COACH'S VIEW: THE LIGHT CAME ON DURING BIG COMEBACK

We had a great win on Saturday at Southern Illinois. Last week I talked about our players getting the light turned on. In the second half of the great come-from-behind win, the light came on and good things happened.

A 31-0 first-half deficit ultimately turned into a 34-33 victory for us.

I've said from the beginning that we have the opportunity to have a good team if we accept the importance of doing things correctly and if we learn how to win. We made great progress in the second half last Saturday.

At halftime, I thought the light was burned out. I looked into the eyes of our players at halftime and you could see that many were thinking it might be a new era but the result was just more losses. Fortunately, some of our kids wouldn't accept the thought of losing. K.D. Koleosho and James Jennette were both injured and not in uniform, but they were active in the dressing room at the half going around and giving encouragement to the other players.

Jake Hill, our transfer wide receiver from the University of Mississippi, spoke to the team. He said he had never been associated with a losing team and he wasn't about to see that happen this year.

Our assistant coaches made some great adjustments and after giving up the early safety, we started to have success. The offense was moving the football and scoring and the defense was making stops. We got a special teams touchdown on a punt return and our players knew we were in the game.

Once we got back in the game, I really think that's when the light came on for our players.

We pulled within five points late in the game and were driving for a go-ahead touchdown with just over three minutes to play when we failed to convert a fourth-down-and-one play and turned the ball over to SIU. For most teams, the game would have been over at that time. But the light didn't go out and our defense held SIU for three plays and they missed a long field goal.

We got the ball back with 1:31 to play and scored on a pass play to give us one of the greatest comeback victories in the history of college football. It was a tremendous accomplishment for our football team.

Now our players have tasted victory and the light is on. We have to keep it on.

We face a big test in our home opener on Saturday night at Houck Stadium. Illinois State beat us handily last season (55-7) and they have better athletes than we do at every position.

Illinois State has a very exciting offense and I know the fans who saw or heard our game at SIU know that we have a very exciting offense that can score at any time. It should be a very entertaining football game.

We need your support. We need a great crowd on Saturday night. This is not my football team. This team belongs to the University, the local community and the entire area of Southeast Missouri. We want to build a program that you will all be proud of and we need your help to get the job done.

I hope you'll be in the stands Saturday to help us keep the light on.

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