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Eastern Illinois vs. Charleston Southern
O'Brien Field (10,000)  •   Charleston, Ill.
November 16, 2024  •   12 pm   •   TV: ESPN+ 

GAME INFO
EIU Game Notes  |  CSU Notes  |  Listen Panther Radio Network  |  Live Stats  |  Watch ESPN+

NOTES TO KNOW
• Eastern Illinois plays its final home game of the 2024 season as the Panthers host the southern most school in the Big South OVC in Charleston Southern.  This will be the first meeting between the two schools who have both suffered a handful of close loses that sees both of them at the bottom of the conference standings.   EIU is coming off a road loss at Gardner-Webb while Charleston Southern lost its final home game to UT Martin.  The Panthers will honor 27 members of this year's senior class prior to the start of the contest.  

• Cooper Willman landed himself in the record books on Saturday as the wide receiver finished with a school record 291 yards receiving on 11 catches with three touchdowns.  More impressive is that he had just two catches for 39 yards at halftime, so did the bulk of his damage in the second half.  The 291 yards is the most in the FCS this season and is the record of the two-year old Big South OVC Football Association.  The total ranks third all-time in OVC history with the two other games both over 300 yards.  Willman broke the record set by Erik Lora (269) during the 2012 season and during the game became the 35th player in school history with more than 1,000 receiving yards in his career.  Willman has now has 55 receptions for 853 yards and eight touchdowns ranking in the FCS Top 15 in both receptions (13th) and receiving yards (15th) this year.   Willman is looking to post just the 10th 1,000 yard receiving season in EIU history needing 147 more yards this season.

• Pierce Holley passed for more than 300 yards in a game for the sixth straight week finishing with 458 yards on Saturday at Gardner-Webb.  It was the sixth most passing yards in a game by a Panthers quarterback as Holley has now passed for 2,828 yards this season.  He is on the verge of becoming just the fourth quarterback in program history to pass for 3,000 yards in a season joining Sean Payton, Tony Romo and Jimmy Garoppolo (combined six times among those three).  With two games remaining in the regular season, Holley is chasing the career 10,000 yards passing mark (has 9,746) along with landing high both the EIU single season and career record top ten lists. 

• CJ Nelson became an underlying story on Saturday as the transfer receiver had his best day in a Panthers uniform finishing with 101 yards on five catches with a touchdown.  Nelson has appeared in nine games this season with two starts at Tennessee State and at Gardner-Webb.  He has 17 receptions for 250 yards, a 14.7 yards per catch average.  Nelson becomes the fifth different EIU player to record a 100-yard receiving game this season joining Cooper Willman (3), Quenton Rogers, Alex Ginnever and Terrance Gipson.