CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Clarksvillenow.com For the fifth time in seven years Jacksonville State has been picked the preseason football favorite in the Ohio Valley Conference.
The Gamecocks, who were a perfect 8-0 in league play for the second-straight year in 2015, received 16 of a possible 18 first-place votes in a poll of league head coaches and sports information directors.
The Gamecocks totaled 128 total points to out-distance Eastern Kentucky and Eastern Illinois in the vote. Eastern Kentucky finished second in the poll with 100 total points while Eastern Illinois picked up the other two first-place votes and finished third with 97 points. UT Martin was tabbed fourth (96 points) and followed by Southeast Missouri (66), Tennessee State (55), Tennessee Tech (45), Murray State (43) and Austin Peay (18).
Last season Jacksonville State became the first OVC team to be ranked No. 1 since the 1999 season and first Conference team to advance to the Division I National Championship game since 1982.
Will Healy, the second youngest head coach in Division I at 31 years of age, begins a rebuilding program in Clarksville for an Austin Peay program that has won just one game over the previous three seasons. In the off season Healy and his staff recruited one of the top classes in the FCS to go along with 56 returning letter winners.
Among the returning players is junior wide receiver Jared Beard, who caught 49 passes for 576 yards and six touchdowns a season ago, and sophomore running back Kendall Morris, who was seventh in the OVC with 690 rushing yards (62.7 yards/game) in his debut season. Defensively the squad returns senior defensive back Roderick Owens (61 tackles, three interceptions) and senior linebacker Antonio Turner (50 tackles).
Jacksonville State Picked as 2016 Ohio Valley Conference Football Favorites
http://ovcsports.com/news/2016/7/14/FB_0714163737.aspx (Order of Finish)
http://ovcsports.com/news/2016/7/14/FB_0714165301.aspx (Preseason Team)