Samuel keeps hectic pace while getting acclimated

~ The Redhawks' new coach and his assistants will meet with his team for the first time Wednesday.

Tony Samuel has not lacked for things to do since being named Southeast Missouri State's head football coach a little more than three weeks ago.

"It has been fairly hectic," Samuel said with a smile. "Any time you start over, there are a lot of things you have to find out and do, hiring a staff, budgets, recruiting, fundraising, watching recruiting tapes, looking back at the roster, medical situations, scholarships we have available.

"Football is broken down into so many pieces we have to cover. I think we've done a little bit of everything. It's been a lot of hard work, but it's been a lot of fun."

As the personable Samuel took some time from his busy schedule Thursday to touch on a variety of topics, it quickly became apparent that he has not yet found the time to tackle at least one chore -- sprucing up his office.

"A lot of my stuff isn't even here, no pictures or nothing," Samuel said as he sat behind his desk, with barren shelves in the background.

In fact, Samuel's family isn't even with him yet -- his wife and children are still in West Lafayette, Ind., where he resided the past year while serving as an assistant coach at Purdue -- nor are the families of the six assistants he recently brought on board yet in Cape Girardeau.

"Nobody's families are here," Samuel said. "We're all kind of staying together in one house. There's a lot of college feel to it, but that's good for bonding."

If Samuel hasn't had the time or the personal belongings on hand to fix up his office, he also hasn't had a whole lot of time to look for a home in preparation for once his family does join him here -- although he tries to perform house-hunting duties whenever he can squeeze in a few minutes.

"I find myself running around with that whenever I can," he said. "The last two mornings, when the sun came up, I drove by and looked at a few houses."

The 50-year-old Samuel, a former head coach at Division I-A New Mexico State, said he is so far elated with a coaching staff that is still short one full-time member and some graduate assistants. He expected those positions to be filled in the coming weeks.

Samuel is particularly pleased that both of his coordinators -- Vincent White (offense) and Tim McGuire (defense) -- are former Division I-AA head coaches. And he's happy that he is familiar with most of the new staff members, including four who either played or coached at the University of Nebraska, where Samuel was a standout defensive end before joining the staff assistant coach.

"I feel very fortunate. I feel we've put together a real good staff," Samuel said. "We've got two former Division I-AA head coaches, which I think is important. I feel we have a nice mix of youth and experience.

"I know most of these guys pretty well, which I think is important. In this business, you have to feel comfortable around the people you're going to work with. There is a trust factor that is very important."

Samuel said he and his staff are looking forward to meeting with the entire team on Wednesday. Samuel was hired after school had already dismissed for the holidays, and classes don't resume until Tuesday.

"I've met a few that have been coming in and out, but I'm looking forward to meeting with the whole team," he said. "After we meet with all the players, we'll formulate a plan to begin our strength and conditioning program."

Samuel said he has looked at some game film from last season, when the Redhawks went 2-9, but it's way too early to determine what type of talent he will have to work with.

"I have no idea. I'm looking forward to finding that out myself," Samuel said. "When I looked at some film, I looked at different situations, how kids were responding, mainly evaluating effort."

According to Samuel, a lot of his evaluations will take place once the players return to campus.

"We evaluate people before we even get to summer workouts on how we can count on them, how we can depend on them," Samuel said. "Accountability is big, with meetings, class, conditioning, study tables. ... We evaluate everything."

With the signing period beginning on Feb. 1, Samuel said he is not sure how many players Southeast will sign, and he's not even certain yet how many scholarships he has available.

"We're not sweating it that much. We'll get a fair amount of kids signed, but we'll probably sign some later," Samuel said. "If we have to hold off and not sign as many now, we will. We don't want to sign players just to fill the scholarships.

"We're looking at the depth chart, the personnel we have, see how that will carry over. We really don't know. We have to fill immediate needs first."

Samuel, who said he will make it a point to try and get familiar with as many local high school coaches as he can as quickly as possible, said his first recruiting class will likely feature players from various levels.

"Right now we're attacking everything, high school, junior college, I-A [transfers]," he said. "We're going to get out there as much as you can [locally]. You work from your area out, the closest first, and work you're way out.

"We'll recruit nationally, but you want to make sure that local talent that can play at this level, you've had a good chance to evaluate it. You would hate to miss out on a kid."