Southeast Football

Several factors have gone into why the Kennett High School football program has been wildly successful over recent years and having talented athletes is just one of those.

There is no lack of unknowns surrounding the Southeast Missouri State football program entering the 2021 season.

The Southeast Missouri State football program is never going to “wow” any prospective assistant coach with its incredible facilities or exorbitant resources.

Both Southeast Missouri State football coach Tom Matukewicz, as well as Redhawk offensive coordinator Jeromy McDowell, have spoken about how they like their quarterbacks to have an edge of toughness to them.

The Southeast Missouri State football program has undergone several personnel changes this off-season, which eighth-year Redhawk coach Tom Matukewicz explained recently can be a positive thing if viewed from the right perspective.

Whether you are passionate about the football program at Southeast Missouri State University, your personal and professional growth, or both, veteran Redhawk coach Tom Matukewicz is providing an opportunity next month to help both you, as well as the Redhawk football program.

Southeast Missouri State football Tom Matukewicz has five-plus years remaining on his contract and that may be a good thing because the Redhawks have scheduled one of the more difficult 2021 schedules that anyone could conceive.

The good news for eighth-year Southeast Missouri State football coach Tom Matukewicz is that the 2021 training camp isn’t kicking off anytime soon. The bad news is that he has no idea who will be his starting quarterback in the fall.

Tom Matukewicz and Bryce Saia have been with each other on football fields, meeting rooms, and locker rooms for large swaths of the past four decades, but for now, for who can predict the future, the two Southeast Missouri State coaches will go down separate paths.

You don’t have to mention to a Southeast Missouri State athletics follower the damage that student-athletes transferring can wreak.

The off-season in sports always provides time for reflection.

Southeast Missouri State graduate quarterback Andrew Bunch would NEVER say a disparaging word regarding the performance of his offensive line, but seventh-year Redhawk coach Tom Matukewicz wasn’t always pleased with the physical pounding that his quarterback took during this past spring season.

Tennessee State University was riding a wave of euphoria on Tuesday, as the Tigers announced the hiring of former Heisman Trophy winner, and NFL great, Eddie George, to lead its football program. However, there was one fellow Ohio Valley Conference coach that wasn’t joining the parade.

The 2019 Ohio Valley Conference football championship squad included a senior class that was the most successful group in Southeast Missouri State history.

The fact that Southeast Missouri State has the top punter in the Ohio Valley Conference this spring is a surprise to absolutely no one. After all, Jake Reynolds was named to the 2020 Punter of the Year “watch list” by the Augusta Sports Council heading into this school year.

Southeast Missouri State outside linebacker Bryant Pirtle was voted the Ohio Valley Conference Defensive Player of the Week Tuesday. Pirtle, who calls Louisville, Kentucky home, finished the week with seven tackles, recorded a sack, added two tackles for loss, recorded one forced fumble, and recovered a fumble, in the Redhawk's win against UT Martin on Saturday...

The adage is that “numbers don’t lie,” but anyone who watched the Southeast Missouri State football squad win at UT Martin 21-16 on Saturday will surely vouch that sometimes the statistics are misleading.

Interviewing seventh-year Southeast Missouri State football coach Tom Matukewicz can be a reporter’s dream. You often simply turn on the tape recorder and sit back while your story writes itself.

FCS programs are dropping out of this spring season with some degree of regularity, as this unique year winds down. Illinois State pulled the plug on its season recently, while Chattanooga and Cal Poly both did on Monday. However, there is no such talk lingering through the halls of the Rosengarten Athletic Complex.

It’s easy for a football team to display positivity when things are going well. The challenge in athletics is measured in how it reacts to negativity.

The numbers don’t add up in some ways when studying the Southeast Missouri State football program this spring.

Southeast Missouri State (1-4, 1-3 Ohio Valley Conference) and Tennessee Tech (1-3, 1-3) are among four teams that sit on the floor of the OVC football standings, while Murray State and Jacksonville State (both 4-0) are leading the league.

The lone defeat that the No. 8-ranked Jacksonville State football program has endured in the past 12 months is a road loss at Florida State, so only the most fervent Southeast Missouri State fan had much confidence that the Redhawks would venture to Jacksonville, Ala. on Sunday and knock off the Ohio Valley Conference power for an unfathomable third consecutive year.

As former Southeast Missouri State great Kristian Wilkerson climbed atop the all-time categories in pass receptions a year ago, what was overshadowed was a decline in production by then-redshirt junior wide receiver Zack Smith.

College basketball fans are under the impression that “March Madness” begins tonight in Indiana, where that thing referred to as the “First Four” is played leading up to the REAL start of the NCAA Tournament, which will be Friday. However, truth be told, there has been “Madness” surrounding the sport for several weeks and it will continue until the last of the NCAA Division I men’s college basketball head coaching opportunities is filled.

What the followers of the Southeast Missouri State football program have learned through the first half of the 2020-21 season is that the Redhawks are capable of beating any team on their schedule. However, at 1-3 overall and 1-2 in the Ohio Valley Conference, SEMO has shown that it is just as capable of losing to any team on its schedule.

The end goal for the Southeast Missouri State football program this spring has realistically shifted, even though no one within the program is going to admit to such at this point of its seven-game season.

It’s been nine years since a program has won the Ohio Valley Conference regular-season championship with a pair of defeats.

