Indians' valuable seniors to play farewell game

Saturday night's season-ending game with Quincy at Houck Stadium will be the final game for nine Southeast seniors who have all made contributions to our football program.

For the seniors who were already in the program when our new coaching staff arrived, they have all worked hard to learn a new system and to get to know the new coaches. They have worked hard to help us turn the program around and they have helped us lay the foundation of a winning program. It is just sad to know they won't be here to reap the rewards of winning.

Our nine seniors are good quality people with high character. They are the type of athletes we want in our program.

Rashad West had a very promising career ended by a knee injury suffered during the summer. He tried to play the first half of the season with a torn ACL because he wanted to help this team turn the corner. He got in the game at Tennessee St. and had a touchdown pass, but elected to undergo reconstructive knee surgery the next week. Rashad is considering coaching as a career and I am sure he will make a good coach.

Bobby Brune is a fifth-year quarterback that came off the bench to lead Southeast to some big victories during his career. He currently ranks seventh on the all-time career passing list at Southeast with 3,923 yards and he needs just 13 passing yards to move into sixth place and just 187 more yards to move ahead of his father, Greg, into fifth place. Hopefully he can take a shot at those milestones on Saturday night. He has had a very good career at Southeast.

Andy Dunaway was a teammate of Brune's at Cape Central and has battled an assortment of injuries throughout his career. This year he broke his finger prior to the start of the season but he has battled through the injury to see time at wide receiver and on special teams.

Mike Gross played quarterback, wide receiver and defensive back during his career at Southeast. He is very intelligent and was like having a coach on the field. This season he was getting more and more playing time until a broken finger suffered in practice ended his season. Throughout his career, Gross was an outstanding special teams player.

Leotis Belcher has battled through ankle and toe injuries to start most of our games this season at strong safety. He has worked hard and been a significant contributor this season.

Eddie McCray was academically ineligible last season, but came back this year and has worked hard despite not getting much playing time. I am proud that he has persevered in the classroom and on the field.

Garvin Ambrose is an OVC champion high jumper who decided to give football a try this season just because he wanted to be a part of the team. He has worked hard on the scout team and I hope to get him in the game Saturday night.

The two seniors we brought in as junior college transfers last season have both been key parts of our team.

Corey Mathis had a fine junior season and was a preseason all-OVC choice this year. He has been a vital part of our defense with big play capability.

Curtis Cooper has had an outstanding senior season, becoming only the third player in school history to rush for over 1,000 yards. And he did it on a passing team. Curtis is ranked fifth in the nation in all-purpose running and 17th in the nation in punt returns. He has been a very exciting player!

This has been a good group of seniors and I hope you will come out Saturday night to give them a rousing send-off. They have not only been model football players, but model citizens for the university and the community.

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