This Week's Schedule
Thursday, September 2
Cumberland at Austin Peay, 6:00 p.m. (OVCSports.TV)
Eastern Kentucky at Missouri State, 6:00 p.m.
Murray State at Kent State, 6:00 p.m.
Southeast Missouri at Ball State, 6:00 p.m.
Saturday, September 4
#16 Eastern Illinois at #9 Iowa, 11:00 a.m. (Big Ten Network)
#17 Jacksonville State at Ole Miss, 2:30 p.m. (CSS/ESPN3.com)
UT Martin at Tennessee, 5:00 p.m. (ESPN3.com)
Alabama A&M at Tennessee State, 6:00 p.m. (OVCSports.TV)
Tennessee Tech at #17 Arkansas, 6:00 p.m. (ESPN3.com)
This Week's OVC Highlights/Storylines
The 2010 season kicks off on Thursday as four OVC schools will be in action; the other five teams will take to the gridiron on Saturday...Seven of the nine matchups this week will be the first meetings between the two schools; only Austin Peay/Cumberland and Tennessee State/Alabama A&M have played each other previously...Six of the nine matchups feature OVC schools against Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) squads, including a pair of nationally-ranked teams in No. 9 Iowa (who hosts Eastern Illinois) and No. 17 Arkansas (who hosts Tennessee Tech)...Overall OVC teams will square off with three SEC schools (Arkansas, Ole Miss, Tennessee), two MAC schools (Ball State, Kent State) and a Big Ten foe (Iowa)...OVC schools were 0-10 against FBS schools last season and have lost 47 consecutive games against FBS foes dating back to an Eastern Illinois victory over Eastern Michigan on Sept. 25, 2004...There are two OVC schools who are ranked in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) polls, with Eastern Illinois No. 16 in the FCS Coaches Poll (No. 18 Sports Network) and Jacksonville State No. 17 in both of the major FCS polls...Jacksonville State was picked as the preseason OVC favorite in a vote of league head coaches and sports information directors...Jax State finished with the league's best record last season but was ineligible for the OVC Championship (they are eligible once again this season)...The league welcomes two new head coaches this season in Murray State's Chris Hatcher and Tennessee State's Rod Reed.
Notes From Around the Gridiron
Let's Get It Started: The 63rd season of Ohio Valley Conference football will get underway on Thursday, Sept. 2 when four OVC squads take to the gridiron; the remaining five schools will play on Saturday, Sept. 4. The OVC is made up of nine football-playing schools in 2010. Since its beginning, 14 of the 18 total schools that have played football in the league have claimed at least one championship.
League Announces "OVC Game of the Week" Television Package With Wazoo Sports: In July 2010 the Ohio Valley Conference announced its a partnership with Wazoo Sports to produce and distribute an "OVC Game of Week" football package for 2010. The 10-game package will begin with Austin Peay at Tennessee State and feature a different game every week through the end of the regular season (Nov. 20). Eight of the 10 games will have a 6 p.m. CT kickoff. Each of the nine OVC football schools will appear on the broadcast at least twice during the season. For a full schedule and affiliate information check out links at OVCSports.com. Wazoo Sports, Inc. is a Regional Sports Network that delivers coverage of NCAA, NAIA high school, and youth sports live and on-demand on television and over the Internet. Wazoo Sports has produced over 360 LIVE games and is currently in over 650,000 households in Kentucky. Wazoo Sports is headquartered in London, Ky.
OVC Teams Against FBS Opponents: Six of the nine games this week featuring an OVC team are against Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) opponent. Last season OVC schools were 0-10 against FBS (formerly I-A) opponents, although two of those games went down to the wire with a chance for the OVC team to pull off a win (EKU/Indiana and JSU/Florida State). All-time the OVC is 17-130-1 against FBS opponents. The last time an OVC team knocked off a FBS school was during the 2004 season when Eastern Illinois beat Eastern Michigan 31-28.
APSU's Holt Among All-Time Best in FCS in Kickoff Returns: Austin Peay senior Terrence Holt is among the best all-time at the FCS level in kickoff returns. Holt broke the FCS all-time kickoff return yardage record in 2009 and enters the season with 3,583 yards. He is the only player in FCS history to have three 1,000+ yard kickoff return seasons and will look to make that four-straight this year. Holt also holds the FCS career record for total kick return yardage (kickoffs and punt returns) with 4,064 yards. In 2008 Holt broke the NCAA record for kickoff returns in a season (52) and total kick returns (kickoffs plus punts) with 66.
