Alabama football’s defense preparing to face two Eastern Illinois quarterbacks

The final regular-season home game for Alabama is coming up this weekend, and the Crimson Tide defense is expecting to see multiple Eastern Illinois quarterbacks take snaps.

Cole LaCrue and Connor Wolf are the two quarterbacks the Panthers have used this year, but LaCrue has been the one who has taken the majority of the snaps this year and poses a real threat in the running game.

“They got two quarterbacks,” Alabama linebacker Nikhai Hill-Green said. “One’s a runner, and the other can pass pretty well. They’re solid, got good backs, some speed on the outside. We just got to be ready and be sharp.”

Wolf played a good bit of the snaps for Eastern Illinois in the team’s last game against Lindenwood, and he completed 17 passes for 130 yards and a score while LaCrue took a bit of a backseat. Normally, LaCrue plays the most, but Wolf had some solid throws last game and could be featured a good bit if Eastern Illinois wants to attack through the air.

LaCrue has run the football more times than he’s thrown it this season. He’s rushed for 514 yards and seven touchdowns on 122 carries.

Alabama has faced a few mobile quarterbacks this year. The most notable one was Florida State’s Thomas Castellanos, a dual-threat quarterback who embarrassed the Crimson Tide by running for 78 yards and a touchdown. Georgia’s Gunner Stockton did not run much against Alabama earlier in the year despite being a strong runner, and Vanderbilt’s Diego Pavia was kept in check in the second half by Kane Wommack’s unit after Pavia picked up a few first downs and broke a huge run in the first half.

The last mobile quarterback the Crimson Tide had some trouble defending was South Carolina’s LaNorris Sellers. He ran for 67 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries.

Alabama will likely play against another mobile quarterback if the team makes the SEC Championship or the playoff, so tuning up the run defense against Eastern Illinois will be one of the most important defensive matters to tend to this weekend.

Hill-Green broke down the keys to defending a running quarterback and what Alabama’s linebacker have to keep in mind.

“Really just being gap sound and doing our job,” Hill-Green said. “With a running quarterback, you can’t try to do someone else’s job, so really just every guy on the field doing their job and just being in our gaps.”

Alabama will face Eastern Illinois this Saturday in the Crimson Tide’s final guaranteed home game of 2025.