Tuesday news

Here's the OVC stuff from today's papers:

The Anniston (Ala.) Star (sorry, subscribers only) says Jacksonville State coach Jack Crowe can take comfort in at least one part of the Gamecocks' loss to Mississippi State (besides the check): it didn't count as an OVC game. Now JSU can get back to trying to make the playoffs. The story runs through scenarios that could complicate the league title picture, and raises the spectre again of a three-way tie and a blind draw.

The Murray (Ky.) Ledger & Times says Murray State coach Matt Griffin is getting frustrated with the effort shown by some of his veteran players, especially in Saturday's 33-7 homecoming loss to Samford. “The thing I stressed to (the team) after the game is that they need to look in the mirror. If you can lie to the man in the mirror, then we're in a hole. It's time to see what we've got character-wise. And we're going to find that out this next week,” he tells the paper.

The Southeast Missourian says SEMO was able to get many true freshman on the field against Arkansas late in the 63-7 loss. Coach Tony Samuel was pleased with their efforts. More importantly, the Redhawks escaped the game injury-free, and may field their healthiest squad of the season when EKU visits on Saturday for homecoming.

The Nashville City Paper says Tennessee State coach James Webster expects a stiff test when his Tigers visit Jacksonville State this week. He tells the paper that Javarris Williams is the team's "horese," and they plan to keep riding him.

The (Cookeville, Tenn.) Herald-Citizen says Tennessee Tech's players have lacked motivation at the start of their recent games against Tennessee State (they were outscored 27-0 to start) and UT-Martin (they went down 14-3, and wound up losing 35-16). Here's a link to the HC sports section.