SOUTHEAST WANTS TO RUIN A PERFECT ENDING FO TSU

All that stands in the way of Tennessee State's top-ranked Division I-AA football team wrapping up a perfect regular season is Southeast Missouri State University -- and the Indians don't plan on simply rolling over for the powerful Tigers.

When the Tigers visit Houck Stadium for today's 3:05 p.m. Ohio Valley Conference game that will be televised back to Nashville and by Cape Girardeau's WDKA, Southeast coach John Mumford expects his Indians to leave everything they have out on the field as they wrap up their season.

Whether that will be good enough to derail TSU remains to be seen, but Mumford can't wait to find out." We're all jacked up about the game, the players and the coaches," said Mumford. "There are not very many times you get an opportunity to play the No.

1 team in the country and see how you measure up."They are an outstanding football team and it's going to be a tremendous challenge for us, but I know our players will give it all they've got and they're anxious about it. We'll see what happens."The Tigers, 10-0 overall and 6-0 in OVC play, have already wrapped up the OVC championship, thanks to last Saturday's thrilling 42-41 win over Murray State. Seth Goodowens kicked a 37-yard field goal as time expired, capping a nine-point TSU rally in the final five minutes.

Southeast, 3-7 overall and 2-4 in the OVC, are locked into sixth place in the eight-team league. But the Indians are riding the wave of a three-game winning streak and would like nothing better than to end the campaign with four straight victories."There is still a lot at stake for us," Mumford said. "After losing the first seven, to win four in a row and continue to show the way we've bounced back would be quite an accomplishment."In order to pull off the monumental upset, the Indians will have to slow down a TSU offense that has put points on the scoreboard almost as fast as numbers add up on a pinball machine.

TSU is averaging 38.1 points per game and the Tigers gain an average of 449 yards a contest, thanks to exceptional speed at virtually every skill position."They have great speed all over the field," said Mumford. "They're a very tough team to prepare for because you can't simulate their speed (in practice) as far as their entire team goes. We have our work cut out for us to try and contain that speed."I think a key will be to at least limit their big plays. We need to keep up with them scoring wise. And we need to keep the ball out of their hands as much as possible."Leon Murray, the Tigers' fabulous quarterback, suffered a knee injury several games ago after passing for nearly 2,000 yards. But TSU has hardly missed a beat with Chris Perkins at the controls.

Perkins has completed 69 of 125 passes (55 percent) for 954 yards, with nine touchdowns and five interceptions."Perkins is not as mobile as Murray, but he's very good," said Mumford.

The Tigers like to spread the ball all over the field as five players have caught at least 18 passes.

TSU's top receivers are wide outs Corey Sullivan (54 receptions, 741 yards), Avion Black (38, 736) and Julius Hull (38, 727)."They're all big-play guys," Mumford said.

And the Tigers are also strong on the ground, led by Amariah Robb (611 yards, 6.4 yards per carry) and Marvin Jones (451, 5.0)."Their running backs all have great speed," said Mumford.

Defensively, while the Tigers give up nearly 350 yards per game, they're still solid, even though all-time sack leader Lamar Carter was recently lost for the season. The Tigers have a whopping 48 sacks, Carter having accounted for 12 of those.

And the Tigers' weapons don't stop with offense and defense. TSU leads the nation in kickoff returns, led by Black, who is second nationally with a 34.2-yard average and has scored three touchdowns on returns."I can't find a place to kick off to those guys where they're not a threat to run it back," said Mumford.

So it sounds like a pretty hopeless cause for the Indians, right? Not so fast, believes Mumford. The Indians have renewed confidence thanks to their three-game winning streak and the sensational play during that time of quarterback Rashad West."If we can hang around and keep it close going into the fourth quarter, who knows," said Mumford.