Friday news

Here's what's out there from newspapers around the OVC today:

First off, I could find nothing at The Birmingham (Ala.) News' Web site about last night's Samford-Miles game. How's that for a snub? Perhaps it's in the print edition, I don't know, but it oughta be online. With the third-largest crowd in Samford history packed into Seibert Stadium, it looks like somebody cared. Why didn't the News?

Next: I can't believe it took me this long to realize this, but the Cookeville (Tenn.) Herald Citizen appears to be an afternoon paper (these days, that's almost like spotting a dodo). So, instead of results from last night's Tennessee Tech loss to UT-Chattanooga, there's some excellent pre-game coverage I didn't see yesterday. Here's a game preview story, plus an OVC roundup with predictions on every game this week from sportswriter Buddy Pearson (Needless to say, his 28-14 pick for a Tech victory didn't pan out last night. Here's hoping his crystal ball was clearer on the rest of the slate.)

So, for now, the only coverage of last night's games comes from Chattanooga's Times-Free Press. Here's a game wrap that's high on Eldra Buckley's sparkling performance at running back for the Mocs, and a column from Jay Greeson on how these Mocs are far different than the team coach Rodney Allison took over two years ago.

Now, onto the rest of the league:

The (Clarksville, Tenn.) Leaf Chronicle says Austin Peay State running back Chris Fletcher can become the Govs' all-time leading rusher this season. All he's got to do is rack up 1,049 yards.

Eastern Illinois' Jeff Sobol wants to show his former coaches a thing or two when the Panthers open up at Illinois Saturday, according to the (Charleston, Ill.) Journal Gazette/Times-Courier. Sobol saw his playing time at defensive tackle vanish when Ron Zook took over the Illini. Sobol transferred to Eastern, and is looking forward to Saturday's game, to put it lightly.

The Panthers also draw attention from the Chicago Sun-Times, which notes that EIU wants to deliver its "best shot" against the Illini (duh), and the Belleville (Ill.) News Democrat carries an AP preview of the game.

If last night's result in Cookeville and Rodney Allison's comments back in August weren't reason enough to dislike UTC, here's another. The Anniston (Ala.) Star (sorry, subscribers only) says the Mocs aren't interested in moving their 2007 game with Jacksonville State so the Gamecocks can get in a guarantee game against Georgia Southern in Atlanta's Georgia Dome.

The Murray (Ky.) Ledger & Times says Murray State's visit to Missouri Saturday will be a homecoming game for one man: Racers offensive coordinator Michael Hayes, who played on the Tigers' offensive line from 1997-2001.

The Southeast Missourian is all over the OVC today. There's a Q&A with Southeast Missouri State's senior punter David Simonhoff, another with coach Tony Samuel, a look at SEMO's positives and negatives going into the season, capsules on every OVC team, and an AP preview on the EIU-Illinois game.

The Nashville City Paper notes that going into Tennessee State's opener at home against Alabama A&M, the Tigers haven't won a game in Nashville under head coach James Wenster, who took over last year.