Indians avoiding major injuries in preseason

By Marty Mishow ~ Southeast Missourian

Midway through Southeast Missouri State University's second week of preseason football practice, coach Tim Billings said the Indians have been relatively fortunate regarding injuries.

"We've got a lot of people beat up, but we've been pretty lucky in that it's been nothing major so far," Billings said. "At this point in time, anybody we have banged up should be ready for the start of the season."

Although it likely wouldn't have affected this season anyway, the Indians did suffer one injury of note regarding a former standout running back from the regional high school ranks.

Freshman Adam Schwent, who rushed for nearly 3,000 yards last season as a senior at Ste. Genevieve High School before suffering a serious knee injury on the opening kickoff in the Class 3 state championship game, recently hurt the same knee during a Southeast drill.

Billings said Schwent's latest injury does not appear to be nearly as serious as last year's torn ACL that required surgery, although he will likely miss quite a bit of practice time.

"It's a different kind of injury. We don't think it's nearly as bad," Billings said. "We were probably going to redshirt Adam anyway, but we think he's going to be a good football player for us down the road."

Florida players relieved

Southeast has more than a dozen players from Florida, but Billings said most, if not all of them, are not from the part of the state that was devastated by Hurricane Charley.

"Our guys are mostrly either from the Tampa, Orlando or Miami areas," Billings said. "They got some high winds there, but not the big stuff."

However, Billings noted that former Southeast standout Ricky Farmer -- a first-team all-Ohio Valley Conference linebacker last year -- is from Fort Myers, which was hit hard by the hurricane. Farmer is now an assistant football coach at Cape Girardeau Central High School.

"Hopefully everything will be all right for Ricky's family," Billings said.

SIU ranked second

Southern Illinois University is now officially ranked second nationally entering the season according to the two major polls following Monday's release of The Sports Network NCAA Division I-AA top 25.

Southeast opens the campaign Sept. 2 at SIU, which is ranked No. 1 in the nation by Athlon Magazine.