Coaches short on time, scholarships for Southeast Missouri State signing class

~ Coaches had just 11 scholarships to hand out and seven weeks to find recruits

Southeast Missouri State football coach Tom Matukewicz was short on time and on scholarships when he set out to bring his first group of recruits to the university.

"Recruiting's a 12-month process and really, when you talk about just the days we were on the road, we tried to do it in 12 days," Matukewicz said at a press conference Wednesday afternoon.

Matukewicz had exactly seven weeks to hire a staff and lure recruits to the Redhawks after his hire was made official on Dec. 18. The previous coaching staff had not received any verbal commitments for him to follow up on and he had just 11 scholarships, which can be divided among players, to dole out.

The NCAA mandates how many total scholarships each team can give out, but it's up to coaches to spread them out over each recruiting class.

"The first thing I did was get the staff together," Matukewicz said. "Every recruit that called and every email I got, I said, 'Hey, look. Nothing matters until I get my staff, so you've got to give me some time.' I got the staff together, and then just really got them on board with the philosophy and our recruiting plan.

"Then we went out and attacked it from the inside out. I went out locally because I could go make those decisions right away and get in front of those kids and those coaches right away and get going. ... We kind of [used the] seek-and-destroy method. We sent them all to Memphis, OK, and we just swarmed them. Every coach I had went to Memphis. Every coach I had went to St. Louis, every coach I had went to Kansas City and then every coach I had went to southwest Missouri, the Springfield-Joplin area and we just tried to smother it."

The result of that plan was the signing of 22 players, including some who will walk on without an athletic scholarship, Wednesday on National Signing Day.

"Really, I just want to thank a lot of people," Matukewicz said. "I want to thank a lot of the local coaches -- and I apologize, I really wanted to shake every single one of their hands. I lost four days because of weather, and that's critical, so I wasn't able to get in every single high school. I did the best I could, but I tell you I'm just so thankful that they're embracing what's going on and the enthusiasm and the momentum that's going on here on campus."

That enthusiasm was at a high when the coaches hosted large groups of players for their NCAA-regulated, one-time trip to visit Southeast's campus over a short period of time.

Matukewicz and his staff were loaned cars by local dealerships that were outfitted with Southeast flags and other businesses chipped in with things such as cookie cakes for the players. The Southeast cheerleaders and band also greeted the players.

"You wouldn't believe what it takes to put on a visit, the amount of people that takes and our faculty selling this university, selling the education, and that's obviously why they come here," Matukewicz said. "You would not believe how many parents talked and raved about the people here in Cape and the people at the university and the support staff. I'm not going to name names because I know I'd forget people. I'm not smart enough to do that, but I'm just telling you the best thing we've got going is the people. The people in this university, the people in this city and this region make you want to go to work every day, and I'm just so very thankful."

The members of the coaching staff relied heavily on connections they've made over years in the profession to quickly focus in on recruits and make their pitch.

Olathe East, Kan., coach Jeff Meyers said tight end Connor Alexander ended up at Southeast because of those connections.

"Connor was being heavily recruited, and they did come in late," Meyers said. "Coach [Matukewicz], he has some ties with Kansas State University, and that's where I played football at and some of his coaching staff I have previously worked with. I've been coaching at Olathe East for 22 years, so some of his assistants are guys that I knew previously. They actually came in at the right time as far as being able to get in on Connor and get a home visit very quickly. I thought that was extremely important. Then when they made that home visit then he was able to go ahead and set up a visit down at the school very quickly. He liked it. He liked what they were telling him and what he saw. It just worked out to be a great situation for him."

Southeast assistant Eric Burrow had already recruited Caruthersville's Darrell Monroe when he worked as an assistant with Matukewicz at Toledo.

"He was the first one to contact us back about a year and a half ago with options to Toledo," Caruthersville coach Nathan Morgan said. "But then when coach [Matukewicz] and those guys took over and he filled the staff, it was just kind of natural for them to keep tabs on Darrell."

With the frenzied recruitment period over, Matukewicz said he looked forward to working with the players already on Southeast's roster.

"This is a happy day for me because now I can focus on my own team," Matukewicz said. "That's the hard part about this whole thing was I cheated our team, and I gave all my attention and gave everything I've got to our recruits and their parents and all that stuff. I had to rely on our strength staff and our support staff to carry our team through, and they've done a good job. But I can tell you this, I can't wait to get up tomorrow and be with my football team."