New coaches don't put much stock in expectations

~ The league has four new head coaches, including Samuel at Southeast.

There were several unfamiliar faces at Tuesday's Ohio Valley Conference football media day in Nashville, Tenn.

That's what happens when four of the league's nine teams have new head coaches, although Murray State's Matt Griffin simply switched schools within the league after leaving Tennessee-Martin.

Other OVC programs under new management are Southeast Missouri State (Tony Samuel), Tennessee-Martin (Jason Simpson) and Tennessee Tech (Doug Malone).

"New coaches mean new ideas and new energy," OVC commissioner Dr. Jon Steinbrecher said.

Griffin made the most unusual jump among the new head coaches after he led an amazing resurgence at Tennessee-Martin in just three seasons.

The Skyhawks had not won an OVC game in the six years prior to Griffin's arrival. Last year they completed the turnaround by going 6-5 overall and 4-4 in conference play. The winning season was just the second in the school's Division I-AA history and first since 1993.

Now Griffin will look to work his magic with the Racers, who have traditionally been among the OVC's better programs but last year went winless in the league.

"We had a great challenge a few years ago, went into a place that was down and left it better," Griffin said. "We face the same challenge at Murray. We're an average club right now."

Somewhat surprisingly, the Racers were picked fifth in Tuesday's preseason poll voted on by the OVC's head coaches and sports information directors.

"Preseason polls don't mean a thing," Griffin said. "We don't put a lot into them."

Neither does Samuel, whose first Southeast squad was picked dead last after the Redhawks finished seventh in 2005.

"I don't pay much attention to that," said Samuel, a former head coach at Division I-A New Mexico State and a former longtime assistant at Nebraska who inherited a team that went 2-9 last year. "The key to the whole thing is at this point it's all speculation."

Simpson, most recently the offensive coordinator at Tennessee-Chattanooga, takes over the program with perhaps the most immediate potential. Tennessee-Martin returns most of its key players, although the Skyhawks must replace four-year starting quarterback Brady Wahlberg.

"He [Griffin] didn't leave the cupboard bare," said Simpson, whose team is picked to finish sixth.

Malone was named Tennessee Tech's acting head coach only two weeks ago, shortly after Mike Hennigan requested a medical leave of absence.

Malone, a former head coach at Wingate, was Hennigan's offensive coordinator the past seven years. The Eagles, 4-7 overall in 2005, tied for seventh in Tuesday's poll.

"Our style is not going to change a whole lot," Malone said. "This late in it, we're not going to change much."

APSU getting close

Austin Peay continues on track to rejoin the OVC as a football-playing member.

The Governors, who dropped from scholarship to nonscholarship football and left the OVC in that sport after the 1996 season, will transition from nonscholarship to partial-scholarship status as a I-AA independent this year before becoming fully funded and resuming an OVC schedule in 2007.

"Everybody is real excited," said Austin Peay coach Carroll McCray, who attended the media day. "It will be really nice to get back in the OVC. The rest of the university's teams are in the league, and it will be exciting that we'll be a part of it."

Austin Peay will play three OVC teams this year, including the Sept. 2 opener against visiting Southeast. There's also a home date with Tennessee-Martin on Sept. 30 and a road test with Samford on Sept. 14.

"Austin Peay will be a big challenge for two reasons," Samuel said of his first Southeast game. "One, it's on the road. Two, they'll have a lot of excitement going back to scholarship football."

McCray knows the Govs have a long way to go before being competitive in the OVC. His three-year Austin Peay record is 8-25, including 2-9 in 2005.

"It's going to take time," he said. "I have an idea of what we need to do, and playing three OVC teams this year, I think it will give us an idea of where we stand."

Several rules changes

The NCAA Football Rules Committee recently passed several rule changes that are intended to shorten the length of games.

The most notable difference will come after changes of possession. The clock will start once the ball is set, not when the ball is snapped. The NCAA estimates this rule change will shorten games by as much as five to seven minutes.

Also, the game clock will be started when a kicker's foot touches the ball on free kicks and will be stopped when the ball is ruled dead.

In addition, the intermission between the first and second half will be set at 20 minutes, but can be shortened or lengthened by the home team with prior approval of the visitors.