COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- Tennessee Tech's football schedule in 2014 lays out a difficult road for coach Watson Brown's Golden Eagles. But just how tough? Pretty challenging, according to those in the know. Heading into the season, five of the Golden Eagles' 11 Football Championship Subdivision foes are ranked in the Top 25 in a variety of polls and publications.

"It's so hard to know," said veteran Golden Eagle head coach Watson Brown. "It's not a science to list these polls. They look at what teams did last year, and pretty much go from there, but every team is different from year-to-year. You can't put too much stock in these polls, but you get a pretty good idea of which teams people expect to be realy good. That's they key to these. They're built around expectations. And all expectations are is what somebody thinks is going to happen. Obviously, nobody knows for sure."

It's the same five opponents, all listed in various locations in Top 25 lists published this summer. They include Tennessee State, Eastern Illinois and Jacksonville State from the Ohio Valley Conference, along with non-conference challengers Northern Iowa and Chattanooga.

The first of those "High Five" on the schedule is Tennessee State, which will host the Golden Eagles in Hale Stadium on the TSU campus on Sept. 20. The Golden Eagle conference opener, the tilt with th Tigers comes following an open date in the Tech schedule. Tennesse State is ranked as high as ninth by Lindy's Sports Annuals (Lindy's) after the Tigers went two rounds deep in last year's FCS playoffs. TSU is listed 13th by The Sporting News College Football (Sporting News) and charted at 17th by The Sports Network (TSN).
 
One week later, Tech faces its next ranked foe in another road game when the Golden Eagles visit Northern Iowa on Sept. 27. The Panthers, a member of the tough Missouri Valley Football Conference, ended the season strong after injuries -- and five consecutive narrow losses -- wrecked the team's promising start. UNI lost two of those in overtime and dropped a one-point decision to three-time FCS National Champion North Dakota State. The Panthers are pegged fifth in the Sports Network poll, and 11th by both Lindy's and Sporting News.

After three weeks against non-ranked (but very challenging) OVC foes Murray State,UT Martin and Eastern Kentucky, the Golden Eagles head to Jacksonville State Oct. 25 to face the Gamecocks. JSU is picked fourth in the preseason by Sporting NEws, sixth by Sports Network and 19thby Lindy's.

"I can't imagine that any of those three teams in between (MSU, UTM and EKU) were too far from being ranked, as well," Brown said. "That's a really tough stretch of games. Don't let the preseason rankings fool you, those three games will be just as challenging as all of those teams that have been ranked. We know how good every one of these opponents will be, and we had better be ready to play every single week."

The next weekend, the Golden Eagles host defending OVC champion Eastern Illinois on Nov. 1. Even with the loss of quarterback Jimmy Garappolo and receiver Erik Lora, the Panthers are projected 17th by Lindy's and come in 22nd by Sporting News and 24th by Sports Network.

Following Homecoming on Nov. 8, Tech's third consecutive home game brings Chattanooga to Tucker Stadium on Nov. 15. The Mocs felt snubbed when they finished as Sothern Conference co-champions and went 8-4 last year but failed to receive a playoff spot. The come into the season picked 10th by Lindy's, 12th by Sports Network and 14th by Sporting News.

"Who knows how the season will play out, but it's pretty certain going into the year that there are an awful lot of good football teams with an awful lot of promise out there," Brown said. "We just have to wait and see what happens."

The OVC will announce its preseason team rankings and all-conference teams on July 21 at the league's annual Media Day in Nashville.