Football: Colonels, Skyhawks play for title
Scott Richey/ Sports Editor
Issue date: 11/19/08 Section: Sports
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Whichever team has the best conference record at the end of the season is the league champ.
But this year there will be a conference title game of sorts as the top two teams in the league will play head-to-head in the final game of the regular season to determine the conference champion.
Eastern Kentucky takes its six-game winning streak to Martin, Tenn., at noon Saturday to play Tennessee Martin for the OVC title.
The Colonels are the defending OVC champs and have won 19 league titles in school history.
Eastern Kentucky head coach Dean Hood said the Colonels would not be in this situation had they lost to Murray State on Saturday.
"It was a critical win," Hood said. "If we don't beat Murray, then this Saturday we have us a nice scrimmage and get ready for winter conditioning."
Tennessee Martin head coach Jason Simpson said his team has to beat the Colonels to have a shot at the playoffs. A loss - and a Tennessee State win against Murray State - would put the Skyhawks into a three-way tie and a small chance for an at-large bid.
"I understand the math just like everybody else does," Simpson said. "It's very unfortunate we had to play the two I-A teams. We needed to do that financially for our program. I picked up the NAIA teams because I thought that was the right thing to do for our players. We have eight wins but only six wins against FCS opponents."
Hood said his team is in a similar position as the Skyhawks. Win or go home. A loss would nearly eliminate any chance at a playoff berth.
"We're not going to get in with four losses," Hood said. "It's like a first round playoff game really."
To even be in that position, though, could be a surprise based on the Colonels' record following their first four games.
Hood said the 16 seniors on the team pushed Eastern Kentucky to the success it had later in the season.
"We started out 1-3, and I'm looking at my shoes and having my dad looking in the hometown paper and see if there was any high school jobs open back in my hometown just in case things get bad," Hood joked. "It's a heck of a turnaround."
Saturday's game is the first time since the 2002 season a head-to-head match up in the final week decided the league champion.
That year, Eastern beat Murray State 37-35 to win the conference title.
Panthers finish below .500 for first time in four years
Eastern was at the top of the OVC the past three seasons. The Panthers were the league champion in 2005 and 2006 and finished second to Eastern Kentucky last season.
Eastern made the playoffs each of those three years.
This season, the best Eastern can hope for is a 5-7 finish - the first time the Panthers have finished with a record below .500 since the 2004 season.
Eastern has to beat Tennessee Tech on the road on Saturday afternoon to secure its fifth win this year.
The last time the Panthers had fewer than five wins was the 2003 season (four wins).
"Everybody coming off a loss is looking for that last game to be a winning effort," Eastern head coach Bob Spoo said. "That's going to be hard. Tennessee Tech is playing well, has fine talent and we've got our work cut out for us. We've got a lot of retooling to do whether we win or lose."
Williams breaks Racers' record; still leads nation
Murray State red-shirt senior linebacker Nathan Williams broke the Racers' single-season tackle mark with his 17-tackle performance against Eastern Kentucky on Saturday. He now has 167 tackles this season (15.18 per game), and the Murray, Ky., native still has one more game to play in his career.
Williams, a finalist for the Buck Buchanan Award given to the top defensive player in the Football Championship Subdivision, leads all levels of college football in tackles this season.
Scott Richey can be reached at 581-7944 or at srrichey@eiu.edu.
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