Southeast Missouri State QB Kyle Snyder honors injured teammate with jersey switch

There was something different about Southeast Missouri State quarterback Kyle Snyder's jersey on Saturday. And it wasn't just the added camouflage on the special Military Appreciation Day version of the Redhawks' uniforms.

Snyder, a senior who usually dons the No. 12, wore No. 7 when the Redhawks hosted Austin Peay.

The usual wearer of the lucky No. 7 jersey is junior receiver Peter Lloyd.

Lloyd's season came to a devastating end when he suffered a broken leg in last week's road loss to Tennessee Tech. He had to have surgery that same night because of the severity.

When Lloyd was finally able to visit his teammates in the locker room Friday, Snyder approached him with a proposition.

"I kind of just told him, 'Hey, I'd really like to wear your number this week for you,'" Snyder said.

Lloyd joked that it might be bad luck, but Snyder chose to wear it anyway.

"Obviously that's one of my best friends on this team, so I wanted to honor him in that way and wear his jersey because I know he'd do anything to be out there with us," Snyder said.

Snyder finished with career-high 334 yards passing and five touchdowns, including 70 and 71-yarders, to help lift Southeast to a 42-7 win over the Govs.

The last time a Redhawk quarterback threw for more than 300 yards in a game was in 2008 when Houston Lillard had 331 yards against Missouri State.

His five touchdown passes tied a single-game record at Southeast that dates back to 2002.

Snyder said he'd have to see what "Pete" thought of his game, but regardless of the stats he racked up neither Snyder nor Southeast coach Tom Matukewicz were particularly pleased.

"I was extremely disappointed in two of his plays and I told him that, and he needs to play better because that's embarrassing the way he flipped the ball on the option and threw a pick-6," Matukewicz said. "Otherwise our defense gets the shutout. He's got to take that off the film."

Snyder was picked off at the Redhawks 12-yard line with 10 minutes, 29 seconds to go in the third quarter, and it was returned for Austin Peay's only points of the game.

"They were in a man coverage, and I just didn't recognize it like I should've and I threw it off my back foot, didn't put enough into it," Snyder said. "That was on me."

Snyder recalled the other play that Matukewicz mentioned as one of a few he should have handled differently.

"There was one play there, it was a give read and I pulled it and I kind of got caught and I actually ended up throwing it to the guy I was supposed to pitch to," Snyder said. "It was just a bad play. It could've ended up being a fumble and they could've recovered it. Just little things like that."

Snyder said he wished he'd had a few of those plays back, but will go take a look at the film -- just like every week -- and try to improve.

He'll play his final game as a Redhawk on Saturday.

"Kyle's a good quarterback. He can do a lot of different things, and he sees things on the field that a lot of us don't see -- that's what makes him so elusive and elite," senior receiver Spencer Davis said. "I've had a lot of fun playing with him these last couple of years and looking forward to the next game."