EKU's Caldwell on Buck Buchanan Watch List: Eastern Kentucky University football player Jeremy Caldwell was one of 20 Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) players named to the initial Buck Buchanan Award watch list. The award, which is presented by The Sports Network, is handed out annually to the nation's top FCS defensive player. Caldwell, a junior defensive back from Chattanooga, Tenn., led the Ohio Valley Conference and tied for fourth nationally in the FCS last year with seven interceptions. Besides posting seven interceptions, Caldwell also led the Colonels with six pass break-ups and finished sixth on the team with 48 tackles. Caldwell was the lone OVC player to make the initial watch list. The Buchanan Award watch list can undergo revision during the 2010 season, when updated lists are announced on Oct. 4 and 25. Ballots will be sent to a panel of approximately 200 sports information and media relations directors, broadcasters, writers and other dignitaries following the conclusion of the regular season on Nov. 22. The Buchanan Award will be presented to the FCS national defensive player of the year on Thursday, Jan. 6 in Frisco, Texas - the night before the national championship game. The Buck Buchanan award is named for Junious "Buck" Buchanan, the NAIA All-American and Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive lineman who played for Grambling State University from 1959 through 1962. As a freshman, Buchanan came to Grambling on an "if" scholarship, to receive financial help if he played well. After a season of playing both varsity basketball and football, Buchanan decided to concentrate solely on football. By the time he finished four years at Grambling, his coach, Eddie Robinson, asserted that Buchanan was "... the finest tackle I have ever seen." The Buck Buchanan Award has been handed out annually since 1995. Some of the past winners include Minnesota Vikings' Jared Allen (Idaho State - 2003), Jacksonville Jaguars' Rashean Mathis (Bethune-Cookman - 2002) and Dexter Coakley (Appalachian State - 1995, 1996), who played 10 seasons with the Dallas Cowboys and St. Louis Rams.
A Look at the Coaches: There are two new coaches and seven returnees among the head coaching ranks in the Ohio Valley Conference this season. Chris Hatcher takes over at Murray State after tenures at Valdosta State and Georgia Southern and Rod Reed is now in charge at Tennessee State (his alma mater) after serving on the staff as an assistant and defensive coordinator. The Dean of OVC Coaches is Eastern Illinois coach Bob Spoo who is in his 24th season with the Panthers in 2010. Spoo has 88 total wins while EIU has been a member of the OVC, a mark that ranks fifth in OVC history. Spoo also has 65 Conference victories, which is also fifth all-time. He is just two OVC wins away from passing WKU's Jimmy Feix (67 OVC wins) and moving into fourth place on the all-time list.
FCS Playoff Expansion: For the first time in 2010 the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) playoff field will include 20 teams, up from 16 a year ago. In April 2008 the NCAA Board of Directors approved the expansion. It marks the first expansion since the field grew from 12 to 16 teams in 1997. The field will be comprised of 10 automatic bids (up from 8) and 10 at-large berths. This season there will be four first round matchups (8 total teams), while 12 teams will receive a bye into the second round. For the first time in 2010, the championship game will be played in Frisco, Texas at Pizza Hut Park, a 23,500-seat multi-purpose stadium. The Southland Conference will serve as the host of the championship, which will be held on Friday, Jan. 7.
2010 Marks Fourth Season For Sgt. York Trophy: The 2010 season marks the fourth season for the Sgt. York Trophy, a challenge trophy which goes to the annual winner of the quadrangular season series between the four OVC institutions in the state of Tennessee (Austin Peay, Tennessee State and Tennessee Tech and UT Martin). In July 2007, the Nashville Sports Council and the Ohio Valley Conference announced the creation of the trophy, which is only the second traveling trophy involving more than two schools nationwide (the other is the Commander in Chief's Trophy). It is named after Sgt. Alvin C. York, a native of Pall Mall, Tenn. and a Soldier who was one of the most honored of World War I. He received the Congressional Medal of Honor after the war and returned to his home state to dedicate his life to improving education and facilitating educational opportunities for children in the state of Tennessee. The trophy goes to the team with the best record against the other schools, and in case of a tie there will be co-champions and the actual trophy will go to the institution that has gone the most seasons without winning the trophy. In 2007, Tennessee State and Austin Peay finished in a tie for the trophy with identical 2-1 records; both shared the award but Tennessee State went home with the hardware due to a 1-point win in the head-to-head meeting during the season. Tennessee State went 3-0 in Sgt. York play in 2008 to claim its second trophy. Last year Tennessee Tech claimed the trophy after going undefeated in Sgt. York games.
