2013 Eastern Illinois Panthers football team

The 2013 Eastern Illinois Panthers football team represented Eastern Illinois University in the 2013 NCAA Division I FCS football season. They were led by second-year head coach Dino Babers and played their home games at O'Brien Stadium. They were a member of the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC). Eastern Illinois finished the season 12–2 overall and 8–0 in OVC play to win the conference championship. They received an automatic bid to the FCS playoffs where they defeated Tennessee State in the second round before losing to Towson in the quarterfinals.

2013 Eastern Illinois Panthers football
OVC champion
FCS Playoffs Quarterfinal, L 39–49 vs. Towson
Conference	Ohio Valley Conference
Ranking
Sports Network	No. 4
FCS Coaches	No. 4
2013 record	12–2 (8–0 OVC)
Head coach	Dino Babers (2nd season)
Offensive coordinator	Sterlin Gilbert (2nd season)
Defensive coordinator	Kim McCloud (2nd season)
Home stadium	O'Brien Stadium (Capacity: 10,000)

2013 Ohio Valley Conference football standings
	Conf							Overall
Team		W		L					W		L
No. 4 Eastern Illinois $^		8	–	0					12	–	2
No. 17 Tennessee State ^		6	–	2					10	–	4
No. 10 Jacksonville State ^		5	–	3					11	–	4
UT Martin		5	–	3					7	–	5
Eastern Kentucky		4	–	4					6	–	6
Murray State		4	–	4					6	–	6
Tennessee Tech		2	–	6					5	–	7
Southeast Missouri State		2	–	6					3	–	9
Austin Peay		0	–	8					0	–	12
$ – Conference champion ^ – FCS playoff participant Rankings from The Sports Network poll

On December 18, Babers resigned to become the head coach at Bowling Green.

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
August 31	7:00 pm	at San Diego State*	No. 21	Qualcomm Stadium San Diego, CA	MWN	W 40–19	42,978[1]
September 7	6:00 pm	at Southern Illinois*	No. 14	Saluki Stadium Carbondale, IL		W 40–37 ^2OT	10,038[2]
September 14	6:00 pm	No. 18 Illinois State*	No. 9	O'Brien Stadium Charleston, IL (Mid-America Classic)	WEIU	W 57–24	10,741[2]
September 21	7:00 pm	at Northern Illinois*	No. 8	Huskie Stadium DeKalb, IL	ESPN3	L 39–43	23,595[2]
September 28	1:30 pm	Eastern Kentucky	No. 8	O'Brien Stadium Charleston, IL	ESPN3	W 42–7	11,469[2]
October 12	6:00 pm	at Austin Peay	No. 5	Governors Stadium Clarksville, TN	OVCDN	W 63–7	5,501[2]
October 19	1:30 pm	Southeast Missouri State	No. 3	O'Brien Stadium Charleston, IL	WEIU	W 55–33	11,569[2]
October 26	4:00 pm	at No. 21 Tennessee State	No. 2	LP Field Nashville, TN	OVCDN	W 34–16	22,157[2]
November 2	12:00 pm	Tennessee Tech	No. 2	O'Brien Stadium Charleston, IL	WEIU	W 56–21	6,939[2]
November 9	12:00 pm	at Murray State	No. 2	Roy Stewart Stadium Murray, KY	OVCDN	W 37–17	3,119[2]
November 16	12:00 pm	No. 22 Jacksonville State	No. 2	O'Brien Stadium Charleston, IL	ESPN3	W 52–14	6,693[2]
November 23	1:00 pm	at UT Martin	No. 2	Graham Stadium Martin, TN	ESPN3	W 70–22	3,167[2]
December 7	1:00 pm	No. 19 Tennessee State*	No. 2	O'Brien Stadium Charleston, IL (FCS Playoffs Second Round)	ESPN3	W 51–10	4,825[2]
December 13	7:00 pm	No. 5 Towson*	No. 2	O'Brien Stadium Charleston, IL (FCS Playoffs Quarterfinals)	ESPN2	L 39–49	3,850[2]
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from The Sports Network FCS Poll released prior to game Poll released prior to the game All times are in Central time

• Source: Schedule

Game summaries

San Diego State

1 2 3 4 Total • #21 (FCS) Panthers 7 12 7 14 40 Aztecs 13 3 3 0 19 Date: August 31 Location: Qualcomm Stadium San Diego, CA Game start: 7:00 PM CST Game attendance: 42,978

Scoring summary 1 12:57 SDSU 41-yard field goal by Wes Feer SDSU 3–0 1 11:14 EIU Erik Lora 37-yard touchdown reception from Jimmy Garoppolo, Cameron Berra kick good EIU 7–3 1 9:11 SDSU Colin Lockett 48-yard touchdown run, Feer kick good SDSU 10–7 1 4:25 SDSU 35-yard field goal by Feer SDSU 13–7 2 13:43 EIU Lora 4-yard touchdown reception from Garoppolo, Berra kick no good Tied 13–13 2 3:22 EIU Keiondre Gober 62-yard touchdown reception from Garoppolo, Berra kick blocked EIU 19–13 2 :16 SDSU 22-yard field goal by Feer EIU 19–16 3 10:57 SDSU 38-yard field goal by Feer Tied 19–19 3 7:36 EIU Taylor Duncan 2-yard touchdown run, Berra kick good EIU 26–19 4 13:43 EIU Punt returned 60 yards for touchdown by Shephard Little, Berra kick good EIU 33–19 4 4:30 EIU Duncan 45-yard touchdown run, Berra kick good EIU 40–19

Ranking movements

Ranking movements
Legend: ██ Increase in ranking. ██ Decrease in ranking.
NR = Not ranked. RV = Received votes. т = Tied with team above or below. ( ) = First place votes.

	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	Final
Sports Network	21	14	9	8	8	5	5	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	4
Coaches	23	16	12	10	12	5	4	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	4

References

1. "Eastern Illinois Panthers at San Diego State Aztecs (August 31, 2013)". Statbroadcast.com. Retrieved August 31, 2013.
2. "Cumulative Season Statistics". Eastern Illinois Athletics. December 14, 2013. Retrieved December 14, 2013.