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The Southeast Missouri State football team got a big monkey off its back by beating Murray State last week.
Now the Redhawks prepare to end their season by hosting one of the nation's true gorillas.
Southern Illinois, ranked first and second in the two major Division I-AA polls, makes the short trip from Carbondale for Saturday's 1 p.m. senior day game at Houck Stadium.
"They're a great football team," Southeast coach Tony Samuel said. "We're excited to play them."
SIU will be just the second top-ranked squad to play at Houck, the other being Tennessee State in the 1999 finale. Southeast nearly pulled off an upset before falling 35-28.
It will take another big-time performance for Southeast to make a game of it Saturday, but the Redhawks (2-8, 1-7 Ohio Valley Conference) will at least be feeling good about themselves after the 49-13 rout of Murray State that snapped their eight-game losing streak.
"I was really happy for them," Samuel said of his players. "They've gone through a lot this year, but they've hung in there. They've never given up."
The Salukis (9-1, 8-0 Missouri Valley Football Conference) have won nine straight since a season-opening 31-28 loss at Division I-A Marshall.
SIU, headed to the playoffs for the seventh straight year, has set a MVFC record by winning 14 straight conference games.
The Salukis, who returned 18 starters from last year's MVFC championship team, not only have been beating opponents, they have been pummeling them.
SIU is outscoring the opposition by an average of 34.9 to 15.2. Only two of the nine wins have come by 10 or fewer points and seven of the nine victories have come by 19 or more points.
The Salukis rank eighth nationally in rushing offense, sixth in scoring offense, eighth in scoring defense and fifth in turnover margin, in large part because of 21 interceptions.
"They're very good on offense, very fast on defense," Samuel said. "They're very good in all phases."
The Salukis are led offensively by All-American tailback candidate Deji Karim, who has rushed for 1,357 yards (7.2 average) and scored 15 touchdowns. His 273 yards against Illinois State marks the nation's top-rushing performance this year.
Karim is third nationally in rushing and third in all-purpose yardage, thanks in part to a 33.2-yard kickoff return average.
"He's a big playmaker for them," Samuel said.
SIU has not missed a beat despite losing starting quarterback Chris Dieker to a broken collarbone in the seventh game.
Redshirt freshman Paul McIntosh, a transfer from Army, is a dangerous dual-threat signal caller who is SIU's No. 2 rusher with 309 yards (6.7 average). He has completed 67.1 percent of his passes (47 of 70) for 592 yards, with five touchdowns and one interception.
While the Salukis have secured a playoff berth, the game still is meaningful for them. A win will almost certainly assure them a top-four seed for the postseason and could mean several playoff games at home.
"This is a huge game, both for us and for them," SIU coach Dale Lennon told the Southern Illinoisan. "You got 17 [Southeast] seniors playing their last game, and the No. 1 team coming to their place. What's at stake is quite a bit. We're playing for a playoff seed, and to try to make sure we keep the momentum going into the playoffs."
Samuel knows the Salukis won't be coasting into the playoffs.
"They want to win. They want to win convincingly," Samuel said. "We want to win as well."
The Redhawks would like nothing better than to interrupt SIU's charge into the postseason, especially as Southeast bids farewell to those 17 seniors, nine of whom were part of Samuel's first recruiting class.
"In a perfect world you would have liked to redshirt them, but we didn't have a choice, we had to throw them in there," said Samuel, wrapping up his fourth season at Southeast. "You hate to see them go. You hate to see all the seniors go."
Saturday's game will mark the first meeting between the teams since 2005 and is part of a three-year series between the regional rivals that has Southeast visiting SIU next season and the Salukis coming to Cape Girardeau again in 2011.
Southeast leads the all-time series 36-30-8, but the Salukis have won the past three meetings by a combined margin of 128-33, including 58-23 in 2005 at Houck.
Samuel said he's glad the squads have renewed the series.
"It's my first time to get to play against them," Samuel said. "When you're only 40, 45 miles away, I think it's a good game to play."
