Southeast Missouri State football team faces long odds at Ole Miss

~ Southeast is a 49-point underdog against the FBS school from the SEC

The Southeast Missouri State football team has been beaten by an average of 61-3 in five games against squads from upper-level FBS conferences, those matchups all coming since coach Tony Samuel took over the program in 2006.

Southeast's next shot at a major-conference opponent -- Saturday at Mississippi of the Southeastern Conference in the first-ever meeting between the programs -- figures to be every bit as daunting. The kickoff in Oxford, Miss., is at 6 p.m.

The Rebels (1-0) are on the rise in their second year under coach Hugh Freeze, while the Redhawks (0-1) are coming off a season-opening blowout.

"Ole Miss is a great football team," said Samuel, whose squad was routed 45-7 at Southeastern Louisiana last week. "A lot of kids, big kids, that can run. It's an SEC team, so you're looking at a great team with a lot of depth."

Southeast will receive a school-record $375,000 for Saturday's annual "guarantee" game, with the money going to the university's general athletic department revenue.

These types of matchups have also guaranteed almost certain defeat for Southeast, which is 1-17 all-time against FBS opponents. The lone win came in 2002 at Middle Tennessee State.

The Redhawks often have been competitive against FBS squads from lower-tier conferences -- they led Central Michigan by 14 points in the second quarter before losing 38-27 last year -- but never against clubs from top-level leagues.

Southeast lost at Arkansas 63-7 during Samuel's first season in 2006. They were beaten 59-3 at Cincinnati in 2007, 52-3 at Missouri in 2008, 70-3 at Cincinnati in 2009 and 59-0 at Purdue in 2011.

"It's necessary for us. We all know the budget issues when it comes to having a money game, what it does for the athletic department, so we do have to play them," Samuel said. "You also do have to be careful who you pick and choose to play. This is a very powerful team. We just have to make sure we play well. If you play well and you play hard it tends to minimize the injury factor, that's the key to the whole thing."

All that being said, Samuel said he goes into every game with the idea that his team is going to win -- regardless of how realistic that might actually be.

"We're preparing right now with the idea of figuring out how to win the game. That's the only way that we know how," Samuel said. "We'd like to say we're going to win the football game. I can't predict what the score is going to be, I'd rather be able to predict that we're going to go down there and execute our plan.

"I want to see us get better, no question about it. We're young and talented. I want to see us use our physical ability and combine that with the playing experience, which we've already got one [game] under our belt."

Mississippi went 7-6 overall during Freeze's first season last year, including 3-5 in the SEC, and earned its first bowl berth since 2009.

That was an improvement from two wins the previous season as the Rebels entered 2012 riding a 14-game SEC losing streak.

Optimism surrounding the Rebels -- who returned 19 starters and added a top-five recruiting class led by the nation's No. 1 recruit, defensive end Robert Nkemdiche -- was at a fever pitch going into this season.

The Rebels did nothing to dim that last week as they got the season off to a rousing start, scoring on a 75-yard run by senior tailback Jeff Scott with 67 seconds left to post a 39-35 nationally-televised SEC win at Vanderbilt.

"We're really pleased to come out of a road SEC game with a win, particularly having to come back several times," said Freeze, whose squad is just outside the top 25 of the two major national polls. "Our kids fought the entire 60 minutes. We certainly made a lot of mistakes, but we'll get them corrected. It's nice to be 1-0,"

Scott is part of an offense that returned eight starters from a unit that ranked among the top five in the SEC in scoring (31.5 points per game) and total offense (423.8 yards per game). The Rebels returned all 11 starters on defense.

Leading the Rebels' offense is junior Bo Wallace, on the preseason watch list for the nations' top quarterbacks. He completed 63.9 percent (235 of 368) for 2,994 yards, 22 touchdowns and 17 interceptions a year ago. He also rushed for 390 yards and eight touchdowns.

Wallace compiled the second-most total yards (3,384) in school history last season.

Scott led the Rebels with 846 yards rushing last year, averaging 4.3 yards per carry and scoring six rushing touchdowns. He ranks among the school's career top 10 in rushing yards and all-purpose yards. Junior wide receiver Donte Moncrief caught 66 passes for 10 touchdowns.

Wallace tied his career-high with 31 completions on 47 attempts against Vanderbilt last week. He finished with 283 passing yards and 48 rushing yards.

Freshman Laquon Treadwell, one of the nation's top wide-receiver recruits, caught nine passes for 82 yards in his collegiate debut. The nine receptions were the most by a Rebel since 2005.

"They're a fast, big football team," Samuel said.

While Southeast rates as a 49-point underdog, Freeze vowed that the Rebels won't take the Redhawks lightly -- especially after eight FCS teams upset FBS squads during the opening week of the college football season.

"There's a lot of D-I AA schools that beat D-I schools so we will have to really prepare," Freeze said.