COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – After three non-conference games and a week off, Eastern Kentucky will begin Ohio Valley Conference play on Saturday at Tennessee Tech.
The game will begin at 7 p.m. ET at Tucker Stadium. The live radio broadcast is available in the Richmond area on WCYO 100.7 FM, and can be heard worldwide on EKUSports.com. A live free video broadcast is available on OVCDigitalNetwork.com.
EKU has won two national championships, 21 conference titles, has made 21 playoff appearances and has just one losing record in the last 43 seasons. No other current OVC team has won more than 10 league championships. Six of the other eight OVC members have combined for just 17 conference crowns, compared to 21 trophies for the Colonels.
Eastern Kentucky is 1-2 overall. Playing in just his second game of the season,
Maty Mauk threw for a season-high 285 yards while completing 19-of-32 passes at Ball State. He hooked up with
Devin Borders for a 28-yard scoring pass. Eight of Mauk's 19 completions were for 15 yards or more. Five of his final six went for between 27 and 46 yards. Newcomer
Ryan Markush totaled 104 yards on five receptions at Ball State.
Redshirt junior
Jeffrey Canady had a career-best 11 tackles at Ball State. He is second in the OVC and 46th in the nation with an average of 9.3 tackles per game.
As a team, EKU is averaging 204 passing yards and 154 rushing yards per game. The Colonels have forced 10 turnovers in three games. Eastern Kentucky leads the conference and is second in the nation with three defensive touchdowns this season. Eastern leads the OVC in punt return defense (-1.75 yards per punt) and net punting (42.35 yards per punt). The Colonels are second and third in the nation in those categories as well.
When these teams met last season, Eastern racked up 489 yards of first-half offense on its way to a 48-17 win on Oct. 8, 2015. EKU finished the game with 629 yards of offense, gashing Tech on the ground and through the air.
Bennie Coney's five touchdown passes in that game tied the single-game school record. With 351 yards, he also blew by what was his previous career-best of 264 yards. Senior running back
Dy'Shawn Mobley (115 yards) paced a balanced Colonel running attack that chewed up 247 yards of turf. The Eastern defense was similarly effective, stifling the Golden Eagles to 63 yards on the ground (1.8 yards-per-rush) and harassing Tech quarterback Colby Brown all night.
Marquise Piton,
Noah Spence and company sacked Brown five times and recorded 10 tackles-for-loss in the win.
Tennessee Tech has already played two conference games. The Golden Eagles are 1-3 overall with a 41-7 victory at Austin Peay. TTU lost at Tennessee-Martin, 44-23, this past weekend. With 68 seconds left in the game at UT Martin, Tech trailed by one possession. However, a kickoff return on an onside kick and an interception return for a touchdown in the final 62 seconds allowed the Skyhawks to secure the win.
As a team, the Golden Eagles are running for just 95 yards per game and averaging only 2.9 yards per carry. Their opponents are averaging 168 rushing yards per game and 4.1 yards per carry. Tennessee Tech's passing game is averaging 251 yards per contest while opponents are throwing for 182 yards per game. TTU has allowed three times more sacks (15) than its defense has recorded.
Quarterback Michael Birdsong, a senior transfer from Marshall, drives the Tech offense. He has completed 63 percent of his passes for 1,009 yards. He has six touchdown tosses and three interceptions.
Eastern Kentucky leads the all-time series 53-19, but is 3-2 against Tech in the last five meetings. The Colonels are 24-10 against the Golden Eagles in games played in Cookeville. TTU won 39-31 on its home field in 2014, but EKU has won three of the last four meetings in Cookeville, with an average margin of victory of 18 points per game.
