Rough road ahead for Redhawks

The second half of the Southeast Missouri State football season didn't begin any better than the first half ended.

It was another loss for the Redhawks, who fell 28-16 at Tennessee Tech on Saturday for their sixth consecutive defeat.

And believe it or not, now things get even tougher for the 1-6 Redhawks, who are a last-place 0-5 in the Ohio Valley Conference as they are the only OVC team without a league victory.

Three of Southeast's final four opponents are nationally ranked. The gauntlet begins this week at No. 20 Eastern Kentucky, which is sure to be in a bad mood after falling out of first place in the OVC with Saturday's 24-20 upset loss at Austin Peay.

Southeast then plays its last three games at home, starting Nov. 7 against No. 12 Jacksonville State.

The Gamecocks, ineligible for the OVC title due to shortcomings under the NCAA's Academic Progress Rate, suffered their first conference loss Saturday as Eastern Illinois pulled off a 28-20 upset in Alabama.

After Murray State -- which has posted only one OVC win to rank just ahead of Southeast in the standings -- visits Houck Stadium on Nov. 14, the Redhawks finish the season Nov. 21 against No. 3 Southern Illinois.

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The OVC released its preseason women's basketball poll Thursday, with the men's poll scheduled for release Thursday.

Southeast's women, featuring an extremely young roster that includes nine freshmen and just one senior, were somewhat predictably tabbed to finish in the bottom half of the 10-team conference. The Redhawks were ranked No. 7.

Southeast's men, coming off their debacle of a season and featuring 11 new players along with a new coaching staff, certainly won't be picked that high.

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Here's wishing Tom Farden all the best in his new position as an assistant with the Arkansas women's gymnastics program.

Farden did some amazing things as Southeast's coach the past six years, leading the Redhawks to a pair of team regional berths and academic national championships the last three seasons.

Farden, a class act in and out of the gym, will be missed.

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Congratulations to the Notre Dame softball team for winning the school's first state championship in that sport.

And how about the way senior ace pitcher Lauren Reinagel capped her brilliant prep career.

Reinagel fired a perfect game and accounted for the state title contest's first run with a homer during Saturday's 3-0 victory over Kirksville in St. Joseph.

Talk about a fairytale ending.

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The Missouri football team has come down to earth in a big way with consecutive losses to Nebraska, Oklahoma State and Texas, capped by the third-ranked Longhorns' 41-7 rout of the Tigers on Saturday.

But that really wasn't unexpected, because the Tigers' 4-0 start maybe wasn't as impressive as first thought considering how bad Illinois has turned out to be.

Let's face it, after losing so many key players from last year, not many people pegged MU for a national power this season.

Still, the Tigers have a solid shot to post their share of wins the rest of the way and at least make it to a mid-level bowl game, which would be a decent accomplishment after the graduation hits they took.

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The misery is finally over -- at least for one week -- for the Indiana State football team.

Indiana State won for the first time in more than three years Saturday, beating Western Illinois 17-14 to end the nation's longest losing streak at 33 games.

Only Prairie View A&M (80 games), Columbia (44) and Northwestern (34) have ever lost more games consecutively. The Sycamores hadn't tasted victory since beating Missouri State 28-22 on Oct. 21, 2006.

Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian.