Southeast faces a playoff-style challenge

Saturday's game with Tennessee State at Houck Stadium will be our first playoff game. We have to win to stay in the hunt for the OVC championship and a berth in the NCAA playoffs.

It will be a playoff atmosphere, and we need your help to create the home-field advantage that we need to beat an outstanding team like Tennessee State

Tennessee State and Jacksonville State are both 4-1, and we are a game behind at 3-2. Both teams have to come to Houck Stadium.

Jacksonville State plays at Samford on Saturday. Samford is 4-2 and needs a win to stay alive in the championship race. There are two big OVC games on Saturday, and one of them is right here at Houck Stadium with a 1 p.m. kickoff.

Our players are excited and preparing hard for the Tennessee State game.

Offensively, we feel we can move the ball on the Tigers, but we have to score when we get in the red zone. Defensively, we can't give up the big play, and that will be a challenge because Tennessee State is a big-play team. They have great players, including one of the nation's top running backs in Charles Anthony and the leading all-time receiver in the OVC, C.J. Johnson. They also have a fast and explosive return man in Carlos Wright. Facing all those weapons, we cannot give up big plays.

We also have to win the kicking game. In our three OVC wins, we won the kicking game. In our two losses, we lost the kicking game. That's how important special teams play will be this week.

Last week we got a 58-yard punt return by Antonio Scaife to set up one of our touchdowns in a 20-7 win over Tennessee-Martin. Scaife is a true freshman who has missed a couple of punts this year, but he has the ability to make big plays like last Saturday.

Derek Kutz had a pair of field goals and David Simonhoff punted the ball well after missing the Murray State game with a leg injury.

I was really pleased with our overall game at Tennessee-Martin. We didn't pile up a lot of points, but we didn't make mistakes on offense.

Junior Andrew Goodenough played well in his first start at quarterback. Andrew hadn't played much in more than a year, but he played a very solid game at Martin. He was 19 of 29 passing for 180 yards and one touchdown with no interceptions. He is a quality quarterback who will only get better.

We cannot afford to have any turnovers against a team as explosive as Tennessee State.

I am a big golf fan, and after the win at Martin I told our team we're in a position just like the golfers at the Masters in Augusta. At one point you reach Amen Corner with the next three holes making you or breaking you. You have to do well on those three holes to have a chance to win.

We are at Amen Corner. We have three games left, and we have to win all three to win the OVC championship and have an opportunity for a berth in the I-AA playoffs.

I'm excited, our coaches and players are excited and I hope you are excited because the playoffs really begin on Saturday at Houck Stadium.

The weather looks good with a prediction of 50 degrees and sunshine. Come out and help us gain that all-important home field advantage. I'll see you Saturday.

Tim Billings is the head football coach at Southeast Missouri State University.