Southeast Missouri State football team seeks 2-0 start in OVC

~ Southeast will take on another ranked team at home Saturday in TSU

Statistically, the Tennessee State football team boasts one of the best defenses in not only the Ohio Valley Conference, but also the nation.

Tigers coach Rod Reed has been impressed by his defense through its first five games of the season, but believes his team's matchup against Southeast Missouri State on Saturday for the Redhawks' homecoming game will be a true test.

"I don't think we've faced an offense as good as the one that we're going to see Saturday," Reed said in Tuesday's OVC teleconference.

The Tigers (4-1, 1-0 OVC) come to Houck Stadium ranked 21st in the FCS and face the Redhawks at 1 p.m.

TSU leads the country in total defense (207.4 yards allowed per game), sacks (5.0/game), pass efficiency defense (67.79) as well as fourth-down conversion defense.

The Tigers are near the top in several other defensive categories, including second in interceptions (10) and turnovers plus/minus (+15).

TSU won last year's meeting 40-16, but Southeast is on its first winning streak since 2010, already has knocked off a ranked team in then-No. 3 Southeastern Louisiana and the Redhawks' 3-2 record matches their win total from each of the last three seasons.

"You watch them and it's not the same team that we saw last year, I can tell you that," Reed said in the teleconference. "Their offense, though, is unbelievable. Their quarterback makes everything work. He can throw the ball, he's very patient in the pocket, and when he gets out of the pocket he keeps his eyes down field and he can put it down and run it. When you have a quarterback with those kind of capabilities, that can mean trouble for your defense. We've got to be extremely disciplined in what we're going to try to do this week defensively."

Southeast senior quarterback Kyle Snyder leads the conference in total offense, averaging 261.4 yards per game. He has four rushing and 10 passing touchdowns this season. He's only been sacked three times, which is the fewest by an OVC team.

Junior receiver and reigning OVC co-offensive Player of the Week Peter Lloyd was Snyder's top target in the Redhawks' 31-27 win at UT Martin on Saturday. Lloyd picked up the slack left by junior receiver Paul McRoberts, who is out indefinitely with a fractured foot. Lloyd had 10 catches for an OVC season-high 179 yards and two touchdowns.

Senior running back Lennies McFerren is fourth in the conference in rushing, averaging 71.4 yards per game.

Southeast coach Tom Matukewicz said his team's offensive keys this week remain the same -- be committed to the running game and limit turnovers.

"Their four D-linemen can win their one-on-ones, so if you get in a true passing situation that makes it really tough," Matukewicz said. "They're physical against the run game. A lot of time they'll be light in the box -- they'll go out and play coverage because they're so good up front and those guys will get off blocks and make a tackle even though schematically you may have a hat on them. They're able to fundamentally get off blocks and make plays, so that's the challenge. Then the problem is people just hang a ball up, and their secondary are just ball hawks. They've got 10 interceptions. That's shocking they have so many. It's going to be a challenge."

The Tigers' offense hasn't been nearly as impressive as their defense.

TSU has had one offensive touchdown its last two games. That was a 5-yard run in the Tigers' 27-7 win over Florida A&M last week. The rest of their points Saturday came on a couple of field goals, an interception return and a fumble return. They had an interception return and a field goal in a 10-7 win over Tennessee Tech on Sept. 20.

Tigers starting quarterback Mike German has been out with turf toe since suffering the injury in the first half against Jackson State on Sept. 13, but Reed was hopeful he'd recovered enough to play at least some against Southeast.

Ronald Butler has started in his place, completing 37 of 69 passes for one touchdown in three games. He's thrown two interceptions.

Receiver Chris Sanders-McCollum missed the last game with an injury but has 167 yards receiving on 10 catches. Weldon Garlington leads the Tigers with 193 yards and a touchdown on 16 catches.

TSU's leading rusher is Tom Smith with 323 yards and six touchdowns on 62 carries (5.2 ypc). Stephen Hopkins has 215 yards on 42 carries (5.1 ypc).

"They're going to try to run the ball, and we take pride in trying to stop the run," Matukewicz said. "Physically we're not the biggest, and last time I checked size does matter. ... We're challenging those guys and our outside linebackers to set hard edges and for our linebackers to get downhill and stop the run because that's what they pride themselves on."

Matukewicz has been stressing special teams play during practices leading up to the game against TSU.

He could be heard yelling, "K-O-R [kickoff return] is going to take off this week," during practice. It's the one area on special teams that he thinks hasn't reached its full potential at seventh in the conference, averaging 18.4 yards per kickoff. TSU is eighth in the OVC in kickoff coverage while Southeast is first.

Southeast punter Alex Knight was named the conference's Specialist of the Week following the win at UTM. He leads with conference at 41.7 yards per punt.

Kicker Ryan McCrum has been perfect on five field-goal attempts and 20 PATs season.

"Obviously, they're really statistically good on defense, so that's why I'm freaking out on everybody on special teams," Matukewicz said. "Let's say we end up net-punting 10 more yards and we start trading punts. Every time we trade a punt can we gain 10? That eventually flips the field and we've got a good field goal kicker.

"I feel like our specialists are really, really good now, so I've got to challenge our other nine or 10 guys to really step up and dominate that part of the game because it's not like we're going to score 50."