Redhawks' playoff foe is on a run

Southeast Missouri State's first football playoff opponent in school history has been on a roll.

The Eastern Washington Eagles began the season 2-2 but enter the 20-team Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) postseason tournament on a seven-game winning streak.

That has elevated the Eagles to the first No. 1 national ranking in program history as they moved up from third in The Sports Network media poll released Sunday morning.

"I'm sure they'll be a great team. When you get to the playoffs you expect every team to be really good," junior quarterback Matt Scheible said.

The matchup at 3:05 p.m. Dec. 4 in Cheney, Wash. -- about 1,935 miles from Cape Girardeau -- will be played on the red turf installed this year at Roos Field, where the Eagles are 6-0.

EWU finished as the Big Sky Conference co-champion. The Eagles and Ohio Valley Conference champion Redhawks, ranked ninth nationally, have identical overall and league records of 9-2 and 7-1.

The Eagles, who lost to Stephen F. Austin in the first round of the playoffs last season, are making their eighth postseason appearance and fifth in the past seven years. They are the No. 5 seed. Only five of the 20 teams receive seeds.

"We're really excited about the game," said senior tailback Henry Harris, the nation's No. 2 rusher who ranks first in all-purpose yardage.

EWU, like Southeast, lost its season opener on the road against an FBS (formerly Division I-A) squad as Nevada beat the Eagles 49-24. The Redhawks fell to Ball State 27-10.

The Eagles dropped a 30-7 decision at Big Sky rival Montana State in Week 4 but have not been beaten since. They and Montana State tied for the conference title.

 "It's great to be No. 1, but it all comes down to proving where we are ranked in the polls," EWU coach Beau Baldwin said on the school's website. "It's a great achievement for our players and coaches, and you can't be ranked any higher than that at the end of the regular season.

"You can make a lot of arguments about which teams should be seeded one through five, but we're thankful we are in the playoffs and we have a home playoff game. We're just excited about that."

Seven of EWU's nine wins have come by an average of just under seven points. Of those seven games, the Eagles have trailed or been tied in the fourth quarter of four of them and in one they trailed in the third period.

"We found ways to win close games and grind out victories," Baldwin said. "A lot of the 20 teams in the playoffs did that same thing."

EWU is led by two All-Americans in junior running back Taiwan Jones and senior linebacker J.C. Sherritt, along with junior quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell, a transfer from SMU who started all 19 games in which he played for the FBS program.

Jones leads the Big Sky with 1,344 yards rushing after piling up 1,213 yards in 2009. He is averaging 7.6 yards per carry and has scored 14 touchdowns, 11 rushing and three receiving. He also is first in the league in all-purpose yardage with an average of 195.1 per game.

Mitchell is the Big Sky's No. 2 passer, having completed 210 of 358 (58.7 percent) for 2,583 yards. He has thrown 25 touchdowns and been intercepted 11 times.

Mitchell's favorite target is sophomore Brandon Kaufman, who ranks fourth in the Big Sky with 55 receptions. He averages 16.8 yards per catch and has scored 12 touchdowns.

Sherritt is the league's No. 2 tackler with 125, an average of 11.4 per contest.

The Eagles rank fourth in the nine-team Big Sky in scoring offense at 30.5 points per game. They are fifth in scoring defense, allowing 25.1 points.

Southeast averages 27.8 points and allows 20.1 points to rank third and first in the nine-team OVC.

EWU is averaging 404.3 yards and giving up 404.7 yards. Those figures are third and sixth in the Big Sky.

The Redhawks are averaging 378.1 yards and allowing 310 yards to rank fourth and second in the OVC.

By the time the Redhawks play EWU, they will have had three weeks between games after ending the regular season Nov. 13.

Southeast coach Tony Samuel doesn't seem bothered by that, believing the time off will help as the Redhawks suffered several injuries late in the campaign.

"We had three light practices last week," Samuel said. "Now we can start focusing on who we play next."

Sophomore defensive end Justin Love is looking forward to that.

"It's film time," Love said. "Time to go back to what we've done all year."

Samuel said the Redhawks can't be content with simply earning the first playoff berth in Southeast's 104-year football history.

"We can't get too happy, too satisfied," Samuel said. "This is a great opportunity for us to take our program to another level."

OVC runner-up Jacksonville State -- which handed Southeast its only conference loss Nov. 13 to snap the Redhawks' nine-game winning streak -- also received a playoff berth.

The eighth-ranked Gamecocks, like Southeast, received a first-round bye and will host seventh-ranked Wofford on Dec. 4 in a matchup of 9-2 squads.

This year marks the first time for the OVC to have two teams in the playoffs since 2007.

Appalachian State is the No. 1 seed for the playoffs, followed by William & Mary, Delaware and Montana State.