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Eastern Illinois (1-7, 0-6 OVC) at Austin Peay (2-6, 2-3 OVC)
Governors Stadium (10,000)   •   Clarksville, Tenn.
October 29, 2011   •   4 pm   •   TV: None

THE GAME
Eastern Illinois enters its game with Austin Peay looking to snap a six-game Ohio Valley Conference losing streak for the second straight season.  Last year EIU beat Austin Peay on Oct. 30 and Tennessee State the following week to finish the 2010 season with a 2-6 OVC record. 

EIU faces a similar task this year as they play at Austin Peay this week with an 0-6 OVC start and end conference action on Nov. 5 hosting Tennessee State.  The Panthers are coming off a 24-23 loss to UT Martin which marks the third time this year that EIU has lost an OVC contest by seven points or less.

Austin Peay started the OVC season with a 2-0 record but has since lost three straight in the league including a 17-13 loss at Southeast Missouri on Saturday.  APSU is now 2-5 overall which includes a pair of losses to FBS members Cincinnati (72-10) and Memphis (27-6).

THE SERIES
This will be the 12th meeting between Eastern Illinois and Austin Peay.  The Panthers hold a 8-3 series lead including wins in 2009 at Austin Peay (30-20) and last year in Charleston (28-10).  The Panthers first six meetings with APSU were non-conference meetings before EIU won in 1996 and 1997 as an OVC member.  APSU dropped scholarship football from 1998-2006.  The two schools did not meet in 2007 and APSU won 15-13 in Charleston in 2008.

• Eastern Illinois will play in its third straight homecoming contest when the Panthers play at Austin Peay on Saturday.  EIU started the three game homecoming run serving as the guests at Murray State on Oct. 15.  MSU won that contest 36-27 scoring a final touchdown with one second remaining.  UT Martin was EIU's homecoming opponent on Oct. 22 with the Skyhawks escaping with a 24-23 win over the Panthers.

• Artavious Dowdell became only the third player this season to sack UT Martin quarterback Derek Carr when he picked up the sack in the second quarter.  Dowdell now has 3 sacks on the season and 10.5 for his career.  Dowdell added two tackles for loss improving his career total to 22 tackles for loss.  The junior defensive end needs four more tackles for loss to catch Keith Wojnowski (1980-82) for 10th on the career list at 26.

• Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo enters the game with Austin Peay having attempted 69 straight passes without an interception after going 27-of-36 against UT Martin on Saturday.  The sophomore was 18-of-31 without an interception at Murray State as he now leads the OVC in passing efficiency at 140.97.  It is the longest stretch of his career without an interception.

• Jimmy Garoppolo hit three different receivers for touchdowns on Saturday as he moved his career touchdown passes total to 31 passing Ron Gustafson (1969-71) for 7th place.  Garoppolo needs one more touchdown pass to match Mike Simpson (1996-97) for 6th on the career list.  In addition to career touchdown passes, the sophomore signal caller is on the verge of cracking several other single season and career record book lists.  Garoppolo should join the EIU career top ten for passing yardage during the Panthers contest at Austin Peay.  He needs 54 yards to move into 10th on the career passing yardage list.  On Saturday Garoppolo will quickly move into the single season list for pass completions as he needs just four to move into 10th place and six to move into 9th.  He needs 220 yards to catch Eric Arnold for 10th on the single season passing yards list and needs 30 passing attempts to move into 10th on the single season pass attempts chart. 

• Chris Wright hauled in his eighth touchdown pass of the season in the first quarter against UT Martin.  That grab moved Wright into a three-way tie for 9th on the EIU single season touchdown reception list with Frank Cutolo (2001) and Roger Holoman (1981).  With one more touchdown reception he would move into a four-way tie for sixth with Micah Rucker (2007), Ralph Stewart (1988) and Roy Banks (1985) with nine.  Wright's career touchdown reception total now stands at 18 which is tied with Ryan Voss (2003-06) for 8th on EIU's career list.  Wright has caught at least one touchdown in six of the Panthers eight games.  He leads the team with 48 points and is on pace to become only the second wide receiver to lead the team in scoring since the 1989 season.  The other was Micah Rucker with 78 points in 2006.

• Jake Walker finished with 26 yards rushing on 12 attempts on Saturday against UT Martin as he was the only EIU player to finish with positive rushing yards.  The Panthers ended the day with negative five rushing yards, their third worst performance in school history.  It also marked the second time this season that EIU has finished a game with negative rushing yards.  Walker leads the squad on the season with 280 yards as EIU has 546 as a team.  Since 1962 EIU has had five players lead the team in rushing finish with 400 yards or less during the season.  The lowest total was 307 yards by Lynn Strack in 1964 on 78 carries.  The lowest team total for a season since 1963 is 517 yards in 1984.  DuWayne Pitts was the leading rusher that season with 362 yards on the ground.

