Practice becomes more physical for QB after fumbles

~ Snyder focuses on ball security following Redhawks loss to SIU

Southeast Missouri State quarterback Kyle Snyder ran up the middle of the Redhawks' defense during Tuesday's practice at the Rosengarten Athletic Complex.

Instead of barely touching the senior, the defense was encouraged to put a lot of pressure on its quarterback, and "treated him like a running back" every time he ran the ball, something that hadn't been done much up to this point.

"It was really up-tempo, and it actually felt like I was out in a game today by the way the guys were attacking me and stuff on defense," Snyder said. "I think it's going to help us be more successful on Saturday."

Southeast coach Tom Matukewicz had said following the Redhawks' 50-23 loss to Southern Illinois on Saturday, during which Snyder had three fumbles and an interception, that it might be necessary to have Snyder hit during practice.

He'd been hit during spring practices and some early in preseason camp, but since the Redhawks had started preparing for opponents there hadn't been much contact for Snyder for fear that he would be injured before the team even made it to games.

"If they're going to get hurt, I want them to get hurt on game day, not during practice," Matukewicz said about all his players. "There's that fine line as a head coach, you try to determine how physical of a practice you want because you want a fresh, ready-to-go football team on Saturday."

Matukewicz didn't want his defense to take it easy Tuesday, though, yelling to the players to, "Bring me the football" and "lunch is on me" if they were able to get a takeaway.

But there were no turnovers from Snyder at practice. Afterward he said there were obviously some ball security issues against the Salukis, but he was focused on fixing that.

"When you throw five interceptions, that's decision-making and you can't play," Matukewicz said. "He had a bad throw, but the rest to me was all fundamental and things that I feel like you can get a lot better at. Ball security is not that talent-based, and so I just feel like we've got to help him be more aware of the football. But I thought he made a lot of plays. ... He's doing a lot of good things. If he could take all that stuff off the film, hell, they'll put a statue up of him."

Matukewicz and offensive coordinator Sherard Poteete both noted Snyder's arduous work ethic in preparing for games.

"He's as consistent as there is," Matukewicz said. "I think people appreciate his 'come to work' process. He comes out, watches more film than a lot of people, he's asking lots of questions, and really, really wants to be a good player, so I think that's the process we're talking about."

Snyder has completed 38 of 68 passes with four interceptions for 671 yards and six touchdowns in Southeast's first three games while rushing for 117 yards and two touchdowns.

He threw for 204 yards and a touchdown on 16-of-29 passing and rushed for 51 yards against SIU.

"He's just, 'Coach me, coach,' like 'How can I get better?' Just like the week before and just like the week before that," Matukewicz said about Snyder's preparation this week. "There's not a lot of things that have changed from that end, we're just trying to get him more aware of the ball when he's running it."