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OVC Football preview   The Racer Insider's Will Aubrey

(August 22, 2007)

Over the last seven years Eastern Illinois and Jacksonville State have dominated Ohio Valley Conference football as the Panthers or Gamecocks have won the title outright or shared it every single year.

Not surprisingly a preseason poll of OVC head coaches and sports information directors tabbed EIU and Jax State 1-2 in the league this season. And there is little reason to argue with that prediction.

Eastern Illinois won the championship in 2005 and shared it with Tennessee-Martin last year. The Panthers return 15 starters, six of whom were preseason All-OVC selections. Senior linebacker Donald Thomas and senior wide receiver Micah Rucker were listed among the five best in the country at their positions by Sports Network.

Thomas was the OVC Defensive Player of the Year last season as he led EIU with an amazing 127 tackles while Rucker was a first team All-OVC performer with 49 catches for 966 yards. His 74 yards receiving per game ranked 28th in the nation.

“We expect to win,” EIU's head coach Bob Spoo said. “I think we've developed our program to the point no where our kids expect that.”

If he's right and the Panthers win the title for the third straight year they will be the first team to accomplish that since 1988 when Eastern Kentucky won their third consecutive championship.

Jacksonville State returns 10 starters from a team that finished 5-3 in conference play last year. Three Gamecocks were preseason All-OVC selections: offensive lineman Devon May, kicker Gavin Hallford, and punter Zach Walden. But it wouldn't be a surprise if their best player turned out to be someone other than those three.

Running backs Daniel Jackson and Shawn Green each averaged over five yards a carry last year as backups to thousand-yard-rusher Clay Green.

And head coach Jack Crowe says wide receiver Taurean Rhetta is the most talented player on the team.

“We really don't feature Rhetta but he's our only real standout,” Crowe declared.

“We'll have to find some creative ways to get him the ball.

“We were really more talented the last two years than we were when we won the title the previous two years. We just didn't win the close games.”

Tennessee-Martin was picked third and has the best chance of displacing one of the top two. The Skyhawks had five All-OVC first team selections including last year's Co- Offensive Player of the Year Donald Chapman.

Chapman gained over 1400 yards rushing last year, averaging over five yards per carry in the process. And Martin has backups for him that averaged over seven yards per carry so the Skyhawks' ground attack will be difficult to stop.

Greg Preston and Dexter Anoka split time at quarterback last year and both are back this season.

UTM is a deep and experienced football team and their lack of tradition is likely the only reason they weren't picked second.

Eastern Kentucky dominated the OVC in the 80's, winning seven titles, as they were consistently one of the top teams in the nation. But they have fallen on hard times in recent years, their last championship coming in 1997.

Folks in Richmond expected Danny Hope to restore them to prominence when he was hired four years ago but it hasn't happened. The Colonels are 26-19 under Hope and after three straight second-place finishes they slipped to fourth last year.

EKU does return their starting quarterback and their top three running backs but none of those players put up impressive numbers last year and the Colonels only preseason all league picks on offense were linemen.

It's always possible they could break into the top three but they could also slide toward the bottom of the conference.

Tennessee State, Tennessee Tech and Murray State are all rebuilding and their success will depend on how quickly their young players progress.

TSU always has athletes but they weren't fundamentally sound last year. They do have an outstanding running back in Javarris Williams who gained 1233 yards rushing last season while averaging five yards per carry.

Williams, a preseason first team all-conference selection, is quick and difficult to handle. Look for the Tigers to find more ways to get him the ball this year. Last season he only caught 13 passes. Odds are he’ll get twice as many receptions this year.

TSU's quarterback Antonio Heffner was also a first team preseason selection.

But to be honest that says more about the other quarterbacks in the league than it does Heffner. He completed just 54.8 percent of his passes and had more interceptions than he did touchdowns.

Tennessee Tech gets a new coach in Watson Brown who moves to Cookeville from IA Alabama-Birmingham. Brown has also coached at Cincinnati and Vanderbilt.

The Golden Eagles don't have a proven running back but they have one of the best wide receivers in the league in Larry Shipp who had 51 catches for 799 yards and eight touchdowns last season. And quarterback Lee Sweeney may be a budding star.

Sweeney transferred to Tech from Louisville last year and threw for 2292 yards and 17 touchdowns as a freshman. He needs to be more accurate as he completed just 53 percent of his passes and threw 17 interceptions. But if he makes the kind of progression you'd expect he could be very dangerous.

Murray State was picked seventh and the Racers don't have anyone with eye popping stats. Only senior linebacker Nathan Williams received preseason all-conference honors.

But there is talent on the roster.

Running back Charlie Jordan is elusive and capable of piling up a lot of yardage. Rod Harper is dangerous at wide receiver. Freshman wideout Antoine Lightfoot is very fast and will be a deep threat. And Tamar Butler is one of the best young linebackers in the OVC.

But the Racers are hard to evaluate because the players are so young. All but 13 are freshmen or sophomores.

Southeast Missouri, Samford and Austin Peay figure to be at the bottom of league. Collectively these three teams had just one player named preseason all-conference.

Samford is probably the best of that trio as they do have experienced players at the skill positions.
 

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