• Cory Leman is on the verge of cracking the Panthers career top ten for tackles as he needs four more stops to join Donald Thomas (2004-07) and James Dorsey (1992-95) in 10th place with 300 career tackles.  Leman enters with 296 tackles including 134 solo stops.  Leman is 37th in the NCAA and 3rd in the OVC at 9.62 tackles per game.  With 11 tackles at Austin Peay, Leman would catch John Noll (1987-90) for 9th place on the Panthers career list.  Leman has eight career games with 11 or more tackles.

• Kicker Cameron Berra knocked home his fourth field goal of the season against UT Martin.  Berra is now 4-of-6 on the season with a long field goal of 33 yards.  For his career Berra has knocked home 12-of-17 field goals as he needs two more to catch Austin Signor (2008-09) for 10th on the EIU career field goals made list.  Berra's career long is 43 yards at Tennessee Tech in last year.

• Eastern Illinois pass defense continues to be a bright spot for the Panthers as they rank 9th in the nation and 1st in the OVC.  EIU is allowing only 168.2 yards per game through the air.  The Panthers held UT Martin's Derek Carr to only 124 yards passing on Saturday which was 125 yards below his season average.  The previous week EIU held Murray State's Casey Brockman to only 207 yards passing, 121 yards below his season average.  Five times this season EIU has held opponents to 135 yards passing or less.  The season low is 117 yards by Northwestern.  The season high against EIU is 243 by Illinois State.

• Junior Jake Mitchell and redshirt freshman DJ Bland each broke up two passes on Saturday against UT Martin as the Panthers had four pass break-ups for the second straight week.  The season high was five in the opener against Illinois State.  Nick Beard is the team leader with four pass break-ups this season followed by James Cooper with three.  The Panthers have 18 pass break ups as a team.  Nick Martinez is the only EIU player with an interception this year picking off two passes in the opener against ISU.

• Eastern Illinois continues to lead the Ohio Valley Conference in kick return average as the Panthers rank 11th in the NCAA averaging 24 yards per return.  Tavares Crawford is 16th in the nation at 27.1 yards per return including an 83-yard kick off return for touchdown at Southeast Missouri. 

• Cory Leman, Antonio Taylor and Nick Beard are all dead locked for the team lead in solo tackles as they rank first, second and third in total tackles on the team.  All three players have picked up 38 solo tackles on the year.  Nick Nasti was the team leader in solo tackles last season with 47.  The last player to finish with more than 50 solo tackles in a season was Clint Sellers in 2005 when he finished with 88 solo tackles en route to OVC Defensive Player of the Year honors.  Leman has 77 total tackles and ranks 3rd in the OVC.  Taylor has 70 total tackles to rank 4th in the OVC.  Beard has 52 tackles on the year.

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 24th season on the sidelines and 25th season overall.  Spoo missed the 2006 season with a medical illness.  His career record is 143-129-1 at EIU including a 67-43 mark in OVC action.  In November of 2010 Spoo announced that the 2011 season would be his final year of coaching ending a 25-year run as the Panthers head coach and a 50-year span of coaching at both the high school and collegiate level.  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.  In 2009 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.

• 2011 marks 25th season as EIU head coach
• 2011 marks 50th season in coaching profession
  (started at Fenwick HS in Chicago in 1961)
• Ranks 5th in NCAA FCS playoff appearances with 9
• Ranks 5th among active FCS coaches with FCS (only) wins
• Ranks 4th in OVC wins with 67
• OVC Coach of the Year - 2001, 2005, 2009
• Football Gazette I-AA Coach of the Year in 1995
• Runner-up for Eddie Robinson FCS Coach of the Year in 2000

AUSTIN PEAY HEAD COACH RICK CHRISTOPHEL
Rick Christophel returned to his alma mater in 2007 as the Governors returned to playing scholarship football in the Ohio Valley Conference.  APSU made an immediate splash finishing at 7-4, 5-3 in the OVC during that first season back in the league.  His career record is 18-34 including a 13-24 mark in the OVC.  Christophel graduated from APSU in 1975 and was a long time assistant coach under Watson Brown at UAB before taking over at Austin Peay.

SCOUTING AUSTIN PEAY
Austin Peay features a balanced attack with Ryan White pacing the ground game and Jake Ryan leading the passing game.  White is 36th in the nation in rushing averaging 86.7 yards per game.  Ryan has passed for 1,275 yards with ten touchdowns but has been intercepted a league high 12 times.  Devin Stark has been the favorite receiver with 38 grabs for 467 yards and five touchdowns.  Amius Smith is among the leaders on defense with 53 tackles including 7.5 tackles for loss.

ON THIS DATE IN EIU HISTORY
October 29, 1994 - Quarterback Pete Mauch came off the bench in the second quarter throwing for 200 yards and three touchdowns as the Panthers rallied for a 30-21 win over Indiana State.  The win sparked EIU to four straight victories to finish at 6-5 and save head coach Bob Spoo's job.  Mauch was 11-of-16 in the game as EIU racked up 436 yards of total offense against the league's number one defense.