Jacksonville State/Chattanooga Selected for FCS Game of the Week Radio Broadcast: When Jacksonville State hosts Chattanooga on Sept. 11 at the newly renovated Burgess-Snow Field at JSU Stadium, the game will be broadcast as part of the FCS Game of the Week radio package. This marks the fifth year for the FCS Game of the Week series. The games are brought to the public by Clear Channel Communications, Gino Communications and Broadcaster Marketing Services and heard on WCKY AM 1530 out of Cincinnati. Frank Santore returns for his fifth year as play-by-play voice.
Preseason Forecasts: For the second-straight season five different schools received at least one first-place vote in the preseason predicted order of finish balloting. Jacksonville State received the most (11 of 18) while Eastern Illinois (4), Eastern Kentucky (1), Tennessee Tech (1) and Tennessee State (1) were also in the mix. JSU was picked first for the third time in the past six seasons. Is being picked first in the preseason poll necessarily a good thing? In the past 31 years of preseason polls (all that were available), the preseason predicted champion has only gone on to win the OVC Championship 12 times (38.7%). Over the past seven years not once has the eventual champion been predicted in the preseason poll (it was last done correctly in 2002).
Holt and Bey Headline Preseason All-OVC Team: Austin Peay senior running back/kick returner Terrence Holt and UT Martin senior linebacker Josh Bey have been tabbed the 2010 Ohio Valley Conference Preseason Offensive and Defensive Players of the Year in a vote on by the league's head football coaches and sports information directors. Eastern Illinois, Jacksonville State and Tennessee Tech each had four selections apiece on the preseason team to lead the league. Eastern Kentucky had the next-most selections with three. Each of the league's nine teams had at least one player on the preseason squad. Returning players who were first-team All-OVC picks last season (12 in total) were automatic selections to the preseason team this year. The squad also included seven players who were second-team selections in 2009. Of the 25 total selections, 13 were seniors, 11 were juniors and there was one sophomore pick.
I-AA No More: Although some people may accidentally still refer to it as I-AA football, the term that represents the level of Division I football in which the Ohio Valley Conference competes has been retired. Beginning with the 2006 National Championship game, the term Football Championship Subdivision (or FCS) is to be used. FCS is the only Division I football rank to host a NCAA-sponsored national championship (one of 88 championships the NCAA sponsors). The division formerly known as I-A was changed to Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and those teams compete for the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) national championship. Teams who play at the FCS level can offer a maximum of 63 scholarships (FBS teams can offer 85) and compete in a 16-team playoff at the end of the season to determine the national champion.
NFL Connections: As of August 1, 19 former Ohio Valley Conference players are on NFL rosters for the 2010 season. Those players include former Eastern Illinois standout Tony Romo, a three-time Pro Bowl pick, Cortland Finnegan (Samford), who has been a Pro Bowl defensive back selection with the Tennessee Titans and Tennessee State's Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, who was a starter for the Arizona Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII and was a Pro Bowl selection last season. There are four players on NFL rosters who played in the OVC last season including Eastern Illinois offensive linemen Chris Campbell (Green Bay Packers) and Otis Hudson (Cincinnati Bengals), UT Martin offensive lineman Joe Gibbs (St. Louis Rams) and Murray State defensive lineman Austen Lane (Jacksonville Jaguars). Seven of the nine current OVC football schools have at least one player in the NFL with Eastern Illinois and Tennessee State leading the way with four players apiece. Several NFL coaches also have connections to OVC schools, including three who went to Eastern Illinois, the "Cradle of NFL Head Coaches." Those coaches include Brad Childress (Minnesota), Super Bowl champion Sean Payton (New Orleans) and Mike Shanahan (Washington). UT Martin graduate and former assistant coach Jerry Reese made waves in 2007 when he led the New York Giants to Super Bowl XLII in his first season as General Manager with the franchise.
OVCSports.TV: For the fifth consecutive year, fans can watch every Conference matchup and all non-conference home contests at OVCSports.TV. The venture with NeuLion (formerly JumpTV Sports) allows fans to access live and on-demand streaming video and audio of all conference matchups on their home computer. The premium Web site was launched in July 2006 and streamed over a thousand events in its first four seasons, including all Conference matchups in football and men's and women's basketball as well as select baseball, soccer, softball and volleyball games and OVC Championship events. Packages are available on a yearly, seasonally, monthly or per-event basis.