Skyhawks take giant step toward title

Chalk up another perennial Ohio Valley Conference heavyweight that has fallen at the hands of resurgent Tennessee-Martin.

Earlier this season, it was Jacksonville State, which captured OVC championships in 2003 and 2004 before finishing third last year, that went down to the Skyhawks.

Then Saturday, in Martin, Tenn., the Skyhawks' defense shut down high-powered Eastern Illinois during a 15-9 victory that ended the defending OVC champions' 13-game winning streak against conference opponents.

Tennessee-Martin's defense, ranked among the nation's best, limited the Panthers to 193 yards of total offense.

"It was just a great college football game Saturday; it really was," Skyhawks coach Jason Simpson said during Tuesday's weekly OVC teleconference. "Either side could have walked away from that game with a win. We were just fortunate enough to get a few breaks."

A crowd of nearly 7,000 helped boost the Skyhawks to arguably their biggest win since the program moved up to Division I-AA in 1992.

"The thing I'm most proud of, we had a great crowd," Simpson said. "It was a big-time atmosphere."

Tennessee-Martin (7-1, 4-0) remained tied for first place in the OVC and continued its best season since moving up to Division I-AA -- by far.

The Skyhawks' seven wins is the most in a season on the Division I-AA level for the program, and the most since 1988.

Tennessee-Martin, which prior to going 6-5 last year had endured a string of 11 consecutive losing seasons and had won just two OVC games from 1997 through 2004, is also nationally ranked for the first time in Division I-AA. The Skyhawks moved up to 10th this week.

"We felt like going into this year that we'd have an opportunity to win some games, but there is such a fine line in this conference between winning and losing," said Simpson, in his first year at Tennessee-Martin. "You've got to be lucky and coach well and play well. Right now things are going our way."

Tennessee State (5-3, 4-0), which joins Tennessee-Martin as the OVC's biggest surprise, kept pace with the Skyhawks at the top of the standings by beating visiting Samford 29-7.

The Tigers went 2-9 and won just one conference game last year during coach James Webster's first season.

Even if Tennessee State and Tennessee-Martin continue their undefeated league seasons, they won't be able to decide who is best on the field.

The OVC has been allowing Tennessee State to play just seven league contests in order to keep its annual "classic" games against other historically black colleges intact.

As luck would have it, in the rotating schedule, this is the year that Tennessee State misses facing Tennessee-Martin, although it remains to be seen whether that will factor into the final league standings.

If both squads do finish with 7-0 conference records, no tiebreakers within the league would be able to settle things, so a coin flip would be used to determine the league's automatic Division I-AA playoff berth.

"I like the idea that everybody plays everybody. That way you do determine a true champion. I wish we were playing UT-Martin this year," Webster said. "But the schedules are made. It is a benefit for us to play classic games from a monetary standpoint."

Of course, if the Skyhawks do end up winning the rest of their games and finish ranked in the top 10 nationally, they're almost a lock to receive an at-large playoff bid even if they aren't the league's automatic representative.

But, as all the conference's coaches were quick to point out, there is still a long way to go, and Tennessee-Martin and Tennessee State both have several challenging tests remaining.

Elsewhere around the OVC Saturday, Jacksonville State needed overtime to win at Tennessee Tech 17-10 and Southeast Missouri State held off host Murray State 24-17.

Eastern Illinois (5-4, 4-1) is third in the conference standings and the Panthers will have an opportunity to hand Tennessee State its first league defeat this week when they host the Tigers.

"They're still a very good football team. It will be tough for us to go up to their place," Webster said. "We're trying to achieve what they did last year. And they're still in the hunt."

Jacksonville State (4-4, 4-2) is fourth, with Southeast Missouri (4-4, 2-3), Eastern Kentucky (3-5, 2-3) and Tennessee Tech (2-6, 2-3) all tied for fifth.

Samford (3-6, 1-5) and Murray State (1-8, 0-6) hold down the last two spots.

Southeast Missouri will shoot for an upset this week when it hosts Tennessee-Martin.

In other conference games, Eastern Kentucky hosts Murray State and Samford entertains Tennessee Tech. In a nonleague matchup, Jacksonville State visits Tennessee-Chattanooga.

Players of the week

Tennessee State sophomore tailback Javarris Williams is the OVC offensive player of the week. He rushed for 162 yards on 35 carries and caught three passes for 35 yards against Samford.

UT-Martin junior safety Kevin Rondo won the defensive award. He had 10 1/2 tackles, including 1 1/2 tackles for loss, against Eastern Illinois.

Jacksonville State junior punter Zach Walden and Tennessee Tech freshman linebacker Aaron Williams earned specialist and newcomer honors, respectively.

Walden averaged 42.6 yards on eight punts against Tennessee Tech. He tied his own school record with four punts inside the 20-yard line and set a school mark with an 81-yard punt.

Williams had 15 tackles, including two for loss, against Jacksonville State.