Southeast still has chance for winning campaign

It's apparent by what took place Saturday in Charleston, Ill., that the 2006 Southeast Missouri State football team is not up to speed with the top squads in the Ohio Valley Conference.

Defending OVC champion Eastern Illinois showed the Redhawks that by handing Southeast its first shutout since 2001. The 21-0 victory could have been more lopsided save for a gritty performance by the Redhawks' defense.

Coupled with a 38-7 setback at perennial conference power Jacksonville State on Sept. 16, the Redhawks now have two league losses, which almost certainly eliminates them from having any chance at being a surprise title contender.

But the Redhawks still are doing a bit better than most people might have expected in Tony Samuel's first season as coach, and there is no reason Southeast can't produce one of its best records since moving to Division I-AA.

The Redhawks, 3-2 overall, have already won more games than they did during their 2-9 season in 2005.

Granted, two of this year's victories were basically set up by the schedule, which opened with Austin Peay and Division II Missouri-Rolla.

But the Redhawks, picked to finish dead last in the nine-team OVC, have already beaten preseason No. 4 Samford for their lone league victory.

And there appears to be quite a few more winnable games on the schedule -- not including next Saturday's visit to Division I-A Arkansas for what will be a $300,000 payday for the university and a likely lopsided loss.

After that, however, the Redhawks should have a chance to make some more noise.

Southeast will return home to face preseason OVC favorite Eastern Kentucky on Oct. 21, and the Colonels have been by far the league's biggest disappointment to date. What before the year looked like an almost certain defeat doesn't seem that way any longer, although the Redhawks will still probably be underdogs.

Then the final four games are, in order, at Murray State, against Tennessee-Martin, at Tennessee State and against Tennessee Tech.

Only Tennessee-Martin, which is a surprise OVC co-leader and continues to be a remarkable story after lagging as one of the nation's worst Division I-AA programs for so many years prior to last season, appears particularly imposing among that group, but Southeast gets the Skyhawks at home.

So almost all of the next five OVC contests appear to be up for grabs, depending on how each squad plays on that particular day.

Southeast has had just two winning records since moving to Division I-AA in 1991 -- 7-5 in 1994 and 8-4 in 2002. Only two of the program's other I-AA teams posted as many as five victories.

The Redhawks appear capable of joining one of those two groups -- preferably the former if you're a Southeast fan.

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Still on the subject of Southeast football, I've got to talk about one of the more amazing statistics I've heard in a long time -- on any level.

What I'm referring to is the fact the Redhawks had no turnovers before Saturday. No other Division I team -- I-A or I-AA -- could make that claim.

I'm sure some of it is luck and some of it is because the Redhawks' offensive style is fairly conservative, but you can't discount the fact Southeast's coaches have really emphasized from Day 1 how important it is to protect the ball. And the players have evidently taken that to heart.

There are a lot of ways to beat yourself -- Southeast almost did it last week against Samford with the blocked punts and key penalties -- but if you can avoid doing it in the area of turnovers, your chances of winning are that much greater.

Of course, Southeast's luck in the turnover department ran out Saturday. The Redhawks had two interceptions and lost a fumble, although none led to scores by Eastern Illinois.

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And one more Southeast football note regarding Saturday's contest at Eastern Illinois:

Watching the Panthers' 6-foot-6 wide receiver Micah Rucker going up and grabbing virtually every pass thrown in his direction -- no matter how tight the coverage was, and it was very tight at times -- reminded me and others in the press box of what Willie Ponder used to do for the Redhawks.

Ponder was the OVC's version of Randy Moss -- when Moss was really on top of his game -- in 2001 and 2002 for Southeast. Rucker appears to be the current Randy Moss, or maybe Willie Ponder, of the OVC.

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College basketball fans, get ready. Official practice begins Friday, and the start of the regular season is a little more than a month away.

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I had a great time Wednesday as the guest speaker during a class at Southeast taught by Redhawks gymnastics coach Tom Farden.

The class, titled College and the Community, is designed for freshmen and includes quite a few Southeast athletes, many of whom I recognized.

Many thanks to Farden and his students, who all made me feel right at home and also asked some great questions about journalism in general and my job in particular.

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I guess Cardinals manager Tony La Russa is a genius again all of a sudden, after he was an idiot for much of the season.

I write that somewhat sarcastically, because that's the nature of baseball managers. When moves you make work, you're praised to no end by the public and the media. When moves don't pan out, you're ridiculed by those same people.

La Russa has hardly found some kind of magic smart potion now that the playoffs have started. And it's not like he all of a sudden turned dumb during the regular season.

As a manager, you make certain decisions that you feel are best and then you're at the total mercy of your players coming through.

And then you're also at the mercy of your fickle fans.

Of course, the Cardinals still have to win one more game to close out the Padres, and if they don't, La Russa will be an idiot again, even though San Diego was considered solid favorites entering the National League Division Series.

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One more Cardinals note:

This has nothing to do with the playoffs, because only regular-season play is considered, but by the way they both finished the campaign, I can't see Albert Pujols not beating out Philadelphia's impressive young slugger Ryan Howard for the NL MVP award.

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Early their offense was shaky and last Sunday their defense was shaky in that wild 41-34 win over the Lions, but the bottom line is that the Rams are off to a 3-1 start -- their best since 2001 -- heading into today's game at Green Bay. The Packers are struggling and the Rams are favored to improve to 4-1 heading into next Sunday's early NFC West showdown at home against the Seahawks.

But a contest like today's has all the makings of a classic trap game, so the Rams sure better not look past the Packers.

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Another NFL note:

I know quite a few Bears fans in the area, and they've got to be elated by the way their team has started the season. Not only are the Bears undefeated, they posted one of the more impressive wins of the early campaign last Sunday by routing Seattle 37-6.

I think most people expected a down-to-the-wire battle, but the Bears totally dominated.

It appears Chicago finally has an offense -- namely a quarterback in Rex Grossman -- to go with its usual suffocating defense.

Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian.