Redhawks open football season Thursday in Louisiana

Another Southeast Missouri State football season kicks off Thursday night when the Redhawks visit Southeastern Louisiana.

While the Redhawks might be a slight underdog on the road, the game might be the most winnable among their three nonconference matchups to open the campaign.

Southeastern Louisiana, like Southeast, doesn't have much of a football tradition over the last couple of decades. However, the Lions are coming off their best season in quite a while.

The Lions went 5-6 a year ago and finished third in the Southland Conference with a 5-2 mark during their first season under coach Ron Roberts, who had a successful five-year run at Division II power Delta State.

Those five wins for the Lions were as many as they had in 2010 and 2011 combined. They posted their most successful season in the Southland Conference since joining the league in 2005 and compiled their most conference wins since 1978, when they competed in Division II.

Optimism is high in Hammond, La., as the Lions -- who received votes in one of the primary FCS national polls -- return 18 starters and have added junior quarterback Bryan Bennett, an Oregon transfer who compiled solid statistics as a backup for the Ducks the past two years.

Still, Southeastern Louisiana shouldn't be the type of squad that will dominate the Redhawks, who figure to have a shot at winning.

It would require a more significant upset for the Redhawks to win either of their next two games.

Monumental upset would be the term to use if the Redhawks prevail at Mississippi on Sept. 7 in the program's annual "money" game to generate revenue for the athletic department. Southeast reportedly will receive a school-record $375,000 payday.

Then, after an open date, comes the highly anticipated Sept. 21 matchup with longtime rival SIU that will mark the first football game in the seven-year history of the new Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

SIU has hammered Southeast in most of the recent meetings save for the Redhawks' 2010 victory in Carbondale, Ill., during their historic season.

If the Redhawks don't prevail Thursday, they would have to play some serious football to avoid an 0-3 start entering their Sept. 28 Ohio Valley Conference opener against Tennessee-Martin that also marks their home debut.

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My apologies to Dustin Hubler, who I inadvertently left out of last week's article about Southeast football players who graduated from high schools in the Missourian's coverage area.

Hubler was listed all last year and also most of this year on Southeast's website as being from Doniphan, Mo. That was recently changed to reflect that he's from Patton, Mo., and graduated from Meadow Heights High School, but I didn't notice it until it was brought to my attention after my article came out.

Anyway, Hubler is a reserve junior defensive end who has not yet appeared in a game for the Redhawks. According to Southeast's website, he originally attended Missouri Valley College for a year before transferring to Southeast in 2011. He redshirted last year as a walk-on.

It's interesting that Hubler is a Meadow Heights graduate, because the school does not have a football program.

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All nine OVC football teams play their first games this week, including three squads visiting FBS programs.

Austin Peay takes a trip to Tennessee, Murray State is at Missouri and Eastern Illinois travels to San Diego State.

Elsewhere around the league, Eastern Kentucky hosts Robert Morris, Tennessee Tech hosts Cumberland, Tennessee State entertains Bethune-Cookman, Jacksonville State visits Alabama State and Tennessee-Martin visits Chattanooga.

Eastern Kentucky, Tennessee Tech and Tennessee-Martin join Southeast in kicking off the season Thursday. The rest of the OVC squads open Saturday, except for Tennessee State, which has a rare Sunday contest.

And talk about being given a brutal schedule that is almost guaranteed to produce plenty of lumps: Austin Peay begins the season visiting two FBS opponents, including Vanderbilt on Sept. 7. The Governors also face a third FBS squad, Ohio, on Sept. 21

Every OVC team except Tennessee State plays at least one FBS opponent. Eastern Illinois, Murray State and Tennessee-Martin all take on two squads from college football's highest division.

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The FCS that Southeast competes in has expanded its playoff field to 24 teams this season, up from 20 last year.

That could help the OVC get more teams into postseason play after only one squad -- champion Eastern Illinois -- advanced in 2012.

Now, if the OVC could just win a playoff game for a change.

The league seemed to make nice strides last year, notching several notable nonconference victories and leading all FCS conferences in scoring.

But the OVC last won a postseason game in 2000, which is a sore point for everybody associated with the league.

Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian.