guided EIU to the FCS playoffs nine times including seven of the past ten seasons.
The Panthers will be playing an FBS opponent for the 27th time including a fifth straight year against a Big Ten Conference foe. EIU has won four times against FBS schools with the last victory coming in 2004 against Eastern Michigan. All four FBS wins have come against schools currently in the Mid-American Conference.
THE SERIES
This will mark the first meeting between Eastern Illinois and Iowa. This will be EIU's fifth straight season it has played a member of the Big Ten Conference with previous trips to Illinois (2006, 2008), Purdue (2007) and Penn State (2009). EIU has previously played two Division I schools from the state of Iowa. The Panthers lost to Iowa State in 1991 and trail Northern Iowa (14-6-1) in the all-time series with most of those games played when the schools were members of the Gateway Conference. Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz and EIU head coach Bob Spoo have previously faced each other as Big Ten assistants with Ferentz holding a 5-1 series lead while working at Iowa from 1981-86 while Spoo was at Purdue.
EASTERN ILLINOIS HEAD COACH BOB SPOO
The dean of Ohio Valley Conference Coaches, Eastern Illinois head coach Bob Spoo returns to the sidelines for his 23rd season on the sidelines and 24th season overall. Spoo missed the 2006 season with a medical illness. His career record is 140-113-1 at EIU including a 65-31 mark in OVC action. Since taking over the program in 1987, Spoo has become one of the most respected coaches in the game with numerous assistants moving on to succeed at all levels of the coaching business. He was the 1995 Football Gazette I-AA Coach of the Year and runner-up for the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award in 2000. Last season he was named OVC Coach of the Year for the third time in his career and one of five finalists for the Liberty Mutual FCS Coach of the Year. A 1960 graduate of Purdue University, Spoo has coached the Panthers to 9 NCAA FCS playoff berths and eleven Top 25 national rankings. Spoo is currently tied for fourth among longest tenured active coaches at the NCAA Division I level and is fifth all-time in FCS playoff appearances.
IOWA HEAD COACH KIRK FERENTZ
Kirk Ferentz is in his 12th season as the head coach at Iowa. Last season Ferentz led the Hawkeyes to an 11-2 record including a win over Georgia Tech in the Orange Bowl. He was named the Big Ten Conference Coach of the Year for the third time in his career. A former head coach at FCS member Maine and assistant coach in the NFL, Ferentz has posted an 81-55 record at Iowa and a 93-76 overall record.
SCOUTING IOWA
Iowa will be the highest ranked team that Eastern Illinois has ever played when the two teams kick off the 2010 season on Sept. 4 at Kinnick Stadium. The Hawkeyes are ranked 9th in the Associated Press preseason poll and 10th in the USA Today Coaches preseason poll. The team returns quarterback Ricky Stanzi to guide an offense that averaged 23.2 points per game last season. The defense is paced by defensive lineman Adrian Clayborn who is on the preseason watch lists for the Lombardi and Nagurski Awards. Iowa was 11-2 last season winning the FedEX Orange Bowl over Georgia Tech, 24-14. Iowa Game Day Information.
EIU QUICK HITTERS
• Senior Rashad Haynes opens the season ranked 7th on the EIU career interceptions list with 10.
• RS-Sophomore Brandon Large has won the starting job at QB and will take his first Division I snap at Iowa. EIU currently does not have an active quarterback with a Division I snap to their credit.
• EIU will have three new starters on the offensive line, the lone returning starters are left guard Eric Zink and center Willie Henderson.
• Kinnick Stadium is named after 1939 Heisman Trophy winner Nile Kinnick. The stadium was renamed in 1972.
• Bob Spoo and Kirk Ferentz were both assistant coaches in the Big Ten from 1981-86. Spoo was the quarterback coach/offensive coordinator at Purdue while Ferentz was offensive line coach at Iowa.
• Wide receivers Charles Graves and Lorence Ricks both had games with more than 100 yards receiving last year. Graves had 109 against UT Martin while Ricks had 101 against Southeast Missouri.
• Running back Mon Williams will miss at least the first game of the 2010 season with a strained knee. Williams rushed for 870 yards last season including 107 in the FCS playoffs against Southern Illinois.
• EIU defensive coordinator Roc Bellantoni began his collegiate career at Buena Vista College in Iowa. He later worked as the defensive coordinator at Drake from 1998-2000.
• Former EIU player Brian Callahan has joined the Panthers staff as the offensive line coach. Callahan previously worked on the staff at Akron for six seasons before coming back to EIU. He graduated in 1992.
• Perry Burge and Artavious Dowdell will line up as the starting defensive ends for EIU at Iowa. Between the two of them they accounted for 8 of EIU's 24 sacks last season ranking first and second on the team.
• CJ James returned two interceptions for touchdowns last season which was tied for first nationally. Finished year with 152 interception return yards to rank fifth in the FCS.
• Starting linebackers Nick Nasti, Cory Leman and Gordy Kickels ranked 1, 2, 3 on the team tackles last year combining for 208 of the teams 801 total tackles (nearly 25 percent).
• Running back Jimmy Potempa led the Panthers with 32 receptions last year marking the first time since 2002 that a running back has led the team in pass receptions. Andre Raymond had 70 receptions in 2002.
• Iowa transfers Jake Christensen and Austin Signor helped EIU make its 13th FCS playoff appearance last season. Both players earned All-OVC honors with Christensen passing for 2,204 yards and 19 touchdowns. Signor was 14-of-22 on field goals and 34-of-34 on PAT's.EIU FOOTBALL
