COACH'S VIEW: INDIANS WANT TO REWARD FANS WITH WIN IN HOME FINALE

First of all I would like to thank everyone who attended the homecoming football game. We had a great crowd and a great atmosphere for college football.

Our football team has played well the last two games, but we haven't found a way to win. We have beaten ourselves with errors and costly turnovers. It is amazing that we had seven turnovers in the Murray State game and we were still in the game with a chance to win in the fourth quarter.

We have felt all along that if we could stay in games until the fourth quarter, we would have a chance to win, but in the last two games we were not successful. The two games we did win, we won in the fourth quarter.

We still need a few more ingredients but we have shown a lot of improvement this season. We're moving the ball on offense and our defense has gotten a lot better. Still, we continue to shoot ourselves in the foot.

Teams that are used to winning seem to find a way to win. The Jets trailed going into the fourth quarter on Monday night, but they are a veteran team used to winning and they found a way to win. It is a lot harder for a team that is not used to winning.

When you are playing a team as good or better than you are, you can't make mistakes. We have to play a close to perfect as we can.

This is another big week for us. The Tennessee-Martin game is a big game for our program. This is a game we should win, and we are in a must-win situation and so are the Skyhawks. The team that loses this game will probably end up at the bottom of the conference.

If we can win Saturday night's game, we will have confidence going into our final three road games and we will build a solid foundation going into winter conditioning, recruiting and spring football.

A lot of teams look at a game with Tennessee-Martin as an easy week, but it won't be for us. We need to win this game.

Again, I compliment our fans for doing such a great job of supporting us. I hope you will all turn out on Saturday night for our final home game of the season. This will be your last opportunity to see us play this season and to have another fun evening at Houck Stadium.

It seems like everyone is having a good time and the support of the students, University and community have been outstanding.

We want to reward our great fans with a win in the final home game. We want to have a well-played game in all phases of the game. We want to give our fans something to look forward to next season.

This week we are going to cut back our practices and encourage the players to have fun as we continue to improve. We just can't turn the ball over and have errors at crucial times.

It is time to start winning. The crowds have been great and our team has played exciting football, but there is no substitute for winning. Come out on Saturday night and help us start winning.

Tim Billings is the head football coach at Southeast Missouri State University.