From the Journal-Gazette in Illinois

This article starts with some comments on TN State, follow by some good comments about JSU. Here is a link, but you can just read it below.

No comment (hint, hint) from Tennessee State coach

By BRIAN NIELSEN, Sports Editor
bnielsen@jg-tc.com

At least coach James Webster appears to have avoided a suspension after his Tennessee State football team fell from atop the Ohio Valley Conference.

“First of all I thought coach (Matt) Griffin and his coaching staff did a very good job preparing his team,” Webster said three days after losing to Griffin’s Murray State team 9-6. “Other than that I don’t have any comments and I won’t comment because any comments I make will not be acceptable to the OVC.”

Reprimanded three years ago by the OVC for publicly criticizing officials, Webster lets us guess about his implications this time.

“The team that was on the field was not the same team we had on the field at Eastern Kentucky,” Webster said. “We had some issues going on last week that we couldn’t control.”


One week after knocking off nationally ranked and preseason OVC favorite Eastern Kentucky, Tennessee State lost quarterback Carl McNairl to an injury and fell from the league’s unbeaten ranks by losing to a Murray State team that entered the game 0-2 in the conference.

Eastern Kentucky regained its spot atop the league at 4-1 by edging UT Martin 31-25, Eastern Illinois moved into second place at 3-1 by holding off a Tennessee Tech comeback bid for a 23-15 win and Tennessee State fell to 2-1.

“We had a great opportunity and now we are down with everyone else,” Webster said.

Three other teams are still in contention with two losses each. Murray State, maybe turning into contention in the fourth year of Griffin’s rebuilding project, is one of them.

“I haven’t even looked at it,” the Racers coach said. “To be real honest with you, I haven’t looked at the standings in a couple of weeks.”

Anyone looking at standings sees several teams bunched together as one reporter called it in Tuesday’s OVC teleconference.

“Bunched all together is the best way to put it,” Eastern Kentucky coach Dean Hood said. “You watch everybody on tape and nobody is beating the tar out of anybody except for Jacksonville State. Everybody else it’s one play one way or the other.”

That might be encouraging news for everyone except for Eastern Illinois, which has a 1 p.m. Saturday game at Jacksonville State.

Jacksonville State would be atop the OVC standings at 2-0 but the Gamecocks are ineligible for the league title or an NCAA playoff berth this year because of an Academic Progress Report penalty.

The Gamecocks still have No. 12 and No. 13 national rankings in Football Championship Subdivision polls, standing 4-2 after starting the season with losses to Football Bowl Subdivision teams Georgia Tech and Florida State.

Featuring FCS passing efficiency leader Ryan Perrilloux, the Gamecocks lead the OVC in scoring offense (37.3 points per game), scoring defense (15.5 ppg), total offense (434.8 yards per game), total defense (307.0 ypg), passing offense (263.3 ypg), passing defense (169.7 ypg), passing efficiency (173.5 rating) and passing defense efficiency (108.2).

Oh yeah, they lead the whole nation averaging 26.6 yards per kickoff return.

“They’re an exceptional football team in all of those areas,” Eastern Illinois coach Bob Spoo said. “I don’t know that they have a weakness. They play very well in every category.”

Jacksonville State coach Jack Crowe denies any ideas of being invincible in the OVC.

“We’ve got plenty of weaknesses,” he said. “The head coach may be the biggest one. by the way. We’ve tried to organize ourselves. You have an open week, you look at yourselves. We understand what we have done poorly. There are things that concern me. I’m not going to say those and give Bob a scouting report, not that he needs a scouting report. He knows what he’s doing.”

Contact Brian Nielsen at bnielsen@jg-tc.com or 238-6856.