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Eastern Illinois (2-8, 1-7 OVC) at Southern Illinois (2-7, 1-6 MVFC)
Saluki Stadium (15,000)   •   Carbondale, Ill.
November 12, 2011   •   2 pm   •   TV: None

THE GAME
Eastern Illinois will close out the Bob Spoo era on Saturday afternoon at Southern Illinois.  This will mark the final game by the long time coach ending a 25-year run at EIU and a 50-year career in the coaching profession.

EIU fell one point short in its final home game losing 18-17 to Tennessee State on Saturday.  The Panthers finish the year at 1-7 in the OVC and 9th in the conference race.  The Panthers would like to send out their coach with a season ending win which would give him 145 victories for his career.

Southern Illinois enters the game with a 2-7 overall record having lost six straight games.  The Salukis will wrap up the season on Nov. 19 at Indiana State.  SIU is playing its second season in the new Saluki Stadium.  EIU's played 34 games at the old McAndrew Stadium and will making its first visit to Saluki Stadium.  This is the first game of a four-year home-and-home series.

THE SERIES
This will be the 61st meeting between Eastern Illinois and Southern Illinois.  The two schools first met in 1913 with EIU winning 54-12.  The two schools played routinely until SIU moved up to Division I in the early 1960's.  SIU leads the all-time series 37-22-1 including three straight wins in the series all coming in the NCAA FCS playoffs.  The last regular season meeting between the two schools was in 2001, a 49-21 EIU win in Carbondale.

• Eastern Illinois was stopped on a fourth-and-one inside the Tennessee State 25 yard line with just under five minutes remaining.  TSU would drive the length of the field on the next drive to pick up the 18-17 win over EIU.  The game served as the Bob Spoo Legacy Game where the Panthers honored the long time head coach following the game.  On hand to honor Spoo were more than 100 former players spanning his 25-year EIU career.

• Eastern Illinois will end a season at Southern Illinois for the third time in the last five years when the two squads meet on Saturday.  The previous two meetings took place in the NCAA FCS playoffs with SIU winning 30-11 in 2007 and 48-7 in 2009.  EIU and SIU also met in the 2005 playoffs with the Salukis winning 21-6 at O'Brien Field. 

• EIU is 13-10 in regular season finales under head coach Bob Spoo.  The Panthers have lost their last two regular season finales falling to Tennessee State in 2009 and at Illinois State in 2010.  EIU has previously wrapped up a regular season two times against Southern Illinois beating the Salukis to end both the 1993 and 1994 seasons. 

• Eastern Illinois pass defense held an opponent below 125 yards passing for the fourth time this season as they limited Tennessee State to just 118 yards passing on Saturday.  The Panthers best passing defensive effort was the previous week when they held Austin Peay to only 111 yards passing during a 19-10 EIU victory.  The Panthers rank first in the OVC in pass defense and 8th nationally allowing only 157 yards per contest.

• EIU lost by one point against Tennessee State on Saturday marking the second time this season that EIU has fallen by just one point.  The previous defeat was a 24-23 set back to UT Martin on EIU's homecoming Oct. 22.  All told the Panthers have lost four games this season by seven points or less.  In 1999 the Panthers finished at 2-10 overall losing four games by seven points or less.  In 1991 the Panthers posted a 4-7 record losing four games by one point.

• With the special ceremonies surrounding head coach Bob Spoo's final home game, the Panthers had an announced crowd of 6,774 at the game which brought the Panthers season average to 7,587 fans per game.  The high game of the season was the season opening Mid-America Classic against Illinois State with 9,111 fans at O'Brien.  EIU drew 9,063 fans for its family weekend contest with Eastern Kentucky.  The 7,587 fans per game is the second highest season average for EIU since the 1999 season.  The highest in that time span was 7,769 during the 2009 season.  EIU has also averaged over 7,000 fans during the 2007 season (7,412) and 2002 season (7,006).

• Eastern Illinois wide receiver Chris Wright extended his string of consecutive games with a touchdown reception to four straight with a 13-yard reception from Jimmy Garoppolo against Tennessee State.  Wright now has ten touchdowns on the season which is sixth on the EIU single season list.  Wright needs one more touchdown reception this season to tie Roy Banks in fifth place, Banks hauled in 11 touchdown passes in 1986.  Wright's touchdown grab moved his career total to 20 as he ranks 8th on that career list.  He needs one more touchdown catch to move into a tie for sixth place with Jerry Wright (1981-84) and Willie White (1970-73).  Wright is currently 13th among active FCS players in touchdown receptions.  He has caught at least one pass in 21 straight games.

• Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo also moved up a few rungs on the single season and career passing charts during the contest with Tennessee State.  Garoppolo now has 32 career touchdowns which ranks sixth on the career list.  He would need three touchdowns to catch Steve Turk for fifth place.  Against TSU the sophomore moved over the 4,000 yards passing mark for his career as he ranks seventh on EIU's career list with 4,007.  He needs 12 pass completions to move into a tie with Mike Simpson on the career list.  Garoppolo needs 122 yards of total offense to move into 10th place on that career chart again tying Simpson.  On the single season chart Garoppolo's 19th touchdown pass of the season moved him into a tie for 10th place.  He jumped up to 7th on the single season completions list with 195 and climbed to 9th on the passing yardage chart with 2,368.

