BACK TO HOUCK, EARTH; TENN. STATE THUMPS SOUTHEAST 38-7

Southeast Missouri State University's football team came back down to earth with a resounding thud Saturday afternoon.

After two consecutive impressive performances on the road, the Indians returned home to Houck Stadium and were destroyed by Tennessee State 38-7 in front of 5,714 fans.

The Indians scored on the game's second play but never smelled the end zone again as the Tigers put up the next 38 points to improve to 4-2 overall and 2-1 in the Ohio Valley Conference.

Southeast fell to 3-4 overall, 2-3 in the OVC.

"I thought it would be a very close ballgame. I didn't believe they'd be 31 points better than us," said Southeast coach John Mumford. "But they are a very explosive team and once they get rolling they're hard to stop. The snowball got rolling on us.

"We got our heads down at times, which is very uncharacteristic of us the last couple of weeks. We let some things get to us that we hadn't been."

TSU has had trouble with Southeast since the teams began playing each other eight years ago, losing five of seven meetings and barely squeezing out a 32-27 triumph last season.

But there was virtually no trouble at all for the Tigers Saturday -- save for the game's first minute -- as they rolled up a whopping 526 yards of total offense, 251 on the ground and 275 through the air.

"We've only got three home games all year, so we treat the road games as something special," said TSU coach L.C. Cole.

The Tigers romped despite not having particularly huge games from some of their major offensive weapons.

Quarterback Leon Murray, the nation's total offense leader with 309 yards per game, passed for 227 yards, but he completed just nine of 22 attempts.

Tyrone Butterfield, who had an OVC-leading 37 receptions before Saturday, caught just two passes, although one was an 83-yard touchdown from Murray.

Corey Sullivan, who had 25 receptions entering the game, also caught just two passes for 46 yards.

But the Tigers' depth of talent buried the Indians, particularly on the ground. Six TSU players rushed for 25 yards or more, led by Arcentae Broome with 56 yards on just four carries. Broome scored on a 49-yard run.

"They have so many different weapons they can use. They're so explosive," Mumford said. "We had been playing so well defensively, but we figured a team like this would get some yards. We wanted to make them (drive the ball). And we knew we would have to score some points and move the ball."

Southeast gained 366 yards, including 243 passing, but struggled offensively for most of the second half until late, when the outcome had long since been decided.

Still, things started well for the Indians as, on the game's second play, tailback Riki Smith broke loose for a 64-yard touchdown. Nick Reggio's extra point made it 7-0 just 56 seconds into the contest.

"We knew SEMO had a good offense and when they got that first score, we knew we'd have to tighten up," Cole said.

Murray's 6-yard TD run four minutes into the game made it 7-6 as the kick was blocked.

That's the way things stood until late in the opening half, when TSU took control. First, Murray hit Butterfield on an 83-yard pass play, putting the Tigers ahead 12-7 with 2:58 left before halftime.

On the ensuing kickoff, which TSU intentionally hit high and short, Octavio Campos muffed it and the Tigers recovered at the Southeast 34.

Four plays later, backup quarterback Chris Perkins -- who was lined up as a tailback but took a direct snap -- hit tight end Mario Scott with a 14-yard TD strike, making it 18-7 just 1:37 before the intermission.

It was all TSU in the second half. KaRon Key's tackle-breaking 18-yard run early in the third quarter made it 24-7 and Key's 7-yard burst later in the period made it 31-7.

The Tigers rounded out the scoring early in the final period when Broome got loose for his 49-yarder.