Conference action in full swing heading into fifth week of play

Nothing about Ohio Valley Conference football has come as a surprise to ninth-year Tennessee Tech football coach Watson Brown through the first four weeks of the season and the first four conference games played.

Brown's Golden Eagle squad that was picked to finish seventh in the OVC preseason poll and Eastern Kentucky, which was picked third, both sit at 1-0 in conference action behind 2-0 and defending conference champion Jacksonville State.

"I knew it was a return league. I knew that teams had a lot of returning plays and I knew there were a lot of big-time skill guys coming back, and I think that you're seeing a lot of skill guys make plays on Saturdays," Brown said on the OVC teleconference on Tuesday. "It's just going to be a fun year. Jacksonville's jumped out early and was dominant, but I know they've lost at least one of their defensive ends and those injuries change a lot of things. It could bring them a little bit back to the rest of us, but maybe not, too. I mean, they are very, very good.

"But I think the league's good. There's going to be three or four in the last month of the year that will be fighting for a playoff spot, so it's just going to be fun, in my opinion. *... I think at this point we are all still chasing Jacksonville State a little bit, but at the same time as the season goes on a lot of that can change just from different injuries."

JSU, which jumped to No. 1 in the STATS FCS poll following its near overtime upset of then-ranked Football Bowl Subdivision opponent Auburn, remains at No. 1 in the STATS poll and No. 3 in the FCS Coaches poll. The Gamecocks are 2-0 in conference play after a 48-13 defeat of Tennessee State and a 48-41 win over UT Martin. Skyhawks coach Jason Simpson said the Gamecocks were "as good as advertised," last weekend.

JSU hosts Mississippi Valley State on Saturday and follows that up with a bye week before playing TTU on Oct. 17.

"We're a little banged up right now, and hopefully we can get some guys healthy for the stretch run in OVC play because it isn't going to get any easier, for sure," JSU second-year coach John Grass said.

EKU (2-1), which faces Kentucky this week, is the only other OVC team ranked at this point. The Colonels came in at No. 17 in the STATS poll and No. 21 in the coaches poll this week following their 51-13 defeat of winless Austin Peay.

TSU (3-1, 0-1 OVC) received six votes in this week's STATS poll.

"Well, I think it's as good as we've billed it to be early in the year. I think that everybody's playing at a high level," Grass said. "*...Seems like everybody's got a quarterback back, and they're able to score some points and move the football. Like I said, it's going to be a competitive league. You'll see a lot of games that are last-possession games, one-touchdown games, overtime games. I've said that all the way along, and you look at our out-of-conference stuff I think that we've played some FBS teams really close and had some overtime games against some other FCS teams around the country. I think it's a good league. The parity from top to bottom is really probably as good as it's ever been."

Southeast is the only team that did not return a starting quarterback or a quarterback with significant playing time.

The Redhawks and Eastern Illinois (0-3) each begin conference play this weekend. The Panthers travel to Clarksville, Tennessee, to play Austin Peay (0-4, 0-1 OVC).

"It is exciting to be back in and be in the league, and yes, this is our first conference game and all those goals and all those aspirations are still out there ahead of us but if we don't take care of what we've got to take care of today and this week, we can kiss all that good bye," EIU coach Kim Dameron said. "So we don't worry too much about all that. We talked about all that at the beginning of the season and what our goals were, but we don't revisit that very often. Right now we're just concentrating on the process and making sure that we get better every day."

Southeast hosts Murray State (1-3, 0-1 OVC) at 6 p.m. Saturday at Houck Stadium. The Racers are coming off a 31-29 loss to TTU, and Southeast will try to snap a two-game losing streak after a 29-28 loss to nationally-ranked Indiana State and a 26-21 loss to Division II Shorter University.

"Like I told the team, 'If we're 2-2 how does that help us beat Murray? How does that help us prepare for the OVC?' In reality it really doesn't," Matukewicz said. "The last game has no bearing on your next game. [We're] 0-0 in the conference and ready to go, and that's the message."

Brown commended Southeast for nearly knocking off the Sycamores on the road and said the Redhawks "played the fool out of Missouri," but wasn't surprised by that or anything else that has transpired.

"I thought everybody would be better this year over last," Brown said. "Nothing has changed my mind on that at this point."