Friday news

Here's what's up this morning:

The (Clarksville, Tenn.) Leaf Chornicle reports on the friendship between Austin Peay State's freshmen linebackers Daniel Becker and Kit Hartsfield. Both have managed their way into starting roles for the Govs this season.

Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader columnist Rick Bailey notes that Eastern Kentucky likely must beat Jacksonville State Saturday or put off their return to the I-AA playoffs for another year. MUrray State coach Matt Griffin tells Bailey the conference race is "wide open."

The Southeast Missourian syas SEMO tailback Tim Holloman, the team's leading rusher, may miss Saturday's game against Samford. Holloman, who has 263 yards, 5.6 per carry over the Redhaks' first three games, injured his ankle at JSU two weeks ago.

The (Nashville) Tennessean has a story on Tim Ehert, who's handling both punts and kickoffs for Tennessee State. Ehert's route to college football wasn't the usual one: from high school to Florida Atlantic, where he signed to play soccer, then to junior college, and then to Nashville, where he tried out for the Arena Football League's Kats. They wanted to see some college game film, so he went to TSU to get it.

The Nashville City Paper says TSU coach James Webster has to work to get his players motivated for OVC games, as opposed to the HBCU classics the team plays in. “I think they re may have been more emphasis [on classic games] than on OVC games before we arrived,” he tells the paper. "The thing I’ve had to do is make sure every game counts. Then you have to let the players understand we want to win championships and the way to do that is to win in the OVC.”

The (Cookeville, Tenn.) Herald-Citizen (story links don't work, so here's a link to the sports section) says Tennessee Tech has pulled off one rare feat by upsetting Eastern Kentucky on the road. Now they'll try for another rarity: winning an OVC game on the road. The Golden Eagles haven't come up with a victory in 11 consecutive road games in the league, stretching all the way back to 2002. In his OVC Insider column, Buddy Pearson notes Tech's upset win and UT-Martin's victory over Jax State last week as perhaps a sign that the end times are upon us. JSU coach Jack Crowe took it as a sign of an improving league, or as Pearson quotes him, "I see more parody. That's my take on it." I think Crowe may have actually said another P-word, but there's an argument for this one too, I suppose. On the brighter side, this is now the early season leader for the Unfortunate Homonym Substitution of the Year award.