Dean Hood and Urban Meyer have been in lockstep since childhood, so it is no surprise that the two highly-successful coaches have maintained their parallel paths as 2021 unfolds with both of them returning to lead football programs this year.

It remains to be seen as to whether the Southeast Missouri State football offense is more like the dominant group that put up 47 points in a rout at Eastern Illinois to start this spring season, or the squad that failed to produce points on 10 of its 13 offensive series in a 24-21 loss to Murray State on Sunday.

Perspective changes everything. When asked about his team’s seven penalties following a 47-7 win over Eastern Illinois a week ago, seventh-year Southeast Missouri State football coach Tom Matukewicz uttered those words.

Recent history indicates that Southeast Missouri State’s football game Sunday against Murray State will go in the Redhawks’ favor. After all, SEMO has won four of the past five meetings in the series.

Southeast Missouri State linebackers Brandon Mincey and Mike Matthews both say there is no pressure to live up to the legacies of the stars that played before them, as they try to replace some of the most productive linebackers in Redhawk history. But they both know they are being watched very carefully.

After completing just 6 of 15 passes in his debut game last October at Southern Illinois, first-year Southeast Missouri State quarterback Andrew Bunch had a lot to prove to, well, everyone, as he took the field at Eastern Illinois on Sunday.

The perception of No. 21-ranked Southeast Missouri State football was pretty impressive even before its opening game of the spring schedule even kicked off on Sunday at Eastern Illinois. Last October, the Redhawks, who had only practiced nine times leading up to the game, battled Southern Illinois on the road to the final gun before losing 20-17.

For just the second time in 15 months, the Southeast Missouri State football squad will play a game today.

The 17 points scored by the Southeast Missouri State football squad in its lone fall game of the 2020 season (a 20-17 loss at Southern Illinois) may not be eye-popping at first glance. However, considering the Redhawks only practiced nine times prior to the game AND had a quarterback playing in his first game with the program, the fact they amassed 334 yards of total offense and averaged 5.5 yards per play really isn’t half-bad.

When it came to the Southeast Missouri State kicking game in 2019, seventh-year Redhawk coach Tom Matukewicz didn’t sweat that aspect of play very often.

There aren’t a lot of negatives that come with having a highly successful football program; after all, managing a winning team is certainly more appealing to the alternative. However, if there is a detriment to success, and that depends on your perspective as to whether it is a negative or not, it is that other programs want what you have, meaning, they’ll take your assistant coaches. In the case of seventh-year Southeast Missouri State coach Tom Matukewicz, he doesn’t see that as a negative at all.

The Southeast Missouri State football program has won 13 of its last 16 games within the Ohio Valley Conference.

With six-plus inches of snow already on the ground and a possibility of more coming throughout this week, seventh-year Southeast Missouri State football coach Tom Matukewicz is lamenting his team’s situation as it prepares (or doesn’t) for its very unusual 2021 season-opening game on Sunday. Though he isn’t feeling TOO sorry for himself.

“Dewey was the best. He was a loving husband and father. Dewey was selfless and always put the wants, desires, and needs of his wife and son first. He loved Eureka Football.” Those words were posted at the time of his death, about the late Dewey George Crump, who passed away four years ago this month. Reading such a tribute makes it easy to understand why Southeast Missouri State football tight ends coach Justin Kramer feels the way he does about Dewey’s son, Austin Crump.

This is the second in a series of “position analysis” features leading up to Southeast Missouri State’s football season-opener against Murray State on Feb. 21. Today: Tight End In the lone game of the 2020 fall season that the Southeast Missouri State football squad played (a 20-17 loss at Southern Illinois), the Redhawk tight ends didn’t have a single reception. However, if you focus on that number, then you are missing the initial purpose of the position group with this program.

If anyone is ever curious as to how critical Southeast Missouri State senior linebacker Omardrick Douglas is to the Redhawks, they can simply go watch the film of the Redhawks’ 17-10 win over UT Martin during the 2019 season.

After enjoying the luxury of having an experienced and proven starting quarterback in Daniel Santacaterina for two highly-successful seasons, SEMO offensive coordinator Jeromy McDowell will have to develop several quarterbacks this season, one for today and the rest for the future (or the now if expected starter Andrew Bunch doesn’t play well).

The 2021 Southeast Missouri State football squad is ranked 23rd in the latest preseason FCS poll for a lot of reasons, mostly because the Redhawks possess enough talent to play with teams at the national level. However, if its quarterback play is spotty, then it won’t matter how much ability SEMO shows, it will struggle to win games.

If all goes according to plan, seventh-year Southeast Missouri State football coach Tom Matukewicz will get to experience at least 19 game days over the next 10 months – and he hopes it is more than that.

Seventh-year Southeast Missouri State football coach Tom Matukewicz has infamously told the story about the angst endured when he initially walked into his office at the Rosengarten Athletic Complex and looked at his surroundings.

On National Signing Day in December, seventh-year Southeast Missouri State football coach Tom Matukewicz had a message for the 10 players that were joining the Redhawk program. “Now the tough work begins,” Matukewicz said, “because it’s not about the signing, it’s about playing. The real work has just begun.”

While most football players and coaches (outside of the Chiefs and Buccaneers) are already venturing into “relax mode” in their off-seasons, the athletes and coaches within the Southeast Missouri State football program couldn’t be more exuberant to have been out on the turf at Houck Stadium on the first day of February, despite the frigid temperature and howling wind.