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If you would have told me 3 years ago that we were going to renew the series starting this season, I would have ASSUMED our progam would be headed in the right direction by now and certainly would have been able to compete with SIU.
But the way things are going are an absolute joke. We have NO business playing SIU, expect for the fact that it's an hour away and keeps travel costs down for both teams. Plus we'll get to play in their new stadium next season.
Other than that, we need to stick with the Indiana State's and Murray State's of the world...at least until someone can come in here and get this thing turned around.
Redhawks 07: Did you play any ball when you were at semo?
Who would you rather have us play? Lindenwood?? We've gotten our butts handed to us for a good while over the past few years. I'd rather us play something we'd aspire to be over the long term than playing D2 schools.
Thats my point exactly. This team has played pretty well against talented teams. Why wouldn,t you want to measure yourself against the number 1 team. They can't be much better than a EIU or JSU. I guess redhawks07 didn't give TSU a chance against EIU last night but they beat the better team. This team can do some good things if every player is on the same page. GO REDHAWKS
With all due respect to the person comparing the Salukis to EIU - after seeing the EIU/TSU game on ESPN-U last night, there is NO comparison.
EIU looked lethargic against a bad team, so if they're top dogs in the OVC this year, it's no wonder the OVC is a 1-bid conference.
As long as we keep getting one or two pic-sixes and a punt block for a td each week (which has been happening every game for the last month, it seems), then we should steamroll the RedHawks.
Opportunistic defense, offense that doesn't make mistakes, special teams that are so feared that most teams "pooch" their kickoffs...And look out - I think that more than just the football team will be coming to Houck this weekend. I think we can bring at least as many fans as showed up vs. Murray - about 2,000, correct?
Go Dawgs!
And thats why they play the game. Hopefully its a close game.
I am not saying that SIU is not a good team because they are. I was just saying that Semo should want to play good teams so they can see the high level that is needed to win each and every week. I'll see ya at the game and i'll save you about 8,000 seats.
Thanks for the polite reply alum90. I did not mean any ill will either. It was not THAT long ago that we were going thru yet another 1-10 season, and 4-8 was a 'good' year. So I know what the other side looks like.
Glad we're renewing this rivalry, it makes so much sense to play and get a good-natured competition going :)
Ok I'll give a little credit to SEMO for playing hard and keeping a lot closer that I and a lot of people expected, but again, the BIG plays killed the Redhawks. This game very well could have been a lot closer than what it was. But Samuel's boys failed to execute.
Samuuel has to the media that he thinks his team is not that far off. I realize the OVC games were close, but so what!!! If lose....you lose. Simple. You can't keep saying "We're close."
But with a new Offensive Coordinator coming in for next year, we'll see what happens.
Certainly have to give the Redhawks credit for not quitting. And those 2 big wr's certainly made some plays.
Glad to get out of Cape with the win. Next year will be a tougher test for us I am sure. Keep at it, hawks, and of course,
Go Dawgs!
It was a good game salukijim. SIU has a good team but am proud of redhawks for not quiting. Maybe they should look for a new Defensive coordinator because the offense has come alive the last 2 weeks. The defense is 117 out of 118 as the worst defense in 3rd down efficiency. Didn't see ya at the game redhawks07.
I was there, in the middle of the Saluki squad on the 50 - stared into the sun the whole dang afternoon, so my squinting muscles are tired today.
They actually ran out of concessions on the visitors side for a while, guess having an opponent from just 45 miles away brings out a little more than they expected :)
Glad to see a few more Redhawks fan than what appeared on KFVS against Murray State last week, too.
Go dawgs, hope we get a good playoff seed today!
Alum90...why look for a new DC? The players have to make the plays. Missed tackles, penalties, and blown assignments have killed the Defense on third down this year. To ask for the head of the DC sounds like we are just complaining for the sake of complainging. They have been the bright spot of this year. And I can't wait for the Jackson LB Peiffer to start in the next few years, he can hit. Maybe the comming of another Casper.