Ron English spent much of his off-season pleading with his Eastern Michigan football team's defense to play with more aggression.

No one took English's request to heart more than Tim Fort.

The senior linebacker spent much of his career lurking in the shadows. He spent the spring and summer working to hit ball-carriers harder, understanding he would be the one less experienced teammates looked to as an example.

Fort still may not be the defensive-defining performer Eastern needs. But after making a team-high 15 tackles in a 31-27 loss to Army last Saturday, he is determined to prove that he can take charge.

"It was time for me to do that," Fort said Wednesday. "I want the defense to be good, and I feel like I'm one of the leaders that needs to step up to make the defense better. I realized in camp a lot of the young guys looked up to me, so I felt I had to take that role on."

Despite Fort's efforts as well as those of Neil Howey, who had 14 tackles, Eastern's defense surrendered 309 rushing yards to the Black Knights. Eastern finished last year's winless season ranking last nationally in run defense.

Fort, along with first-year defensive coordinator Phil Snow, is attempting to change the defensive culture at Eastern. He understands if the Eagles' defense is to improve, much of the equation is building more mental toughness in mindset in addition to being a harder-hitting unit.

"We have play with a ferociousness, and Coach English pushes us to be violent on the field every day, but I know we have a lot of work to do," Fort said. "But I think we're going to shock a lot of people, because our defense is going to come together and we're going to play well. I saw a lot of people running around trying to make plays (against Army), but there's still a lot of things we have to work on."

On the run

Senior running back Dwayne Priest and sophomore quarterback Alex Gillett combined for 268 rushing yards against Army, accounting for three Eagles touchdowns. The tandem became the first two Eastern Michigan ball-carriers to each surpass the 100-yard mark since 2005 when Tyler Jones and Anthony Sherrell accomplished the feat against Miami. Priest, who had 142 yards and two touchdowns, was the Mid-American Conference's West Division Offensive Player of the Week.

English said Wednesday that while having a running quarterback is part of his team's pro style offense, he is searching for a second reliable running back. One problem is that injuries have depleted his stable of backs.

Junior Dominique Sherrerr was in contention for the starting tailback job before sustaining a high ankle sprain. Junior Corey Welch was expected to be in the mix, but went down with a separated shoulder in a tackling drill, leaving English to look to promising freshman Javonti Green, who also fell prey to a high ankle sprain.

Suddenly, Gillett, who was Eastern's second-leading rusher behind Gillett, became the number one option for the second source of ground production.

"We have to run the ball for us to be effective offensively," English said Wednesday. "Having a running quarterback can create a lot of problems for defenses, but we have to find a second running back. We're going to be as balanced as we can, but if we are going to be successful, we have to run the ball."

Hello, Miami

Eastern opens MAC play Saturday at Miami (2 p.m., WEMU, 89.1 FM), facing the Redhawks for the first time since 2005. The Eagles appeared to be in position to pull off an upset after scoring with 13 seconds remaining to draw to within 24-23. But the extra-point attempt clanked off the right upright following a bad snap, giving Miami its sixth straight win in the series. The last time Eastern traveled to Oxford, Ohio, was 1999 when Eastern's offense was engineered by Walter Church.

Lights out Last weekend's loss to Army included a short stretch when the Rynearson Stadium lights went out and the scoreboard stopped functioning. The lights eventually came back on, but the scoreboard remained a no-go for the remainder of the night. The culprit? A nearby transformer that hadn't been changed in 70 years, Eastern Michigan officials said Wednesday. The Eagles don't return home until Sept. 18 when they host rival Central Michigan. But Belleville High School's football team uses the stadium and is hoping to have an operating scoreboard for its game Friday. The price tag for the repair is $30,000, athletic department spokesman Jim Streeter said.

Jeff Arnold covers sports for AnnArbor.com and can be reached at (734) 623-2554 or by email at jeffarnold@annarbor.com. Follow him on Twitter @jeffreyparnold.