A few suggestions ...

Just in case you need a little help nominating Games of the Year (see this post, down below), here's the complete 2006 OVC schedule, organized by opponent type (minus D-II games).

OVC Conference Games
Murray State at Tennessee State - Sept. 16
Eastern Illinois at Samford - Sept. 23
Eastern Kentucky at Tennessee Tech - Sept. 23
Jacksonville State at UT Martin - Sept. 23
Jacksonville State at Eastern Kentucky - Sept. 30
Tennessee Tech at Murray State - Sept. 30
Samford at Southeast Missouri - Sept. 30
Murray State at Jacksonville State - Oct. 5
UT Martin at Tennessee Tech - Oct. 5
Southeast Missouri at Eastern Illinois - Oct. 7
Eastern Kentucky at Samford - Oct. 7
Eastern Illinois at Eastern Kentucky - Oct. 14
Samford at Murray State - Oct. 14
Tennessee Tech at Tennessee State - Oct. 14
Murray State at Eastern Illinois - Oct. 21
Eastern Kentucky at Southeast Missouri - Oct. 21
Tennessee State at Jacksonville State - Oct. 21
UT Martin at Samford - Oct. 21
Jacksonville State at Tennessee Tech - Oct. 26
Eastern Illinois at UT Martin - Oct. 28
Southeast Missouri at Murray State - Oct. 28
Samford at Tennessee State - Oct. 28
Tennessee State at Eastern Illinois - Nov. 4
Murray State at Eastern Kentucky - Nov. 4
Tennessee Tech at Samford - Nov. 4
UT Martin at Southeast Missouri - Nov. 4
Eastern Illinois at Tennessee Tech - Nov. 11
Eastern Kentucky at UT Martin - Nov. 11
Samford at Jacksonville State – Nov. 11
Southeast Missouri at Tennessee State - Nov. 11
Jacksonville State at Eastern Illinois - Nov. 18
Tennessee State at Eastern Kentucky - Nov. 18
UT Martin at Murray State - Nov. 18
Tennessee Tech at Southeast Missouri - Nov. 18

I-AA OOC Games
Chattanooga at Tennessee Tech – Aug. 31
Jacksonville State at Furman – Sept. 2
Southeast Missouri at Austin Peay – Sept. 2
Alabama A&M at Tennessee State – Sept. 2
Indiana State at Eastern Illinois – Sept. 9
Western Kentucky at Eastern Kentucky – Sept. 9
Tennessee Tech at Gardner-Webb – Sept. 9
Eastern Illinois at Illinois State – Sept. 16
Eastern Kentucky at Western Carolina – Sept. 16
Murray State at Indiana State – Sept. 16
Austin Peay at Samford – Sept. 16
Gardner-Webb at UT Martin – Sept. 16
Tennessee State vs. Jackson State – Sept. 16
Illinois State at Murray State – Sept. 23
UT Martin at Austin Peay – Sept. 30
Tennessee State vs. Florida A&M (Atlanta, Ga.) – Sept. 30
Jacksonville State at Chattanooga – Nov. 4

OVC vs. I-A Games
Eastern Illinois at Illinois – Sept. 2
Eastern Kentucky at Cincinnati – Sept. 2
Murray State at Missouri – Sept. 2
UT Martin at Ohio – Sept. 2
Samford at Georgia Tech – Sept. 9
Tennessee Tech at Middle Tennessee – Sept. 14
Tennessee State at Vanderbilt – Sept. 23
Eastern Illinois at Hawai’i – Sept. 30
Jacksonville State at Mississippi State – Oct. 14
Southeast Missouri at Arkansas – Oct. 14

Breaks and mistakes

The Birmingham News has a nice feature today on JSU linebacker LeMarcus Rowell. Rowell transferred to JSU in 2004, after a run-in with the law at Auburn. Rowell made an instant impact with the Gamecocks on their way to a second straight OVC title, but another mistake - dropping a class and losing his eligibility - saw him sit the 2005 season out. Now, he's back.

"I've been taking school like something I have to do right now," (Rowell) said. "If I want to continue to play this game, I have to go to class and get my books. That's the main reason I wasn't out there. I had gotten kind of lost focusing more on the football and forgotten I was a student athlete. Now, I'm focusing more on `student' and `athlete' second."

And speaking of mistakes, here's a bit of bad news: Former Samford defensive back Cortland Finnegan, now a rookie with the Tennessee Titans after going in the seventh round as the OVC's only NFL draft pick, was arrested Friday night in Nashville on a DUI charge, according to WTVF NewsChannel5.

Games of the Year

Is it football season yet? No? Well, OK, to help pass the time until it actually arrives, the OVC Football Blog is asking its readers to select the OVC Games of the Year for the 2006 season. We'll have three categories:

1. OVC Game of the Year (the best matchup within the league)
2. Non-Conference Game of the Year (the best matchup between an OVC team and a I-AA team from outside the league)
3. I-A Game of the Year (the best game between an OVC team and a I-A squad)

Send your nominations to ovc@cableone.net. I'll compile the nominations into three online polls, and post them here in a few weeks. The nomination deadline is July 11 (that's two weeks away).

