Everything You Need to Know About the Eastern Illinois Defense
2017 record: 6-5 (5-3 Ohio Valley Conference)
Head coach: Kim Dameron
Defensive coordinator: Cary Fowler
After spending one year as a graduate assistant for Lou Holtz at Arkansas, Dameron has spent his entire coaching career on the defensive side of the ball. He has primarily been a secondary/safeties coach, including a stint at Ole Miss from 2008-2010, as well as a defensive coordinator.
Fowler is in entering his second season as the Panthers’ defensive coordinator. Prior to arriving at Eastern Illinois, he was a defensive coordinator at DIII Howard Payne for a year and the head coach at DII Tarleton State for six years. Fowler played for a coached under former Arkansas head coach Houston Nutt at Murray State in the 1990s.
2017 Stats (FCS rank, out of 123 teams)
Points allowed per game: 26.0 (62nd)
Yards allowed per game: 354.7 (51st)
Rushing yards allowed per game: 156.6 (66th)
Passing yards allowed per game: 198.1 (38th)
Opponents’ third down percentage: 32.7 percent (19th)
Turnovers forced: 20 (t-44th)
Defensive line
Eastern Illinois’ defensive line had an SEC flavor to it last year, with South Carolina transfer David Johnson and Vanderbilt transfer Mack Weaver making up half of it and starting all 11 games. They combined for 92 tackles – including 12.5 for loss and five sacks – as well as 12 quarterback hurries, with Johnson picking up all-conference honors.
The other half of the line is returning in 2018, as defensive tackle Terrell Greer and defensive end Josh Price accounted for 21 of the other 22 starts. They combined for 71 tackles, including 12.5 for loss and five sacks.
Taylon Shepard was the only other Panthers player to make a start on the defensive line last season. He is also coming back and has more experience than his lone 2017 start indicates. He made 10 starts in 2016 and is likely a frontrunner to replace Weaver as the other starting defensive tackle.
The defensive end spot vacated by Johnson could be filled by Tayler Arterburn – who played high school ball an hour and a half up the road from Fayetteville at Webb City, Mo. – or Levi Watson. They were the backups last season.
The Panthers also signed a pair of junior college defensive linemen in their 2018 class: Ryan Coleman fro Trinity Valley C.C. and James Ubaike from North Dakota College of Science.
Linebacker
It seems as though Eastern Illinois’ base defense is the nickel, meaning it uses five defensive backs and only two linebackers. The same two players started every game in 2017, but only one will be back this year.
Nick Horne led the Panthers in tackles (71) and tackles for loss (11.5), while also notching one sack, one interception, three pass breakups, four quarterback hurries, two forced fumbles and one fumble recovery. That helped him earn second-team all-conference honors, but he graduated.
Joe Caputo will likely fill the void as Eastern Illinois’ top tackler in 2018, as he started all 11 games last season and will be a fourth-year junior this year. He was fourth in tackles with 63 last year, including 6.5 for loss.
The Panthers also have Dytarious Johnson, a former three-star Michigan commitment who notched 53 tackles as a freshman backup in 2017. He will probably start alongside Caputo.
Secondary
Seven players started multiple games in Eastern Illinois’ secondary last season, with all but two of them being underclassmen.
Tray Mitchell, who started all 11 games and finished with the second most tackles on the team, and Bradley Dewberry, who started 10 games and finished third on the team in tackles to go along with three interceptions, were seniors. Dewberry was a second-team all-conference selection, giving Eastern Illinois one at each level of the defense.
The star of the secondary was Mark Williams, who made three interceptions and had eight pass breakups as a freshman. That earned him a spot on Phil Steele’s FCS Freshman All-America team.
DySaun Smith and Xzavier Shugars each have 10 career starts under their belt and combined for six pass breakups last season.
A pair of Arkansans made up the rest of the starts in the secondary. Corneliuss Page and Iziah Gulley played at Camden Fairview and combined for 10 starts last season. Another Arkansan could contribute in the secondary in 2018, as safety Darius Waddell from Sylvan Hill signed with the Panthers in February.
Punter
Eastern Illinois will have a new punter in 2018 because Cody Edwards was a fifth-year senior last season. He handled all 75 of the Panthers’ punts, so whoever wins the job this year will be very inexperienced.
One possibility is Nick Bruno, who was expected to be the starting kicker in 2017 before suffering a season-ending injury. He punted 37 times for an average of 33.9 yards his first two seasons, but hasn’t punted since 2015.
Although he didn’t punt any as a freshman, kicker Matt Severino is also listed as a punter on the roster.
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