SEMO SET TO KICK OFF SPRING DRILLS

Because they lost numerous key seniors from last season's team, this year's spring workouts for Southeast Missouri State University's football Indians figure to be as competitive as ever.

The Indians will begin spring drills Friday afternoon. Under NCAA guidelines, they are allowed to hold 15 practice sessions. The spring session will conclude April 24 with a scrimmage game.

"We're excited and looking forward to getting started again," said Southeast coach John Mumford, whose squad went 3-8 last year. "We've had seven, eight weeks of lifting and running and I think we've increased our speed and explosiveness. I think we'll have a little bit more team speed than we've had in the past."

Mumford acknowledges that there will be plenty of competition for starting positions, both during the spring and when fall drills begin in August.

"Competition will be very important at all positions," Mumford said. "We've got some big shoes to fill at quite a few positions. But we've got a lot of key players back and we're real excited about a lot of young guys that we redshirted."

Mumford, who will be entering his 10th season as Southeast's head coach, said the Indians' offense will be more wide open this spring while the defense will basically stick with the schemes used successfully the past few seasons.

"I feel good about our offense although we have to rebuild the offensive line," he said. "Bobby Brune (Cape Central High School) proved he can be an effective quarterback last season and he will have a large group of talented receivers including Corey Chester, Leslie Weaver, Andy Dunaway (Cape Central) and redshirt freshman Jeri Huling.

"We have proven running backs in K.D. Koleosho, Riki Smith, Broderick Benson and Sturge Cumberford, and we have some very talented young backs in redshirt freshmen Mark Blissett and Devree Flint."

Brune will be the only Southeast quarterback with any real experience after the departure of Kevin Seto, who left school to return to his home state of California.

Brune had an impressive rookie season last year, passing for 1,167 yards while hitting on 62 percent of his attempts.

Southeast's quarterback position in the spring will feature an all-local flavor, with Jackson's Mike Gross and Justin Keen the other signal callers. Gross threw one pass last year while Keen spent his entire freshman season as the Indians' punter, a position he will handle again in 1999.

Mumford said he is excited about two local products at the running back position -- Sikeston's Blissett and Jackson's Flint.

"They both have a lot of potential," Mumford said.

Southeast lost many of its main offensive weapons, including tailback Corey Williams -- the team's leading rusher and scorer -- along with top receiver Dante Bryant and tight end Mitch Fryer, the third-leading receiver.

The offensive line returns starting center Chris Kiefer (Perryville) and starting tackle Ian Walters. Both guards and one tackle used up their eligibility, leaving Chad King (Fredericktown), Chris Evertsen and transfer David Fielder to battle for starting berths. Mumford is also high on 320-pound redshirt freshman Eric Carlson (Poplar Bluff).

John Borne and Bryan Walker both saw action last year at tight end.

Southeast's defense, like the offense, returns six starters but must replace standouts Troy Baglio and Marcus McLellan on the line, linebacker's Kevin Meachem and Gabe Jenkins (Cape Central) and cornerback Fred Hambrick.

Meachem and Baglio were the team's top two tacklers last year while Jenkins was fourth and McLellan sixth.

Returning starters in the defensive line include Jason DeWolf and Brad Richardson while Joel Becker also saw a lot of action.

Middle linebacker David Bowling returns along with Jeremy Atwell. Donovan Laviness, a Tulsa transfer, brings experience to the linebacker corps.

In the secondary, starters John Smith (Jackson), Isaac Powell and Brian Hinton will be joined by veteran backups Andre Clark, Joe Williams and Leotis Belcher on one of the squad's deepest units. Smith was the Indians' third-leading tackler last year while Powell led in interceptions with three.

Both specialists return in Keen and kicker Nick Reggio.

Southeast will face a rugged schedule in 1999. In addition to the OVC opponents, the Indians face four Gateway Conference squads: Southern Illinois, Southwest Missouri, Illinois State and Indiana State.

Mumford welcomes one new coach on board as former Alabama player Rory Segrest takes over the defensive line for Jay Thomas, who is now at Nicholls State.