OVC FOOTBALL DRAWING INTEREST (OVC NOTEBOOK)

The football season is only two weeks old for some teams and just a week old for others, yet already some interesting results have been put on the board around the Ohio Valley Conference.

Only two games within the conference have been played so far and one of them produced a mild surprise, although probably not to the coaches who follow the league closely.

Tennessee State, which has not been a factor in the OVC in recent seasons but has been making steady progress under second-year coach L.C. Cole, knocked off rival Middle Tennessee State 25-16 last Saturday.

Pittsburgh transfer Leon Murray, making his first TSU start, completed 26 of 46 passes for 363 yards and two touchdowns in front of a boisterous crowd of 14,983 at Hale Stadium in Nashville.

"That's always an emotional game with Middle Tennessee," said Southeast Missouri State coach John Mumford. "Everybody talks about our (Division) I-A transfers, but Tennessee State has 12 or 13 big-time 1-A transfers."

The other OVC game from last Saturday provided a more predictable result as preseason favorite Eastern Illinois bounced back from a stunning 41-0 season-opening loss to Western Illinois by drilling Tennessee-Martin 42-6.

Other games featuring OVC teams from last weekend saw Murray State lose 52-50 in triple-overtime at Western Kentucky in a battle of ranked I-AA squads; Eastern Kentucky lose to powerhouse Troy State 21-12 in another ranked I-AA battle; and Tennessee Tech fall to Tennessee-Chattanooga 13-10.

"We thought Murray and Western Kentucky would be a whale of a ballgame and it was," Mumford said. "Tech must be making some noise because Chattanooga is pretty strong."

So, after the opening weeks of the season, Southeast Missouri is the only undefeated OVC team at 1-0, although Mumford knows he can't put too much stock into that because the win came over an NAIA program -- albeit a good one in Lambuth.

Eastern Illinois, Murray State and Tennessee State are all 1-1 while Tennessee-Martin is 0-2 and Eastern Kentucky, Middle Tennessee and Tennessee Tech are all 0-1.

Surveying the early OVC scene, Mumford said, "I think there is more parity in the top five or six than there has been in a while. It's going to be interesting."

* There will be no conference games played this Saturday, but there are still some interesting matchups on the OVC slate.

Among the more intriguing games will feature Eastern Kentucky hosting Western Kentucky, Murray State visiting Southern Illinois and Southeast Missouri hosting Illinois State.

Mumford knows the Indians' contest against the Redbirds will give him a better read on just how improved his team is. Last year, Illinois State rolled past Southeast Missouri 29-0 in Normal, Ill.

"It's going to be a big test for us," Mumford said.

Elsewhere around the league Saturday, Eastern Illinois hosts St. Joseph's College, Middle Tennessee visits Tennessee-Chattanooga and Tennessee State takes on Jackson State in Memphis.

* Three OVC teams are ranked in this week's Sports Network Top 25 I-AA poll.

Murray State is 17th, Eastern Illinois 19th and Eastern Kentucky 22nd.

The OVC has had at least one team ranked in the top 25 for 211 straight weeks. During that stretch, the OVC has had two teams ranked 169 times and three teams ranked 48 times.