Southeast Missouri State football roster reloaded with regional talent

There are many reasons why a player chooses which school he wants to attend and play football for.

It could be because of the scholarship they've been offered, the previous success of the program or their expectation to earn a starting spot quickly.

But for Caruthersville's Darrell Monroe and Valle Catholic's Tyler Fallert, the reason to sign a National Letter of Intent on Wednesday to play football at Southeast Missouri State was simple, and the same.

"I chose Southeast because after I visited their campus I realized that the whole football team acts like a family for each other and they're always together, so it just kind of felt like home," Fallert said.

Monroe's response was nearly identical.

"The atmosphere there was like one big family," Monroe said. "Like they all had each other's back."

Monroe and Fallert were two of the 22 players who made up coach Tom Matukewicz's first recruiting class.

Monroe and Fallert, both running backs, had prolific high school careers. Monroe rushed for 1,430 yards and scored 25 touchdowns his senior year, and as a linebacker made 54 tackles.

When Matukewicz was questioned about what position he expected Monroe to play he answered simply: "He's a running back."

"Have you seen him play?" Matukewicz asked. "A year and a half ago I was sitting [at Toledo] looking at his film and going, 'Man, this dude is like Adrian Peterson.' I'm not saying he's Adrian Peterson, so don't say that, but his speed to power and his ability to accelerate is off the charts, so that's where we'll start him. He's got good ball skills. We can get him the ball several different ways.

"The best thing I like about Darrell is just he's a competitor. Most guys that are that high-end will play down to their competition. They'll play down even though it's a little bit better, but he wants to dominate. That's the thing that I love about him."

Fallert, who had offers to walk on at Georgia Tech and Baylor, was a three time state champion in Class 1 and rushed for 2,329 yards and 35 touchdowns his senior season. He also had 46 tackles as a linebacker.

"He understands that you have to work hard for everything you get," Valle football coach Judd Naeger said. "He had to do that at the high school level, and I know that he's looking forward to it. Ever since the day after the state championship he's been out there making himself a better football player."

Valle Catholic High School running back Tyler Fallert signed his National Letter of Intent to play at Southeast Missouri State on Wednedday. (Michael Boyd Jr ~ Ste. Genevieve Herald)

Fallert is confident that the Southeast football program, which won three games each of the last three seasons, can improve and is eager to be a part of that.

"At Valle I had a 44-6 record, so now that I'm going to Southeast I'm going to win some ballgames there," Fallert said. "Lately they haven't had very good records, so I'm going to go down there and win because that's what I'm used to doing."

Monroe and Fallert were part of a group of eight players from the Southeast Missouri region who signed with Southeast on Wednesday. The Redhawks had signed two players from the region in the last three years combined.

"When I was first introduced as the head football coach here in the press conference, I made a publicly committed statement about trying to keep local players here," Matukewicz said. "Obviously that was a big commitment for me. I don't do that because I'm trying to win a popularity contest because believe me, I'm trying to win a football game. I'm trying to create a program, OK? But I understand the value of what local players do for us and what it did for us at other programs. And that's why we're doing what we're doing."

Charleston's Demontrail Clark, Hayti's Demetrius Luster, Poplar Bluff's Nick Michel and Quentin Michel, Jackson's Colten Proffer and Central's Zach Stagner will also join the Southeast program, although not all as scholarship players.

Clark had 936 rushing yards and 221 receiving yards his senior year while collecting 48 tackles and three interceptions on defense. Luster was an all-state wide receiver. Nick Michel and Quentin Michel, twin brothers from Poplar Bluff High School, played offensive and defensive line in high school and are expected to play offensive line at Southeast.

Proffer is a running back who rushed for 1,132 yards and had 799 yards receiving during his senior season at Jackson while Stagner played defensive end and offensive guard at Central and could serve as a long snapper at Southeast.

Caruthersville coach Nathan Morgan is a Southeast alum and thinks that recruiting area athletes is positive for the program.

"Not to knock SEMO by any means because I enjoyed it there," Morgan said. "I still love that school, but all the coaches around the area always wondered how come such-and-such wasn't playing there or what the deal was. I think part of it is the change with coach [Matukewicz] and his priority to the area and wanting to get the best recruits there, and then when you're able to get a guy like Darrell and I think the Clark kid from Charleston, maybe a couple others, it does seem like a possibility to the area kids, so they're obviously starting to want to go there, at least think about the idea of going there. I think it obviously makes it a better situation when the head coach has the want-to to recruit the area."

Matukewicz didn't elaborate on why he recruited individual players, but rather focused on the recruiting class as a whole.

"Well, I mean, they fit the same mold as all of them," Matukewicz said. "The first question out of my mouth or that an assistant asks is, 'Do you love football?' I don't want to hear it. I want to know what you've done. I tell them it's in our recruiting model -- between one and 10, 10 being 'you can't live without football,' one meaning 'you could quit tomorrow,' where would you rank yourself. And if it was five or six, 'Have a nice day.' This is too hard, OK. You have to have a passion for this game to be successful, so that was the No. 1 thing.

"That's the thing about these guys in the area is just their passion and their love for football. And then the same thing is, 'Are they committed to getting a degree? Are they committed educationally? And they all passed that or they wouldn't have gone any farther. There were some big names in the area that we were able to get, but really they all make something bigger than just themselves, than one single individual. There's some names in there, but really it's about the 2014 class."

Southeast signed five other defensive players: Linebackers Hunter Bledsoe from Briarcrest High School in Eads, Tenn., and Brad Ivey from Bishop Miege High School in Shawnee, Kan.; Josh Kinzer, a safety from Owasso High School in Owasso, Okla.; Kendall Donnerson, a defensive end from Maumelle High School in Maumelle, Ark.; and cornerback Craig Mackey, from Florida A&M in Tallahassee, Fla. Mackey is currently enrolled at Southeast and will participate in spring drills.

On the offensive side Southeast signed two quarterbacks: Anthony Cooper from Kickapoo High School in Springfield, Mo., and Griffin Pickler from Colleyville Heritage High School in Colleyville, Texas.

The Redhawks added three tight ends: Connor Alexander from Olathe East High School in Olathe, Kan., Gavin McCrary from Houston High School in Germantown, Tenn., and Jeff Teel from Bartlett High School in Bartlett, Tenn.

Keari Brown, from West Memphis Christian High School in West Memphis, Ark., and Richie Eisenhart from Francis Howell High School in St. Charles, Mo., are wide receivers.

Southeast also signed CJ Stafford, a kicker from Houston High School in Collierville, Tenn., and Luther Wright, an offensive lineman from East St. Louis High School in East St. Louis, Ill.

"The strength of this class, I think, is them wanting Southeast," said Matukewicz, whose mantra that the program will be built "brick by brick" has become the program's motto. "They want to be here, and you would not believe the buy-in value from the bricks and the pictures. They love Southeast already -- with social media and all those things, they already seem to have a friendship with each other in the class."