The FCS level of college sports has seen rapid change over the last decade. Many top programs, like James Madison and North Dakota State, have left for the FBS level. They FCS schools deal with a lot of roster turnover due to the transfer portal.
But Eastern Illinois’ new athletic director is ready to adapt and get to work.
Mark Wilson replaces Tom Michael who left for a role at Illinois.
Wilson was the athletic director at Tennessee Tech for 21 years and left the football program in good shape and had really strong women’s basketball and baseball programs.
He’s wants all sports to thrive in Charleston.
Wilson said, “But clearly understanding that football and men’s and women’s basketball, they drive the perception of Eastern Illinois athletics and Eastern Illinois University. We do need them to be successful. We’ll work to be that for them to be successful, but we want all of our sports to be successful.”
Now, his job is to help turn around panther football, a program with rich tradition has just one winning season since 2013.
“I’m going to have to get shoulder to shoulder, lock arms with Coach Wilkerson, learn what his challenges are,” he said. “Because I know, and when I first arrived at Tennessee Tech, one of the programs we were chasing was Eastern Illinois football.
He added, “I don’t know the ins and outs of the program yet. I’m going to have to listen. I’m going to have to learn and talk to our alums, talk to Coach Wilkerson, and and see what we can implement to to propel them.”
“I do have confidence in him. And if you’ve recently read the article that EIU just put out about his leadership, that is how true, genuine leaders lead.”
Basketball had three winning seasons this decade.
I asked, “Marty Simmons, pretty big name in the in the mid major level for years. What’s kind of your assessment of just the basketball program?”
“My assessment from my time at Tennessee Tech is that Coach Simmons is really close, really close to getting over the hurdle.”
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