• Cameron Berra moved himself up the career charts in field goals made as he knocked home a 37-yard attempt against Tennessee State.  Berra now has 15 made field goals for his career and is tied with Ray D'Alessio for 9th place on the career chart.  Berra is 15-of-20 for this career with a long of 43 coming at Tennessee Tech in 2010.  The 75 percent connection rate moves Berra into first place on the EIU career field goal percentage list passing Zach Yates who made 21-of-29 for 72.4 percent.  Berra is 7-of-9 this season with the 37-yarder this weekend ranking as his season long.  He has now made a field goal in three straight games and five of his last six games.  Berra is 24-of-26 on extra points this year.

• Senior linebacker Cory Leman jumped into the career top ten for tackles during the win at Austin Peay two weeks ago.  On Saturday against Tennessee State he continued his climb up the career list as he passed John Noll and John Jurkovic to cement himself in the number eight spot for career tackles.  Leman enters the Southern Illinois game with 314 career tackles.  He will not catch Fred Miller and Tyrone Covington who are tied for sixth with 344 tackles.  Leman has a chance to also move into the career top ten for solo tackles.  Leman has made 148 career solo stops and needs eight more to catch Donald Thomas for 10th place.  In addition to his success on the field this season Leman has been named a semifinalist for the William Campbell Award presented to the nation's top academic football player.  Recently he was named one of ten finalists for the ARA Sportsmanship Award presented to the Division I player who best personifies the spirit of sportsmanship both in and out of the class room.

• Punter Scott Weatherford did a good job of negating one of the best punt return teams in the nation as Tennessee State was unable to field and return a punt against the Panthers on Saturday.  Weatherford averaged 51.5 yards per punt with a long punt of 62 yards and two punts inside the 20.  He was named a College Performance Award Top Punter for the week based on his efforts. 

• Eastern Illinois defense ended an interception drought as they picked off two passes against Tennessee State.  EIU had not had a pass interception since the season opener when Nick Martinez had a pair of interceptions in the win over Illinois State.  On Saturday both Antonio Taylor and Pat Wertz had their first career interceptions with both players returning the picks 16 yards.

• Running back Jake Walker cracked the century mark for the second straight week as the junior finished the Tennessee State game with 109 yards on the ground.  Walker's touchdown in the third quarter was his seventh rushing touchdown of the year and the third straight game in which he has scored at least one touchdown.  Walker has 513 yards on the season and 693 yards for his EIU career.  Walker became the first running back in 30 games to have back-to-back 100 yard games.  The last was Mon Williams in the second and third games of the 2009 season against Indiana State and Southeast Missouri.

• Eastern Illinois continues to lead the Ohio Valley Conference in kick off return yardage as the Panthers average 23.3 yards per kick return this season.  Sophomore Tavares Crawford is ranked 25th in the nation and second in the OVC at 25.6 yards per kick return.  He has one kick off return for a touchdown (83 yards) at Southeast Missouri. 

• EIU's offense scored a touchdown for the 27th straight game as the Panthers had touchdowns by Chris Wright and Jake Walker.  The streak is the second longest active streak in the OVC.  The last time EIU did not score a touchdown was in 2009 at Penn State.  Prior to the game against the Nittany Lions, EIU had scored a touchdown in 26 straight games.

• EIU played with a banged up offensive line on Saturday as junior Shane Kelly earned his first career start at right tackle.  Kelly was placed in the starting line-up after Colin Seibert had to miss the game due to a death in the family.  The Panthers did regain the services of right guard Alex Pierce who had missed the Austin Peay game with an injury.  The other three starters have remained constant on the season with Dominic Pagliara, Eric Zink and Kevin Kapellas starting all ten games.

• Senior Gordy Kickels had a solid game in his final contest at O'Brien Field.  Kickels recorded a career high 15 tackles including 1.5 tackles for loss against Tennessee State.  It was the second time this season that Kickels has finished with double figure tackles.  He had 11 in the contest at Northwestern.

• Artavious Dowdell continues his chase to join the career top ten for tackles for loss.  Dowdell needs two tackles for loss to catch Keith Wojnowski for 10th place on the career list.  He currently leads EIU with 7.5 tackles for loss.  He is the team leader with five sacks this year which ranks second in the OVC.  Dowdell needs three sacks to tie Pierre Walters for 10th in career sacks.

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 144-130-1 at EIU including a 68-44 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 68
• 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

SOUTHERN ILLINOIS HEAD COACH DALE LENNON
Southern Illinois head coach Dale Lennon is in his fourth season leading the Salukis program.  Lennon took over in 2008 and led the Salukis to a 20-5 record his first two seasons with back-to-back NCAA FCS playoff berths.  His record at SIU now stands at 27-18 while his career record is 129-50 which includes previous coaching stints at Mary and North Dakota.  His 2001 North Dakota squad won the NCAA Division II National Championship.  Lennon played running back at North Dakota graduating in 1983.

SCOUTING SOUTHERN ILLINOIS
Southern Illinois opened the season as a team to watch in the Missouri Valley Football Conference including holding a national ranking until mid-October.  The Salukis have had injuries at the quarterback position with sophomore Kory Faulkner taking over the duties.  He has passed for 1,096 yards while rushing for 178.  Jewel Hampton is the Salukis top ground gainer at 833 yards.  Kayon Swanson leads the defense with 46 tackles including 8.5 tackles for loss. 

ON THIS DATE IN EIU HISTORY
November 12, 2005 - Quarterback Mike Donato passed for a season high 327 yards including a pair of touchdowns as Eastern Illinois beat Tennessee Tech 31-20 to claim a share of the Ohio Valley Conference title.  Ryan Voss was Donato's favorite target on the day catching five passes for 124 yards with two touchdown receptions.