Saturday gameday news

There are two games among OVC teams today and two non-conference matchups. Here's a quick roundup of who's where and when.

#20 Eastern Illinois at Samford, 6 p.m. (all times Central)
#25 Jacksonville State at UT-Martin, 6 p.m.
#6 Illinois State at Murray Satte, 6 p.m.
Tennessee State at Venderbilt, 6 p.m.
Also, Austin Peay State visits Dayton at noon.

Here's what's in the papers today:

APSU is on its third straight road game, against a Dayton team that's 179-35-2 at home over the last 25 years, the (Clarksville, Tenn.) Leaf-Chronicle says.

Samford likely will have its eyes on Eastern Illinois wide receiver Micah Rucker today, according to the (Charleston, Ill.) Journal Gazette/Times-Courier. The transfer from Minnesota has five touchdown rceptions over three games. Near the end of the story, EIU defensive coordinator Roc Bellantoni says injured all-American lineman Clint Sellers asked if he could strap his arm to his side and play today. Was he serious, the paper asks? “Dead serious,” Bellantoni said. “He said, ‘I’m frustrated not being able to help the team.’ I said, ‘Get out of my office and get to class.’ ”

The JG-TC also has a story on Norris Smith, a highly-touted running back recruit out of Ely, Fla., in 2003. He may finally be getting a chance to start collecting yards after an up-and-down run with the Panthers.

The Birmingham (Ala.) News says Samford Coach Bill Gray would like to have had an extra two weeks to prepare his team for EIU. As it was, the Bulldogs got an extra two days, having defeated APSU last Thursday night.

The Murray (Ky.) Ledger & Times checks in with a pair of stories on Murray State's game against #6 Illinois State today. The first says the Racers will see a much different team than the Redbirds' conference mates Indiana State, who MSU beat 59-40 last week. The Sycamores are on a 20-game losing streak. Illinois State, meanwhile, beat then-#18 EIU last week, and nearly pulled off an upset of Kansas State in the first week. The other story examines Redbirds coach Denver Johnson, who once led the Racers.

Southeast Missouri State is off today, but school officials can celebratie the recent Black College Coaches Asssociation as a victory, according to the Southeast Missourian. SEMO got an A in the report, for hiring Tony Samuel to lead the Redhawks. Samuel was one of four African Americans hired at Division I football programs in the off-season. There are only 11 black coaches at non-historically black schools in all of Division I.

The (Nashville) Tennessean says Tennessee State coach James Webster and his Tigers will go into today's first-ever game against Vanderbilt expecting to win. Webster tells the paper, "For anybody to say we don't have anything to lose means that we don't expect to win. You're trying to tell us we don't have a chance to win. We've got a chance to win this game. We expect to win. We expect to win every game we play."

The Jackson (Tenn.) Sun says UT-Martin and its second-ranked OVC defense will have a tough test in Jacksonville State, which has the highest-rated defense in the league so far.