Southeast Missouri State football team turns full attention to OVC

The Southeast Missouri State football team has its obligatory beatdown against a major-college opponent out of the way.

Purdue crushed the Redhawks Saturday in West Lafayette, Ind., although I don't know that I quite anticipated a 59-0 drubbing.

Football Championship Subdivision member Southeast, in exchange for its annual visit to a Football Bowl Subdivision squad, netted the university's athletic department $315,000 minus expenses for the trip.

Not a bad payday for a few hours work, although the money doesn't go directly to coach Tony Samuel's program even though his players took the lumps.

Now that the Redhawks have Saturday's money game behind them, along with their season-opening 38-10 home loss to FCS power Southern Illinois, they can turn their attention to what counts the most.

I'm talking about Ohio Valley Conference play, which for the Redhawks begins Saturday night when they open defense of the program's first OVC championship at Tennessee Tech.

The Redhawks can put that 0-2 start in their rearview mirror and focus on the eight-game league schedule that will define their season.

I don't know that Southeast fans learned a whole lot about the Redhawks during the first two games, except that they're not nearly at the level of SIU or Purdue -- no surprise there -- and that they have a lot of hard work ahead in order to have a shot at being a solid squad.

Much more should be learned about the Redhawks this weekend in Cookeville, Tenn.

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While Southeast kicks off its OVC schedule this week, four more conference teams opened their league slates Saturday.

Resurgent Murray State, picked to finish second in the league, continued to impress by blitzing visiting Tennessee State 58-27.

OVC preseason offensive player of the year Casey Brockman threw for an incredible 600 yards and seven touchdowns to lead the Racers' rout. He added a TD reception for good measure.

Brockman broke his own OVC record with the 600 yards passing. He also set the OVC record for completions with 45 (in 67 attempts) and his seven touchdown passes tied the conference mark that he already shared.

In addition, Brockman's 422 first-half passing yards broke the FCS record.

Eastern Illinois, hoping to rebound from last year's rare down season, lost at home to Tennessee Tech 31-20.

Tennessee Tech held Eastern Illinois to minus six yards net rushing, which doesn't bode well for a Southeast squad still trying to get its running game going.

Murray State and Tennessee Tech join preseason favorite Jacksonville State as the early OVC leaders. The Gamecocks began conference play Sept. 1 with a comeback win over Tennessee-Martin.

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If you think Southeast had a tough Saturday at Purdue, how about poor Western Illinois, which like the Redhawks qualified for last year's FCS playoffs.

The Leathernecks were crushed 69-0 at Missouri as the Tigers piled up a school-record 744 yards while holding WIU to just 44 yards.

Even Purdue's domination of Southeast doesn't match the massacre in Columbia, Mo.

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Most people who know me know I'm a big tennis fan. I enjoy watching and playing tennis (although my game leaves plenty to be desired).

So I have followed the year of Novak Djokovic, who is putting together one of the most amazing seasons not only in tennis but in sports history.

Djokovic improved to 64-2 this year, with 10 tournament titles, after last week's four-set win over Rafael Nadal for the U.S. Open championship.

Djokovic won three of the four Grand Slams in 2011, failing only to prevail at the French Open, where he lost to Roger Federer in the semifinals.

Simply amazing.

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The Rams didn't look good in their season opener, being blown out at home by the Eagles and suffering a myriad of key injuries in the process.

It will be interesting to see if the Rams can bounce back with a much better performance when they visit the Giants tonight.

Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian.