SOUTHEAST FOOTBALL PACKS UP DISAPPOINTING 3-8 YEAR

Despite a 3-8 final record, Southeast Missouri State University football coach John Mumford believes the Indians probably played fairly close to their potential this season.

"I think we got a lot out of these young men," said Mumford Monday morning during his final media conference of the year. "We knew going into the season that our talent level maybe wasn't as good as last year.

"But the attitude this year was so much better. We played hard most of the time and we were in a position where, if we had made just a few more plays, we could have won several more games."

Mumford realizes that college athletic programs are ultimately judged on wins and losses. The Indians have suffered four straight losing seasons, going 7-15 the last two years.

There has been considerable speculation whether Mumford -- who was given a one-year contract extension following last year's 4-7 record -- will be back as the Indians' head coach next season.

Mumford, as he has done in the past, chooses to not publicly discuss the situation.

"No comment," was his reply when asked about what he thought the job status of he and his assistant coaches is.

Southeast executive vice president Ken Dobbins has said that, like all athletic programs at the school, the football program is evaluated once the season is over.

Turning back to the season just completed -- it ended with a 34-7 loss at Southern Illinois Saturday -- the Indians wound up losing their final five games after a stretch that saw them play extremely competitive football.

In going 3-3 in their first six games, the Indians lost on a last-second field goal at Eastern Illinois, lost by seven points to Indiana State and played Murray State tough.

Of the final five losses, however, three were lopsided -- by 31 points to Tennessee State, by 35 at Southwest Missouri and by 27 at SIU. Also during that stretch, Southeast lost to Middle Tennessee by only two points.

Of the late-season slide, Mumford said, "We probably were going on a lot of emotion for a while. And we had some injuries that hurt."

Despite losing 18 seniors -- many of whom were among the Indians' top players and about a dozen who started -- Mumford said there is some good young talent in the program.

"I think we have an excellent nucleus of young players. A lot of them played some key roles for us," Mumford said. "We need to do a good job with recruiting. Our coaches are heading out today (Monday)."

Going strictly by statistics, Southeast's leading rusher and scorer, two of the top three receivers and three of the top four tacklers are all seniors.

Senior Corey Williams led Southeast with 687 yards rushing and 12 touchdowns. He is the leading scorer in the Ohio Valley Conference and the league's second-leading rusher.

Senior wide receiver Dante Bryant caught 46 passes for 568 yards to pace the Indians while senior tight end Mitch Fryer ranked third with 22 receptions.

Bryant finished his career with 114 receptions, leading Southeast in receiving all three years he played for the Indians.

Defensively, senior linebacker Kevin Meachem had a brilliant year, leading the team in tackles with 111, tackles for loss with 13 and quarterback sacks with seven. He leads the OVC in tackles entering the final week of the season for most squads.

Senior tackle Troy Baglio was second on the team with 81 tackles, including 12 for loss. He finished an outstanding career as a four-year starter with 285 tackles.

Senior linebacker Gabe Jenkins, a Cape Central product, was the fourth-leading tackler for the Indians with 55.

While seniors dominated many of the statistical categories, a lot of underclassmen put up impressive numbers.

Redshirt freshman quarterback Bobby Brune from Cape Central completed 97 of 156 passes (62 percent) for 1,167 yards. His totals are the best for a Southeast freshman quarterback since his uncle, Lance Brune, passed for 1,273 yards in 1971.

"Bobby really had a good year for a redshirt freshman," Mumford said. "He made some freshman mistakes but he's certainly a guy to build around."

Two sophomore wide receivers, Leslie Weaver and Corey Chester, were second and fourth in receptions, with 27 and 21, respectively. Chester also ranked 19th in the nation in kickoff returns with an average of 26.5 yards per return.

Two juniors, fullback Broderick Benson and tailback Riki Smith, were second and third in rushing, with 423 and 259 yards, respectively.

The offensive line will also return one of its anchors in junior center Chris Kiefer from Perryville.

Defensively, junior safety John Smith of Jackson was third with 67 tackles; junior tackle Joel Becker tied for second with four sacks; junior linebacker Jeremy Atwell had a team and OVC-best four fumble recoveries; and sophomore safety Isaac Powell had a team-leading three interceptions.