EIU football added 56 new players in the offseason. The Panthers open the season Thursday at Murray State. (File)
Senior safety Saipeti Maiava, one of five Eastern Illinois captains, described the mentality driving a Panthers team that he says looks nothing like the one that finished 3-9 a year ago.
“We’re coming out guns blazing,” he said.
Under fifth-year head coach Chris Wilkerson, EIU enters the 2026 season with 56 new players. It’s a mix of four-year transfers, junior college additions and true freshmen filling out nearly half the roster.
That level of turnover could easily have produced chaos. Instead, it has helped Eastern produce its identity.
“We can do way more things this year on both sides of the ball than we were able to do last year,” linebacker and fellow captain Ja’Wuan Nickson said.
Nickson also mentioned that the defense is retooled by coordinator Andrew Strobel, as is the offensive side of the ball with coordinator Kyle Derickson.
Nine Panthers earned Phil Steele preseason All-Ohio Valley Conference recognition, led by center Rahfeeq Katumbusi (preseason third-team All-American) and Nickson, who racked up 95 tackles and eight and a half tackles for loss last season.
The offseason wasn’t without real hardship. A tornado tore through the area over the summer, and the program lost a former teammate. But, Wilkerson says navigating that adversity together only sped up the bonding process.
“We did have some moments of adversity during the summer that we navigated as a program, as a family, and as a team,” Wilkerson said. “I think that they’ve really grown together, so that’s a big part of it. But culture and chemistry do matter. And I think that one of the most important pieces is that our guys have done a very good job connecting.”
Half the roster arrived in December and went through winter conditioning, and spring ball and summer ball organized team activities together, meaning the newcomers hit fall camp with some knowledge in the playbook.
By the time fall camp was in full play, it became less about teaching and more about polishing. As Maiava said, fall camp was really just cleaning up the spring mistakes.
Leadership runs deep this year. Nickson and senior running back Charles Kellom were voted captains after the spring game. Three more captains, Maiava, Katumbusi and senior defensive lineman Aidan Archibald, came along after the team’s last mock scrimmage before competing against Murray State.
Nickson said he and Kellom made a pact during the summer: no more letting things slide the way they did during last year’s three-win season.
“We gotta learn how to finish,” he said, pointing to a rash of close losses in 2025 as the difference between respectability and irrelevance.
The numbers back that up. EIU was competitive in nearly every loss last fall.
A blocked field goal beat the Panthers at Charleston Southern, an overtime stop beat them against UT Martin and more than one result was just a missed kick away from flipping.
The Panthers finished 3-9 overall and 2-6 in the OVC-Big South despite ranking top-10 nationally in punt return defense and red-zone defense, and leading the conference in takeaways.
At quarterback, returning junior Cole LaCrue, who set the EIU single-game rushing record for a QB with 193 yards against Dayton, is in a genuine battle with Eastern Michigan transfer Jeremiah Salem.
Up front, Katumbusi anchors an offensive line getting reinforcements in left tackle Brandin Carpenter and transfers Jordan Yandila, David Trujillo and Cole Roberson.
At receiver, EIU lost its top four pass-catchers from a year ago but replaced them with two All-Conference transfers with Devin Whitlock and Samuel Gonzalez.
Defensively, Nickson anchors the front seven alongside returning defensive linemen Trevon Piggee and Archibald, while the secondary gets an overhaul led by transfers Nasir Maryland and Jerry Addo-Boateng at corner.
Wilkerson’s message all offseason has been fast, physical, fundamentally sound, and relentless effort. It stemmed from a mantra built around the program’s “Together We Will” motto.
It’s a fitting one for a team that must replace 40 different starters from a year ago while opening one of the toughest non-conference slates in the Football Championship Subdivision: five of the first six games on the road, including a trip to Minnesota and Missouri Valley opponents Indiana State, Murray State and Illinois State.
That stretch starts Thursday at Murray State’s Roy Stewart Stadium. It is set to mark the earliest season opener in program history.
EIU leads the all-time series 20-19 and has won two straight FCS-level openers, but the Racers (2-22 under third-year coach Jody Wright) return quarterback Jim Ogle, who passed for 1,767 yards a year ago, and leading rusher Jawaun Northington.
Both programs are similarly rebuilt. Murray State also brings back just a fraction of last year’s production.
Nickson said the goal is to establish dominance and impose their will from the opening snap.
Thursday’s game is set for a 6 p.m. kickoff.
Payton Liggins can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].