Getting in position

Eastern Illinois and Eastern Kentucky landed a few players in Matt Dougherty's final roundup of top I-AA players at each position, over at SportsNetwork.com.

On the list are:

At guard: (#3) EIU's Jon Reuter, a senior.

At tackle: (#7) EKU's Sean Dumford, a junior.

At defensive tackle: (#5) EKU's Mark Cristiani, a senior.

At linebacker: (#3) EIU's Clint Sellers, a senior.

At cornerback: (#9) EIU's Ben Brown, a senior.

At saftey: (#3) EIU's Tristan Burge, a senior.

SU gets high on a "Hog"

Samford's landed a big transfer at QB. Alex Mortensen, at #3 on the depth chart for Arkansas after a redshirt season and another season in a reserve role, is headed to the Bulldogs. Mortenson's from Fairburn, Ga., where he attended Landmark Christian. Here's the story from the AP.

Samford lists four QBs on its 2005 roster, of whom two will be juniors and two sophomores in 2006. The group was led by Jefferson Adcock, a redshirt sophomore in 2005, who passed for 2,338 yards and 18 touchdowns; he ran for another 365 yards and 3 TDs.

JSU fans likely are grumbling about this one, as they were in the market for a quarterback transfer early in the off season. Seriously though, you've gotta think there's very little chance someone coming from Arkansas would leave for a Jack Crowe-coached team.

Thanks to Golden Eagle for the tip.

New scoreboard at JSU's Paul Snow?

Saw this in the legals section of today's Anniston Star:

ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS Sealed proposals will be received by Jacksonville State University in the Gold Room, Bibb Graves Hall, Jacksonville, Alabama, until 2:00 p.m., Central Time, Tuesday, July 18, 2006, for the construction of A NEW SCOREBOARD FOR PAUL SNOW STADIUM Jacksonville State University

With the first home game set for Sept. 16 against SEMO, there would be not quite two months to get the work done for the 2006 season. Plans are on view at the architects' office (Jenkin Munroe Jenkins in Anniston), at the JSU physical plant, plus at a couple other places in Alabama and Georgia.

One could argue it's past time for an upgrade. Here's the current scoreboard, shown Nov. 6, 2004 with the score against homecoming foe Samford.

Help is on the way

All the transfers winding up at EIU have been thouroughly discussed in a comment thread somewhere down the page. Now the Journal Gazzette/Times-Courier in Charleston is catching up with our readers.

Saturday's JGTC has stories on the latest two transfers to sign on with the Panthers. The first looks at Jeff Sobol, a defensive lineman who will get to line up against his former school, Illinois, in EIU's season opener Sept. 2

“September 2nd is sounding real good right now,” Sobol said. “I can’t wait for that. I can’t wait to run out on Memorial Stadium. I’m definitely going to be hyped up for it. I get excited just thinking about it. I don’t have anything to prove. I just want to play good football and come out with a win.”

The second story is on Matt Westrick, a California guy who bounced around life a little before finally landing in college and on a team in Charleston.

“I worked real jobs, and man, it’s not fun n 13 hour days and being on call for water damage and mold restoration,” Westrick said. “I got tired of doing it, to be honest. One day it was just ‘what am I doing?’ It’s a waste of time. I went back and started playing junior college at Grossmont.”

Any other transfers of note out there in OVC-land we haven't heard about yet?

Talkin' up a storm

Thanks to all those who've been going comment-crazy over the last few posts. It's good to see there's an audience for OVC football info out there. It's obvious that the knowledge of all you commenters combined is far greater than my own. I can tell it's going to be a challenge to come up with stuff someone out there doesn't already know. But, by all means, if you know it - post it. I'm more than happy to have others contributing. Keep it up.

One note: I changed the comment settings to allow only registered users to post. This isn't an attempt to lay the smack down or anything, I just thought it would be easier for folks to follow the conversations if there was a screen name attached to every comment. By all means, if you've been posting as "anonymous," sign up for a Blogger username and keep contributing.

I'm always open to comments, criticism, questions, etc. Always feel free to leave a comment for me, or e-mail me at ovc@cableone.net.

Thanks again!

UTC to OVC?

It's been talked about, speculated on, and wished for (by some) for years. Now, it's on the record: the Ohio Valley Conference has asked UT-Chattanooga to leave the Southern Conference and join the OVC. UTC response for now: "We'll think about it."

Here's a link to today's story in the Chattanooga Times-Free Press. Discuss.

Playing catch

Three OVC players made Sports Network columnist Matt Dougherty's pre-season list of I-AA's top receivers. Chief of among them was EKU's Patrick Bugg, who Matt said is the top returning tight end in the division. On the WR list are UT-Martin's Taurean Stephens at#14 and Tennessee Tech's Larry Shipp at #17.

Runnin' and runnin'

Matt Dougherty of The Sports Network gave a little love to the OVC this week in his roundup of the best running backs in I-AA. JSU's Clay Green and UTM's Donald Chapman made the top 15, at #9 and #10, respectively. EIU's Vincent Webb was #20, and Mark Dunn of EKU was #24. Read the whole column here.

Oh, and last week Matt rated I-AA quarterbacks for the upcoming season. EKU's Josh Greco was the OVC's lone man on the list, at the lofty #8 spot.