Southeast football gets rare chance to play role of favorite

So Southeast Missouri State football fans, you think your team has struggled in recent years?

The Redhawks have nothing on Indiana State, which Southeast visits for an 11 a.m. kickoff today.

Southeast supporters have been frustrated by the Redhawks' 12-32 record from 2004 through 2007 and their 1-3 start to this season.

How must ISU followers feel after seeing the Sycamores go 5-39 from 2004 through 2007 and start 0-3 this year while being outscored 138-6?

Trent Miles laughed when he was asked how his first season as ISU's coach has gone so far.

"Let's see, we're 0-3, we've scored six points in three games, we've been beaten 138-6. Other than that, it's going well," Miles said.

Tony Samuel went 4-7 and 3-8 in his first two seasons after being brought in to revive Southeast's floundering program, but Miles appears to have inherited an even worse situation.

The Sycamores have the nation's longest Division I-AA losing streak, dropping their last 17 games. They have won just one of their last 42 games and have suffered through 11 straight losing seasons.

ISU's last season with more than one victory came during a 4-7 campaign in 2004 that marked the end of current Southeast defensive coordinator Tim McGuire's seven-year run as the Sycamores' coach.

"You're talking about a program that has won one game in the last 42," Miles said. "A win, well, it's foreign to them [his players]. They don't know what it feels like.

"We're trying to change a culture, a losing culture."

Southeast lacks the funding and facilities of the Ohio Valley Conference's top programs. ISU is also in bad shape in those areas compared to the rest of the squads in the rugged, high-budget Missouri Valley Football Conference.

ISU has compiled five consecutive last-place conference finishes in a league that ranks among the nation's best on the Division I-AA level.

But Miles, a former ISU player whose most recent stops featured three years as an assistant at Washington and three years as an assistant at Notre Dame, is determined to turn his alma mater around.

The 45-year-old Miles said he realizes the process will take time, but is confident it ultimately will happen.

"We're very positive. If you look at our recruiting class, we are playing a lot of young guys," Miles said. "I'm patient enough. I knew what I was getting into."

Miles said ISU's president and athletic director "really want us to succeed." He said ISU's administration already has increased his recruiting budget and promised to upgrade aging facilities.

"The future I think is good here. We've got a commitment from the administration to do things the right way. I feel good about that," Miles said. "Now, it's never going to be as good [financially and facilities-wise] as some of the other ones [MVFC programs].

"But it can be better. I don't need the Taj Mahal. I just want to be in the middle of the pack."

What Miles is trying to overcome — budget constraints, aging facilities and a program that hasn't experienced much success in recent years — are some of the challenges Samuel also faces at Southeast.

In that regard, Miles said he can empathize with his counterpart in today's game.

Miles and Samuel have known each other for a while, and Miles said he admired the job Samuel did at New Mexico State in his previous head coaching position. Samuel was let go despite leading the Aggies to some of their best seasons ever.

"Tony is a really good coach," Miles said. "He did an excellent job at New Mexico State. He got hosed there."

Samuel emphasizes the Sycamores are not nearly as bad as their results indicate, and he might have a point considering the level of competition ISU has faced.

The Sycamores have played two Division I-A teams (Northern Illinois and Eastern Michigan) and a nationally ranked Division I-AA squad (Eastern Illinois).

"It is [a tough schedule], but you still have to go out and play," Miles said. "You'd always like to be a lot further along than you are."

Said Samuel: "They've played a really tough schedule, but they do some good things. They're a younger team, but they are athletic. It's not going to be easy."

Especially considering Southeast only beat the Sycamores 13-10 last year at Houck Stadium, part of an 0-11 campaign for ISU.

The Redhawks could use a shot of momentum before they finish the season with seven straight OVC games. Southeast is 0-1 in OVC play.

"We just want to win, plain and simple," Samuel said.

The same goes for the Sycamores.

"A win would be huge as far as confidence goes," Miles said.