Southeast Missouri State to face EKU on the road Saturday

The Southeast Missouri State football team's five turnovers, inability to run the ball well or stop the Eastern Illinois ground attack and surrendering big plays all bothered coach Tom Matukewicz about his team's lopsided loss to the defending conference champions.

As his team prepares for an opponent that is still in the running for the Ohio Valley Conference title in Eastern Kentucky, those aren't the issues that are most frustrating for Matukewicz.

"More so I was disappointed with our attitude," Matukewicz said. "That's really what this week has been about, kind of back to the basics. From Sunday on I've been reinstalling the foundation and the culture and all those things about how to go about our business."

Southeast has lost its last two games and has fallen to 4-4 overall and 2-2 in the OVC.

Matukewicz has shown the players video clips of the Redhawks' sideline during upsets of nationally-ranked Southeastern Louisiana and Tennessee State as well as during Southeast's losses. Saturday's sideline wasn't up to his standards.

"Culture is who I am, but it's not who these guys are -- yet," Matukewicz said. "They know what I want, but it's not a habit, so you've got to continually teach and set those standards and talk about our way because I thought we lost our way a little bit. Really we've got to be consistent."

One thing that hasn't been consistent this season is the Redhawks lineup due to injuries, and that will be the case when they kick-off against the Colonels at 2 p.m. Saturday from Roy Kidd Stadium in Richmond, Kentucky.

Senior running back Lennies McFerren is out with an ankle injury as well as junior defensive tackle Jon Slania, who suffered a Lisfranc fracture and could be out the remainder of the season. Senior linebacker Wisler Ymonice will play after sitting out the last two weeks with a foot injury.

EKU enters the game 6-1 (3-1 OVC) a week after being handed its first loss of the season.

The Colonels, No. 18 in the FCS Coaches poll and No. 19 in the Sports Network poll, lost 39-31 to Tennessee Tech after they were outscored 29-0 in the fourth quarter Saturday.

"Kids are more resilient than the coaches are," EKU coach Dean Hood said during Tuesday's OVC teleconference. "I met with the coaches on Sunday and said, 'Hey, we've got to make sure that we've got a pop in our step and a spark in our eye,' because the kids feed off the coaches.

"I told them that I think we take it harder than the kids do, and sure enough, we got out to Monday's practice and they're out there bouncing around, ready to rock and roll and wanting to know what the plan is for this week. They've done a great job. Their mindset switched right away after the Sunday corrections were over to coming to work with a hard hat on."

EKU, which has the conference's best turnover margin (+2), lost three fumbles Saturday and the Colonels quarterbacks, senior Jared McClain and sophomore Bennie Coney, were each picked off twice in the loss -- once each in the pivotal fourth quarter.

"They were literally dropped balls," Hood said about his team's turnovers."We're sprinting out on a third down to convert, and we're probably going to ice the game [if we convert,] and the ball just drops -- no force, just drops out of the quarterback's hand. Three of the four picks we just threw the ball late down the middle of the field, up and it kind of looked like a punt. It was mostly self-inflicted wounds."

Coney and McClain, who have both played in each of EKU's seven games, are similar types of players, according to Matukewicz, and lead the league's highest scoring offense.

Coney has completed 56 of 99 passes for six touchdowns and averages 95.3 passing yards per game. McClain averages 80.3 passing yards and has completed 46 of 80 passes for three touchdowns. He's the team's second-leading rusher and has six rushing TDs.

Their top targets are Jeff Glover and Devin Borders. Glover's averaging 52.1 yards receiving and has two touchdowns, while Border is averring 43.9 and has four touchdown catches.

The Colonels have the conference's leading rusher in Kentucky transfer Dy'Shawn Mobley, who is averaging 115.9 yards rushing and has eight touchdowns.

"He's a complete back," Matukewicz said. "He's a guy that can run hard, run tough and get the tough yards, but he's also got a gear [to get big runs]. You think you've got him bottled up, and then all of a sudden he jump cuts and hits the edge. He's just a really good player. That's our main focus."

EKU kicker Andrew Lloyd is second in the conference to only Southeast's Ryan McCrum on field goals. Lloyd has made 9 of 10 and his longest is 37.

The Colonels are third in the OVC in rushing defense, allowing an average of 121.5 rushing yards per game. Their passing defense is eighth in the conference (243.4 yards). They're second to TSU with 17 sacks and 10 interceptions on the season.

"They're very fundamentally sound," Matukewicz said. "They play hard. They don't give up the big play. They play some off coverage and those types of things and just make you earn what you get."

Matukewicz knows that the Redhawks will have a tough task with the Colonels' looking to rebound from their first loss of the season.

"I know if I was in that situation you definitely feel like you have pretty good fire for practice, fire to get back on the field and get that bad taste out of your mouth."