Wednesday papers and practice notes

Here's your Wednesday OVC news:

Eastern Illinois' Tristan Burge and Ben Brown are wearing new numbers and sporting new outlooks, according to the (Charleston, Ill.) Journal Gazette/Times-Courier. Burge, an all-American safety, is bouncing back from a broken leg suffered on the last play of last year's final regular-season game at Jacksonville State. Brown, a junior cornerback, is overcoming the physical and mental scars after being stabbed in an off-campus incident during the offseason.

The Anniston Star says JSU hasn't gotten an agreement from UT-Chattanooga officials to move next year's game between the two teams a week later to make room for the Gamecocks to play a Sept. 8 game against Georgia Southern in Atlanta's Georgia Dome. The game carried a $100,000 guarantee. UTC's agreement seems to be all that's standing in the way of moving the game. JSU AD Jim Fuller said he and his Mocs counterpart Rick Hart simply haven't been able to get on the phone together since last week. I mean no slight to Fuller, but reporter Al Muskewitz seems to have got him to pick up. Hart says he's "sympathetic and empathetic."

The Gadsden Times gives Fuller more ink on the late www.firejimfuller.com Web site. In his column today, the Times' Jimmy Smothers says the site "had apparently been posted by some Jacksonville State fans that were unhappy ..." Again, a columnist getting a detail wrong about this non-story. It was one fan who put that site up (and who since has recanted and taken the site down), one who does not mask his identity as many of us do here on the 'net. He is very easy to contact, easy to find at gojaxstate.com, and he is certainly not shy. If it's worth writing about (and I'm not sure it is), isn't it worth another phone call, just to make sure you got the story right?

Former OVC commissioner Jim Delaney, now with the Big 10 Conference, told the (Madison, Wis.,) Capital Times that playing games on days other than Saturday to lure TV cameras won't fly in the Big 10, though it might be OK for the OVC, which had to take what it can get. Well, is he wrong?

I worked late last night, so I didn't get to cruise OVC teams' official Web sites for practice updates. Here's what I missed:

JSU has an update report from the Gamecocks' second day. There's also a video interview with Coach Jack Crowe (I haven't watched it yet). They also added video to the report from day one.

Murray State has an update on the third day for the Racers, and there's yet another photo album of practice.

Samford also reported Tuesday on their second day of work, and - how about all this multimedia? - there's a photo album here, too.

UT-Martin has a report on the Skyhawks' first day Tuesday.

Tennessee State posted a report Tuesday rounding up everything that's gone on at the Tigers' camp since Saturday.

Tennessee Tech took a different tack, posting an interview with senior linebacker Craig Simonton, who wants to be known as a nice guy.