Pressure cooker in the OVC

[smallcollegefbfan]

Around FCS: Pressure cooker in the OVC
by Brett Kahn, FCS Assistant

Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - With arguably the best team in the conference not eligible for the league title, the nine-team Ohio Valley Conference could see some serious competition in 2009.

Jacksonville State, which finished 23rd in last year's final Sports Network poll, had high hopes for the 2009 season until the NCAA ruled the Gamecocks ineligible for postseason play, due to the school's academic progress report (APR).

http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform.aspx?c=sportsnetwork&page=cfoot2/news/news.aspx?id=4249039

[Cocky]

Eric Johns has left the team.

[BDKJMU]

I bet this thread will be moved into purgatory soon just like the CAA preview thread was.

[MSUBear42]

MO State's home opener is Tennessee-Martin then we play Murray, should be a good gauge on:

1) How we'll do the rest of the season, and
2) How we'd fair in the OVC.

[JSU02]

I think his order of the team's is pretty good. I may have swapped Murray with UTM, but otherwise spot-on.

[Maroons]

With no games having yet been played, UT-Martin is the league favorite in my book. I'm also skeptical of Murray's 3rd place ranking on this list.

[MolineRacer]

I think you guys are going to be surprised by this years Murray State team. They're finally coming into a season with solid returning experience made up of upperclassmen instead of fresh's and soph's. This team has a ton of talent but have lacked experience over the past two seasons. The experience is there now and I look for it to be a break out year (or come back year if you want to look at it that way). It's been a long rebuilding process that saw the program completely dismantled and rebuilt from the ground up mostly with high school kids. You'll find very few Juco or D1 transfers on this team. You will find a lot of talent and character. Those things coupled with experience should equal success.

[WMTribe90]

Please move this thread to the FCS News board where it can die an instant death next to the CAA thread that was moved for no good reason.

[JSU02]

Let's not be bitter CAAers :)

[TTUEagles]

I may be the eternal optimist here, but I think TTU will be better than 8th...I think they can sneak into the top 5 of the conference (lofty goals, huh?)... TECH has senior QB (don't know that it's true what s'network.com says about Sweeney losing his job), and all skill positions returning. Seniors that played last year all had backups that played significant amounts of time. It seems that a lot of teams, except TSU, maybe, are returning a lot of players. TECH is, also, but, most of them are Sophs/Juniors - still not a lot of seniors on this team. The few players I've talked to say "we're 100 times better than we were this time last year," and "practice is way more focused and intense this year."
I'm aiming at 2010 and 2011 being the years TTU can finally compete for the league title, legitimately. It seems we say this every year, but, I believe this is the best the OVC's been (top to bottom) in a long time.

[JSU02]

I may be the eternal optimist here, but I think TTU will be better than 8th...I think they can sneak into the top 5 of the conference (lofty goals, huh?)... TECH has senior QB (don't know that it's true what s'network.com says about Sweeney losing his job), and all skill positions returning. Seniors that played last year all had backups that played significant amounts of time. It seems that a lot of teams, except TSU, maybe, are returning a lot of players. TECH is, also, but, most of them are Sophs/Juniors - still not a lot of seniors on this team. The few players I've talked to say "we're 100 times better than we were this time last year," and "practice is way more focused and intense this year."
I'm aiming at 2010 and 2011 being the years TTU can finally compete for the league title, legitimately. It seems we say this every year, but, I believe this is the best the OVC's been (top to bottom) in a long time.

Perhaps the fact your Coach is Watson Brown had something to do with being 8th...

[Bam]

Ouch

[TTUEagles]

Besides the fact that Coach Brown has helped significantly upgrade facilities, bring more $$ in, more attention, etc., I don't really give a damn about his past failures in the win-loss column. Save the current admin., who else has won at Vandy? Who else at Rice, UAB, etc? It's not like he killed successful programs. He has a tough job at TTU and so far, I'm "okay" with his job... He's been good for TTU so far, now if they don't significantly improve in the next 2-3 years, then, I'll jump on board with those not impressed with Watson Brown.

[Cocky]

It will be a big surprise if Watson Brown is able to build TTU. But maybe he can upgrade facilities and the next coach can do some good things.
This is my hope for our school too. I hope the next coach can capitize on the improvements made during the Crowe era. I personally believe we have hit the apex of his tenure which is a little above avg.

[CSN Log]

08-21-2009 08:59 AM

Pressure cooker in the OVC

With arguably the best team in the conference not eligible for the league title, the nine-team Ohio Valley Conference could see some serious competition in 2009.

Read more ... (http://www.championshipsubdivisionnews.com/index.php/2009/08/21/pressure-cooker-in-the-ovc?blog=2#more5430)

[TTUEagles]

Just heard from one of the players that Lee Sweeney (Senior QB, 3 letters) is definitely the starter, not U of Minn transfer, Brewster. "This is the best he's looked, he's sharp, he's going to have a great year...," I was told. This story suggests that Sweeney has lost the starting job.

Also, TECH just launched a new website: ttusports.com - looks awesome!