Western Illinois won four games last season in its first year in the Ohio Valley-Big South Conference Football Association. The school has offered the league a “high level of comfort,” said OVC Commissioner Beth DeBauche. (Photo by GoLeathernecks.com)
By Barry Bottino and Dan Verdun
While thousands of players dive into the transfer portal each year to revamp rosters across the country, FCS conferences have also seen plenty of shuffling.
Ohio Valley Conference Commissioner Beth DeBauche said the OVC-Big South Football Association is paying close attention.
“All of us keep our ear to the ground,” DeBauche said during the league’s virtual media day July 17. “We have a combination of schools that really do align from a values and principles standpoint. If there were an opportunity for growth in the association, we would celebrate that, if it would be a like-minded institution that would fit the regionality of what we’re trying to do.
“Growth for all of us is part of the lifeblood of being a Division I conference, if it makes sense.”
DeBauche praised the league’s newest addition – Western Illinois – which joined last season as a member in all sports.
“It feels like they’ve been a member of the league forever,” she said. “There’s just a high level of comfort with them. There has been tremendous leadership (at WIU) and a real commitment to football.”
Now in its third year of existence, the OVC-Big South is finding its footing.
“I need to be clear,” DeBauche said. “We are not a scheduling alliance. We are a league, a successful and growing league.”
Three teams made the FCS playoffs a year ago and four schools shared the conference title.
“That level of competitive excellence is exactly what we’re looking for,” she said.
In 2026 and 2027, the OVC will serve as host for the FCS national title game in Nashville.
As stadium renovations are underway in Frisco, Texas – which has hosted the event since 2010 – Vanderbilt University will serve as the new host.
DeBauche said the OVC wants to be good stewards of the championship and build on Frisco’s success while focusing on “more attendance” and making the game “more of a celebratory event.”
The 2026 championship is scheduled for Jan. 5 at Vanderbilt’s FirstBank Stadium.
Tech on top
For the first time since 1978, Tennessee Tech was voted to finish first in the league’s preseason poll, earning five of the nine first-place votes.
But second-year head coach Bobby Wilder said his team isn’t getting distracted in July.
“Preseason is for recognition. Postseason is for accomplishment,” said Wilder, who guided the program to a co-championship last season with UT-Martin, Tennessee State and Southeast Missouri but was not chosen for the FCS playoffs.
Tech has drawn attention by launching an NIL collective and completely revamping its roster, including a busy offseason in the transfer portal that featured the addition of QB Kekoa Visperas, who led FCS with a 74.3% completion percentage at Eastern Washington a year ago.
“In the 19 months that we’ve been here, we have 100 new players – 60 from the portal and 40 from high school,” Wilder said. “You have to be committed to maintaining your roster and upgrading your roster every year. You can either embrace it like we’re doing or get run over by it.”
Among the Tech transfer additions is offensive lineman Drew Wilder, the head coach’s son who started at center the last two seasons at Eastern Illinois.
Losses or not, Martin flying high
UT Martin, which along with SEMO and Tennessee State received playoff berths last fall, was voted second in the preseason poll. The Skyhawks received two first-place votes.
Yet, head coach Jason Simpson opened his media address listing the personnel UTM lost from last season.
“I’m kind of laughing. Let me give you some stats,” he said. “We lost eight starters on offense and seven on defense and one specialist, so you could say 16 starters who are off the team from last year.”
Included in Simpson’s list were the Skyhawks’ quarterback, leading rusher, top five receivers, two tight ends and top six defensive linemen.
“I figure there’s two ways to look at this,” Simpson said. “What a great compliment to lose all that and for the voters to think we should be picked second, or (offensive lineman) Josiah (Tingley), who has been here with me now for six years, was kind of upset about it. He said, ‘Coach, we’ve won parts of four (conference) championships in a row and people don’t pick us first?!’”
Whatever the case may be, Simpson said he is “very excited about this team.”
Simpson, whose son Ty is expected to start for FBS Alabama this season, is entering his 20th season at UT Martin. He took over as head coach in 2006 and is the longest tenured coach in the OVC.
“We’ve got some talented players,” he said. “These guys are hungry. A lot of them have come up from levels where they maybe had success but are on a bigger stage now. Some are coming down from Power 4 or Group of 5 schools wanting to be the starter.”
The league named Martin defensive back JaMichael McGoy Jr. its preseason Defensive Player of the Year.
Trashing SEMO
Southeast Missouri was picked third in the poll and received two first-place votes. But head coach Tom Matukewicz isn’t sure what to expect from the Redhawks, who lost to Illinois State in a first-round playoff game last fall.
“On paper, we’re going to be trash,” he said. “Four thousand (passing) yards, 34 touchdowns, 500 tackles and 13 sacks walked out the door. They either graduated or are going to play for someone else (via the portal). It’s going to be interesting.”
Ultra-productive QB Paxton DeLaurent is gone and will be replaced by 6-foot-8, 253-pound California juco product Jax Leatherwood.
“He’s kind of a carnival freak,” Matukewicz said. “I fell in love with the guy on film.”
SEMO expects its running back and defensive line groups to be a strength.
The non-conference schedule includes FBS Arkansas State, regional rival Southern Illinois and a trip to Fargo to face FCS powerhouse North Dakota State.
“You can tell I’m not coaching for my job because why in the hell would you schedule North Dakota State?” he said. “It’s a good measuring stick. Let’s go see how close we are.”
Lindenwood continues climb
Lindenwood, located in suburban St. Louis, moved up to Division I and joined the OVC in 2022. This fall marks the first season the Lions are eligible for the FCS postseason per NCAA rules for reclassification.
“Our guys are excited,” eighth-year head coach Jed Stugart said. “There’s always something to play for, but just to know there’s an extra incentive that we could have an opportunity to go to the playoffs (is huge).”
Stugart noted that being playoff eligible is key for recruiting.
“The first couple of years it’s always tough. We’re through that part of the journey and it’s another incentive for our players here,” he said.
The Lions return running back Steve Hall and quarterback Nate Glantz as offensive catalysts.
Hall, a St. Louis native, was selected as the league’s Preseason Offensive Player of the Year. Hall had a breakout redshirt freshman season in 2024, rushing for 808 yards and five touchdowns. He averaged 7.3 yards per carry, tops in the league.
“When I got on the field, I was just trying to outperform what I did the week before and keep growing,” Hall said.
Stugart said, “We’ve got a few new faces and return a lot of guys. You can’t help but be excited about it.”
Gardner-Webb gets healthy
Picked for a sixth-place tie with Eastern Illinois in the preseason poll, Gardner-Webb is enjoying some growing optimism in the second year of head coach Cris Reisert’s tenure.
“Year 1 is always a challenge,” said Reisert, who took over a roster with only 38 players and one returning starter. “We’re a much healthier roster now.”
The Bulldogs return 18 players who started at least one game last season, including five offensive linemen.
An intriguing quarterback competition could arise between Liberty transfer Nate Hampton, who threw a TD pass in the Flames’ bowl game last season, and Marshall transfer Cole Pennington, the son of former NFL QB Chad Pennington.
Reisert also is excited about the return of graduate student wide receiver/kick returner Anthony Lowe, whose 2024 campaign was limited to six games by injury.
“We’re fired up about Anthony,” Reisert said. “He really didn’t get healthy until about Week 8, to where he was back to his old self. I think he’s going to have a dynamic year.”
Underdog Tigers
After the departure of head coach Eddie George and the loss of 46 players in the transfer portal, 2024 playoff participant Tennessee State was picked eighth in the nine-team league’s preseason poll.
How does new coach and former NFL wide receiver Reggie Barlow – who arrives in Nashville after serving as head coach of the United Football League’s D.C. Defenders – feel about that prediction?
“It’s cute,” he joked, vowing to outperform expectations as he has in previous stops. “We’re not strangers to this thing.”
Barlow said his teams at Virginia State, Alabama State and in the UFL all defied preseason predictions to play for league titles.
He will do so with a brand-new roster that includes 25 incoming transfers.
“Everybody’s got a clean slate,” he said. “They will determine the adjectives that will come – starter, contributor.”
Barlow said his staff retained five previous starters on offense and six on defense. He also hired veteran NFL defensive coordinator Gregg Williams to run “an aggressive style” of defense.
“He was the longtime defensive coordinator with the Tennessee Titans,” Barlow said. “We had our battles when I was a (Jacksonville) Jaguars player.”
Buccaneers build
Despite being picked to finish ninth in the league, third-year Charleston Southern head coach Gabe Giardina sees indicators from the last six months that success may be on the horizon.
“I’ve been doing this long enough that I’ve been picked first and picked last. I really read zero into that printed paper,” Giardina said. “I think this is the most talented team that we’ve had. This is clearly our tightest and most connected group.”
Redshirt sophomore Zolten Osborne returns at quarterback after suffering through consecutive seasons cut short by injury.
“He looks healthy. I think he’s done a really good job of building his body. You’re going to see him and think that’s not a frail young man anymore,” Giardina said of the 6-1, 205-pound QB. “I’m excited to see him back in action and doing the things that he does well. And we’ve got good guys behind him.”
CSU features punter Gilbert Brown, last year’s OVC-Big South Special Teams Player of the Year. The senior ranked sixth nationally with a 46-yards per punt average.
The Buccaneers open this season with consecutive games against FBS opponents, Vanderbilt of the SEC and Coastal Carolina of the Sun Belt, before hosting Lindenwood to start conference play.
“You look at (FBS games) as a really big competition, and you can’t let it break your confidence, especially going into conference,” linebacker Steve Zayachkowsky said.
Barry Bottino is a co-founder of Prairie State Pigskin and a 19-year veteran of three Illinois newspapers. He has covered college athletics since 1995.
Dan Verdun is a co-founder of Prairie State Pigskin. He has written four books: NIU Huskies Football, EIU Panthers Football, ISU Redbirds Football and SIU Salukis Football.
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