nothingbutjsu
September 27th, 2006, 06:55 AM
FROM THE ANNISTON {ALABAMA} STAR NEWSPAPER
Loser between Gamecocks, Eastern Kentucky likely out of OVC championship race
By Al Muskewitz
Star Sports Writer
09-26-2006
JACKSONVILLE — Before this season started, most followers of Division I-AA football expected Jacksonville State's game with Eastern Kentucky to be one of the Ohio Valley Conference's biggest.
Well, the game has arrived this week, and it's still a big one.
Just not for the same reason as originally expected.
In August, a JSU-EKU matchup looked like an early showdown for league supremacy. It was a meeting of the preseason favorite Colonels against the perennial contender Gamecocks looking to regain the dominance they held by winning the league crown in 2003 and '04 — their first two years in it.
Now, with both teams suffering surprising losses last week, Saturday's date in Richmond, Ky., likely has become an elimination game.
The winner stays in contention for the league title, although doing a lot more scoreboard watching than it probably would like, while the loser is virtually out of the race with two conference losses.
“What was that weekend they had, Separation Saturday?” JSU coach Jack Crowe asked Monday, referring to the ESPN/ABC hook to its college football telecasts two weeks ago. “This is Separation Saturday in the OVC. There's a chance for a few people to be 0-2. … No question it's an elimination game.”
Colonels coach Danny Hope wasn't so certain. He disputed the notion of Saturday being do-or-die, but he agreed a victory could go a long way in helping the once-dominant Colonels earn their first conference title since 1997.
If they lose, they'll fall to 0-2 in the league for the first time since 1960.
“It's a long ways away from being an elimination game, I guarantee you that,” Hope said Monday. “It's an important game because it's a conference game.
“Jax State is one of the strongest teams in our league. They have a lot of great players, and they play hard. They play to win.
“If we play well and beat Jacksonville State, and if (JSU) holds true to how they usually play, then that would bode well in our favor.”
No team has won an OVC football crown with two league losses in more than 40 years. Eastern Illinois won it last year going undefeated but needed to beat the Gamecocks in the season's final game or force a three-way tie and a blind draw for the league's automatic bid to the I-AA playoffs.
“I think you could be co-champions with two losses (this year) if what I'm looking at holds up,” Crowe said. “If there was ever a year that there could be saturation at the top with two losses (it'd be this year) … because right now, based on performance, the real contender or contenders have not stepped forward.
“I wouldn't be so profound as to say, 'No way, José' (that the conference champion could have two losses), but I think there is a gut-wrenching experience when you've got two losses.”
If a bunching at the top occurs this year, the race again faces the prospect of a blind draw to determine the OVC's automatic postseason bid. If the Gamecocks had beaten Eastern Illinois in last year's regular-season finale, a three-way tie for first would have been forged — forcing the blind draw.
Conference coaches and officials met last year to formulate a viable statistical tiebreaker, but the issue never was resolved.
How the situation gets handled if it happens this year is something Crowe said he isn't thinking about at this point.
Still, the Gamecocks know what's at stake this weekend.
“We've won this league with one loss two times before,” JSU right guard Al Jefferson said. “Basically we come to this game with the mind-set of we can not lose.
“No matter what the circumstance is, we have to get the job done.”
The Gamecocks (1-2, 1-1 OVC) fell into this position because they didn't get the job done Saturday night at Tennessee-Martin. They lost to the Skyhawks for only the fifth time in the series' 28-game history in large part because they couldn't pick up 6 inches on fourth down in the fourth quarter of a three-point game.
The Colonels (1-3, 0-1) joined them with an equally stunning loss to a Tennessee Tech team that has struggled from the outset.
Both were ranked going into their respective games — EKU at No. 24, JSU at 25 — but took a freefall when the new poll was announced Monday.
“We're going to be back, ready to go back at it, because I think we've still got a shot,” Gamecocks quarterback Matt Hardin said. “I think we're going to come out; we have to. I still don't think we've had where everybody's come out at the same time yet.
“We're a couple plays here and there, offense and defense, and I think we're fine. But we have to do it. Right now. It's time to do it.”
Crowe calls it a threshold game, not unlike the situation the Gamecocks faced in 2003 before playing EKU in their first OVC game.
The Gamecocks were 1-2 that year, too, coming off diametrically different losses to North Alabama and Kansas, and then crushed the Colonels 49-14 at Paul Snow Stadium. From there, they went on to win their first of back-to-back OVC titles.
“These things you just have to get through,” Crowe said. “I think we're at the threshold. Now, whether we get through it, get on with it, I think quite honestly is going to have a lot to do with our mind-set.
“We can sit around and analyze and get paralyzed with analysis. We've got to attack and not look over our shoulder, and we've got to know that we can.
“Be sure that we can, be sure that we want to and just be determined that we will — and it'll boil down to each individual's will to get to a place we all think we can be.
“I'm not concerned about the future of this football team. I'm concerned about when we're going to break through, because we're at a breakthrough point. I'd say this is somewhat like 2003. I think we've just about come full circle.
“With so many new coaches and new players, we're just about at that point where we were. We're stronger in our program and everything else, but (there are) things you just have to go through every once in a while.”
Loser between Gamecocks, Eastern Kentucky likely out of OVC championship race
By Al Muskewitz
Star Sports Writer
09-26-2006
JACKSONVILLE — Before this season started, most followers of Division I-AA football expected Jacksonville State's game with Eastern Kentucky to be one of the Ohio Valley Conference's biggest.
Well, the game has arrived this week, and it's still a big one.
Just not for the same reason as originally expected.
In August, a JSU-EKU matchup looked like an early showdown for league supremacy. It was a meeting of the preseason favorite Colonels against the perennial contender Gamecocks looking to regain the dominance they held by winning the league crown in 2003 and '04 — their first two years in it.
Now, with both teams suffering surprising losses last week, Saturday's date in Richmond, Ky., likely has become an elimination game.
The winner stays in contention for the league title, although doing a lot more scoreboard watching than it probably would like, while the loser is virtually out of the race with two conference losses.
“What was that weekend they had, Separation Saturday?” JSU coach Jack Crowe asked Monday, referring to the ESPN/ABC hook to its college football telecasts two weeks ago. “This is Separation Saturday in the OVC. There's a chance for a few people to be 0-2. … No question it's an elimination game.”
Colonels coach Danny Hope wasn't so certain. He disputed the notion of Saturday being do-or-die, but he agreed a victory could go a long way in helping the once-dominant Colonels earn their first conference title since 1997.
If they lose, they'll fall to 0-2 in the league for the first time since 1960.
“It's a long ways away from being an elimination game, I guarantee you that,” Hope said Monday. “It's an important game because it's a conference game.
“Jax State is one of the strongest teams in our league. They have a lot of great players, and they play hard. They play to win.
“If we play well and beat Jacksonville State, and if (JSU) holds true to how they usually play, then that would bode well in our favor.”
No team has won an OVC football crown with two league losses in more than 40 years. Eastern Illinois won it last year going undefeated but needed to beat the Gamecocks in the season's final game or force a three-way tie and a blind draw for the league's automatic bid to the I-AA playoffs.
“I think you could be co-champions with two losses (this year) if what I'm looking at holds up,” Crowe said. “If there was ever a year that there could be saturation at the top with two losses (it'd be this year) … because right now, based on performance, the real contender or contenders have not stepped forward.
“I wouldn't be so profound as to say, 'No way, José' (that the conference champion could have two losses), but I think there is a gut-wrenching experience when you've got two losses.”
If a bunching at the top occurs this year, the race again faces the prospect of a blind draw to determine the OVC's automatic postseason bid. If the Gamecocks had beaten Eastern Illinois in last year's regular-season finale, a three-way tie for first would have been forged — forcing the blind draw.
Conference coaches and officials met last year to formulate a viable statistical tiebreaker, but the issue never was resolved.
How the situation gets handled if it happens this year is something Crowe said he isn't thinking about at this point.
Still, the Gamecocks know what's at stake this weekend.
“We've won this league with one loss two times before,” JSU right guard Al Jefferson said. “Basically we come to this game with the mind-set of we can not lose.
“No matter what the circumstance is, we have to get the job done.”
The Gamecocks (1-2, 1-1 OVC) fell into this position because they didn't get the job done Saturday night at Tennessee-Martin. They lost to the Skyhawks for only the fifth time in the series' 28-game history in large part because they couldn't pick up 6 inches on fourth down in the fourth quarter of a three-point game.
The Colonels (1-3, 0-1) joined them with an equally stunning loss to a Tennessee Tech team that has struggled from the outset.
Both were ranked going into their respective games — EKU at No. 24, JSU at 25 — but took a freefall when the new poll was announced Monday.
“We're going to be back, ready to go back at it, because I think we've still got a shot,” Gamecocks quarterback Matt Hardin said. “I think we're going to come out; we have to. I still don't think we've had where everybody's come out at the same time yet.
“We're a couple plays here and there, offense and defense, and I think we're fine. But we have to do it. Right now. It's time to do it.”
Crowe calls it a threshold game, not unlike the situation the Gamecocks faced in 2003 before playing EKU in their first OVC game.
The Gamecocks were 1-2 that year, too, coming off diametrically different losses to North Alabama and Kansas, and then crushed the Colonels 49-14 at Paul Snow Stadium. From there, they went on to win their first of back-to-back OVC titles.
“These things you just have to get through,” Crowe said. “I think we're at the threshold. Now, whether we get through it, get on with it, I think quite honestly is going to have a lot to do with our mind-set.
“We can sit around and analyze and get paralyzed with analysis. We've got to attack and not look over our shoulder, and we've got to know that we can.
“Be sure that we can, be sure that we want to and just be determined that we will — and it'll boil down to each individual's will to get to a place we all think we can be.
“I'm not concerned about the future of this football team. I'm concerned about when we're going to break through, because we're at a breakthrough point. I'd say this is somewhat like 2003. I think we've just about come full circle.
“With so many new coaches and new players, we're just about at that point where we were. We're stronger in our program and everything else, but (there are) things you just have to go through every once in a while.”