Tuesday, August 4, 2009 9:02 AM CDT
Needing new QB, EKU is still No. 1
BY BRIAN NIELSEN, Sports Editor
bnielsen@jg-tc.com
Called the best high school quarterback in Ohio a couple of years ago, Chris Smith now might ease Eastern Kentucky coach Dean Hood’s alarms.
Smith has transferred from Marshall University to help rescue what Hood tries to portray as a desolate Eastern Kentucky football program a year after winning its second straight Ohio Valley Conference championship.
The majority of OVC coaches and sports information directors apparently were unaware enough to vote the Colonels as preseason favorites again this season.
“I don’t know how the heck that happened,” Hood said of the voting. “We lost some pretty big bullets in the gun, especially Al Holland.”
Holland, originally a Wake Forest recruit, transferred to Eastern Kentucky, became the OVC’s 2007 Offensive Player of the Year and helped lead the Colonels to league championships the past two years.
He graduated giving Hood a reason to downplay his team’s chances of an OVC threepeat.
Back from watching Holland from the sideline last year are redshirt freshman T.J. Prior, whom Hood admits has plenty of potential, as well as sophomore Trevor Hoskins, who was 2-for-2 passing last season.
Another possibility is Cody Watts, who completed 11 of his 13 passes for 145 yards last year but is an athlete Hood prefers to keep at wide receiver where he had 23 receptions for 386 yards and five touchdowns.
Brightening the picture is Smith, joining Eastern Kentucky as a transfer from an NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision team.
“I think it’s wide open for anybody,” Hood said of his quarterback picture heading into preseason practice. “That’s always a scary deal when you have no one who has taken a snap for you for virtually two years.”
Other coaches and SIDs, keeping in mind Eastern Kentucky has the OVC’s top returning rusher in C.J. Walker as well as preseason All-American lineman Derek Hardman, still express respect for the Colonels.
“I had Eastern Kentucky up at the top,” Eastern Illinois coach Bob Spoo said. “That was my vote.”
Five of the 10 OVC coaches spoke during a teleconference on Monday with the other half scheduled for today.
Interesting comments can be expected today from coach Jack Crowe, whose Jacksonville State team has been ruled by the NCAA ineligible for postseason competition this year because of poor academic standing.
Games for other teams against Jacksonville State are to count in OVC standings but the Gamecocks are not eligible for the league championship.
That does not mean the team with quarterback Ryan Perrilloux playing his second season at Jacksonville State after playing at Louisiana State is not going to be a strong opponent again.
“There’s no doubt that I’m putting UT Martin and Jax State 1-2; I don’t know in which order,” Hood said when asked where he would rank Jacksonville State if it had been included in the preseason poll. “I don’t know in which order but I’d have Eastern Illinois and Tennessee State 3-4 or 4-3.”
The consensus has UT Martin second, Eastern Illinois third, Tennessee State fourth and Murray State fifth with each of those teams getting at least one first-place vote in one of the most balanced preseason polls in OVC history.
Of course, these votes might have been done in the time it takes to rewind a game film and start watching another.
“To tell you the truth I can’t remember,” Tennessee Tech coach Watson Brown said of his choices. “I know I picked Eastern Kentucky to win it. I always pick the team that’s won it the year before wherever I’ve been. I think Eastern Illinois will be there. I think Martin will be there. I think TSU is going to be right in there.”
Spoo said: “I think it’s going to be the toughest conference in my time in the OVC. Polls don’t mean a whole lot. There are a lot of good football teams. I don’t think there is anyone you can look past for the next week.”
Winning or sharing the OVC title in four of the past eight years, Spoo’s Panthers received an upper division prediction despite stumbling to sixth place last year when going 3-5 in the conference and 5-7 overall.
“We dropped off last season as you know,” Spoo said. “We spent the last off-season trying to figure out how to get back where we want to be. We’ve got to get back to some good fundamental football. We hired a new strength coach and he spent a lot of time with our team this summer.”
Among the teams EIU is now chasing is UT Martin, featuring quarterback Cade Thompson who was voted OVC Preseason Offensive Player of the Year.
Preseason Defensive Player of the year Austen Lane leads Murray State as the Racers try to continue their return to contenders after ending a string of three straight last-place finishes by going 4-4 for fifth last season.
In fact, Murray State leads the league with six preseason all-conference picks.
“It’s exciting,” said coach Matt Griffin, who is entering his fourth year as the Racers coach. “Experience is something it takes time to get.
“I think we’re capable. I think there are three or four teams or maybe even a fifth with the capabilities to win the thing.”
Also still trying to rebuild is Brown at Tennessee Tech where the process might be accelerated by six transfers from FBS schools, including former Minnesota quarterback Clint Brewster.
Brewster, who has three years of eligibility remaining, does not have to necessarily step into a starting roll immediately considering Tech returns Lee Sweeney as well as wide receiver Tim Benford and rushing leader Henry Sailes from a team that was last in the OVC last year at 1-7.
“I feel so much better than I did a year ago,” Brown said. “Last year I knew we were in for a haul.”
Tech received two more voting points than Austin Peay and Southeast Missouri, who share the last-place spot in the OVC’s preseason poll.
“First of all, I was sitting here trying to think of who I voted for because it’s been a long time,” SEMO coach Tony Samuel said. “I can’t remember. If I voted the next day I might have picked someone else. To me that’s a good thing. We have a lot of good teams.
I’m just glad we have the opportunity first of all that we’re not going to be ranked at that spot at the end of the year.”
Contact Brian Nielsen at bnielsen@jg-tc.com or 238-6856.
Add your comments
Not already registered?
Then click Here.
Comment policy:
JG-TC.com encourages readers to engage in civil conversation with their neighbors. Comments that are submitted are not posted to the site immediately. They go into a queue to be moderated and may take several hours to be reviewed. Comments posted on Saturday may not be reviewed until Sunday afternoon.
In order to keep the page a set width, long lines (mostly long links) will be chopped. Try putting spaces in your links or consider using tinyurl.com to make a smaller link that you can include.
We will never edit or alter your comments, but we do reserve the right to remove comments that violate our code of conduct.
No comment may contain:
* Potentially libelous statements; such as accusing somebody of a crime, defamation of character, or statements that can harm somebody's reputation.
* Obscene, explicit, or racist language.
* Personal attacks, insults, threats, harassment or inciting violence.
* Commercial product promotions.
If you have any questions, please contact our moderator.
|
|
|
|
|
