Follow this week (April 7-11) for Eastern Illinois Football Spring Position Previews with EIU Spring Game set for Saturday, April 26 at 11 a.m. at O'Brien Field.
 
April 7 - Quarterbacks
 
Eastern Illinois football must replace veteran quarterback Pierce Holley as the Panthers will use spring football practice looking for a new signal caller to emerge.
 
Holley started every game over the last two seasons becoming just the fourth quarterback in school history to through for more than 3,000 yards in a season last year.
 
Based on Holley's durability under center, the returning quarterback room members have a combined five college games played with stats of 8-for-20 with 69 yards.
 
Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Kyle Derickson had this to say about his position group and his prospects for the offense this spring.
 
"I'm truly excited about this Spring in the QB room as it will be defined by competition," said Derickson.  "Everyone will get an opportunity to show what they can do, and competition should bring out the best in what I believe is a talented but unproven group."
 
Blainey Dowling was the primary back-up last year appearing in four games with his most extensive action in the season finale at Tennessee Tech when Holley missed portions of the game with an injury.   Dowling was 8-of-16 for 69 yards for the season.
 
Kevin Conway is the other returning player in the room having played in one contest during the 2022 season going 0-for-4 in that appearance.
 
Additional returning players in the quarterback room are Connor Wolf who redshirted as a freshman last season and Joey Sprinkle, a transfer from St. Ambrose where he played two seasons before redshirting as a transfer last year at EIU.
 
New to the room this spring is Wisconsin transfer Cole LaCrue who was rated a 3-start prospect out of high school (Broomfield, Colo.) before attending Wisconsin that last two seasons.
 
"Offensively, I'm looking forward to seeing immense growth from some of our younger players and leadership from our older ones. Much like the QB room, every room has opportunities for competition, and I'm looking forward to watching our guys push each other daily on the field and in the film room the same way they have in the weight room up to this point. We lost some major contributors from last year, but it looks like we have a bunch of hungry athletes up to the challenge to fill those spots and take advantage of their opportunity," added Derickson.