Redhawks to set alarm clocks

~ Southeast will begin spring practices Wednesday morning.

Southeast Missouri State football coach Tony Samuel figures his second spring practice session should go smoother than his first.

Not that Samuel encountered any problems out of the ordinary last year.

But a year in Samuel's system should make the Redhawks, at least the returning players, feel more comfortable with what is going on and what is expected of them.

"It is good to have this be the second year," Samuel said. "They'll have a better feel for it."

Southeast begins spring workouts Wednesday with a 5:15 a.m. session.

Samuel also had the Redhawks working out in the wee hours of the morning last spring.

Now, as then, he said that time is not to promote discipline but to avoid class conflicts in the afternoon.

"We have to have everybody here. That's the main reason we do it so early," Samuel said. "I'm sticking with it. It worked out well last year."

The NCAA allows 15 spring practices, including scrimmages and an intrasquad game. The Redhawks will hold their spring intrasquad game April 21 at noon.

Southeast will work out Wednesday, Friday and Saturday this week, then basically follow a Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday schedule leading up to the spring game.

All the weekday practices will be at 5:15 a.m., with the Saturday sessions, when most of the scrimmaging will be done, set for about noon.

In addition to evaluating personnel and continuing to fine-tune his system, Samuel said a big emphasis this spring will be on fundamentals.

"We have to make sure we're fundamentally sound," he said. "We felt last year that was lacking."

The Redhawks graduated 25 seniors from Samuel's first Southeast team that went 4-7, including 2-6 in the Ohio Valley Conference.

Those 25 seniors filled many of the starting positions and represented many of the squad's top players, so Samuel and his staff need to find new starters for most positions.

Samuel said starting spots might not necessarily be won or lost in the spring, but this time of the year can certainly allow players to gain an advantage over their competition.

"It's a combination," he said. "You get a good learning curve in the spring, then you have the summer and fall camp. Of course, a guy can gain an advantage in the spring."

The Redhawks signed a whopping 29 players last month, with 19 being high school seniors.

Southeast landed 10 junior college transfers, with nine of those, along with one of the high school seniors, who graduated early, already enrolled in school and eligible to participate in spring workouts.

"That's huge, having those guys in here already," Samuel said. "Normally I'm not big on signing that many junior college kids, but imagine if we didn't. Losing 25 seniors, we'd be strapped.

"And from what I've seen so far, we've gotten some really quality junior college kids."

One of the more intriguing spring battles, and one that will no doubt carry over into the fall, should be at quarterback. It's a given that Southeast's starting signal caller in 2007 never will have thrown a pass on a level higher than junior college.

Last season's starter, Kevin Ballatore, was a senior, and his backup, sophomore Markus Mosley, who saw limited playing time, left the program. That leaves the Redhawks with four scholarship quarterbacks for 2007, including Houston Lillard, who missed all of last season with a knee injury after transferring from a California junior college.

Lillard and walk-on redshirt freshman Steve Callanan will be joined for spring practice by Victor Anderson, one of the 10 junior college players Southeast signed last month.

Anderson passed for 800 yards and rushed for 300 yards at Mesa (Ariz.) Community College last season.

Joining the quarterback competition for the fall will be two of the 19 high school signees: Jared Van Slyke from St. Louis (John Burroughs) and Laron Johnson from Oakland, Calif.

Van Slyke is the son of former St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Andy Van Slyke.

"It should be competitive," Samuel said of the quarterback situation.

Samuel said he enters his second spring practice encouraged by the way the Redhawks handled a demanding offseason strength and conditioning program.

"The guys from last year and the junior college guys, we pushed them pretty hard and they handled it," he said. "We have some good kids."

Good enough, Samuel believes, to make solid improvement on the field in his second season.

"I think we've got a chance ... but I'm one of those guarded optimists. You have to show me before I start ranting and raving," Samuel said. "But I think we're headed in the right direction."