RICHMOND, Ky. - Coach Roy Kidd's defending Ohio Valley Conference champion Eastern Kentucky University Colonel football team opened two-a-day fall drills Thursday in preparation for its 11-game, 1998 schedule.
Kidd and his staff welcomed back 14 starters among the 31 lettermen returning from the Colonel squad that was 8-4 overall and ranked 15th in the nation in the final polls last season. EKU went through OVC play 7-0 last year in winning its 18th league title.
"From having watched everybody check in, it looks like our players reported in pretty good shape," said Kidd, who is beginning his 35th season as Eastern's head football coach. "We'll find out quickly, though, when we do our conditioning drills.
"We are anxious to get going. We have a lot of work to do, especially on defense where we just have four starters back. Our early season schedule is tough again. We have a quality team coming here to begin the year in Kentucky State. Kentucky, of course, speaks for itself and then we have to go to Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee.
"After we get our conditioning and fundamentals work in, all our concentration will be on Kentucky State. We're putting a lot of emphasis on these early season games because they are so important later in the season when they start pairing teams up in the playoffs for home games."
EKU, picked to capture the '98 OVC title in the pre-season poll of the league's head football coaches and sports information directors, had five players named to the pre-season first-team All-OVC unit.
These included senior wide receiver Rondel Menendez, junior offensive guard Josh Hunter, senior offensive tackle Tyrone Hopson (who earned third-team Associated Press All-American accolades last season), junior tailback Derick Logan and senior linebacker Charles Tinsley.
Three other Colonels earned honorable mention on this year's pre-season all-conference unit. That list included senior defensive tackle Justin Ernest, junior defensive tackle Jason Muchow and sophomore runningback Corey Crume.
In the pre-season poll by The Sports Network, the Colonels will open the 1998 season ranked ninth in the nation.
Eastern has six home games this season, beginning Sept. 5 at 7:00 p.m. with the opener against Kentucky State at Roy Kidd Stadium. Other home contests include Oct. 10, Tennessee State; Oct. 17, Murray State (Homecoming); Nov. 7, Southeast Missouri; Nov. 14, Appalachian State; and Nov. 21, Eastern Illinois.
Season tickets to this six-game home slate are on sale weekdays from 8 a.m.- 4:30 p.m. in the EKU Athletics Ticket Office in Room 126 of Alumni Coliseum.
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