Southeast's win shows positive signs

As a Southeast Missouri State University football fan, you just had to believe that your team wasn't as bad as the first three games of the season seemed to suggest.

You just had to think that the Indians were floundering primarily because they had faced one of the nation's toughest nonconference schedules and would get their act together once they started playing squads more on their level.

If Saturday's Ohio Valley Conference and home opener against Samford is any indication, you might just have been right -- because the Indians finally broke into the win column and made an early statement in the league race with an unbelievable 51-48, four-overtime triumph.

Of course, one win does not a season make. But Saturday's victory -- and especially the way the Indians kept battling back after Samford led most of regulation --does lend itself to the original belief that the Indians would be all right once they jumped into conference play.

There are still seven OVC games left and it remains to be seen whether Southeast will stay in the championship hunt the entire way, particularly with the defense being so banged up.

But if you're a Southeast fan, Saturday's outcome was definitely something to be encouraged by -- and there's no question you got your money's worth.

That was quite a bush-league move by Southeast's administration to not be honest from the beginning with the situation regarding the eligibility of prized football recruit Charles McCoy.

Southeast officials had been saying McCoy was being held out simply because his transcripts were slow in arriving from Santa Monica (Calif.) Community College.

But that was only part of the truth. The transcripts were slow in arriving because there had been a question of whether or not McCoy would receive his associate's degree, which is necessary for NCAA Division I eligibility.

The problem apparently stemmed from some bad information McCoy received from his advisor on what type of algebra class to take. The class McCoy was told to take was not sufficient to complete his degree.

Some Santa Monica administrators pushed to have the class McCoy took ruled sufficient for his degree, since McCoy was not to blame in the situation.

But, as it turns out, McCoy won't be able to play this season, although he'll still have two years of eligibility left with the Indians.

If a similar situation arises in the future, let's hope Southeast is more forthcoming with information so the public at least has an idea of what's going on.

Former Southeast strength and conditioning coach Tom Kelso was recently hired as the strength and conditioning coordinator at St. Louis University.

Kelso served at Southeast from 1991 to 2001. For the past three years, he was the strength and conditioning coach at Illinois-Chicago.

I got to know Tom well during his Southeast days and he's a great guy. Here's wishing him well in his new position.

We all take sports very seriously, but every now and then something happens that seems to put everything in proper perspective and shows us that, in the big picture of things, games aren't really all that important.

Such was the case recently when Jackson High School basketball standout Jason Schafer was killed in an automobile accident.

I didn't really know Jason, other than seeing him play basketball a few times, but my deepest sympathy goes out to his family and anybody else he might have touched during the too-short time he was with us.

Two area high school football teams that had losing records last year are off to sensational starts this season -- and have been mighty impressive doing it.

Jackson and Scott City are both 4-0, after the Indians won four games last season while the Rams managed just three victories. Jackson has outscored its opponents 131-31 so far while Scott City has outscored the opposition 106-34.

What a difference a coaching change has made at Scott City as Terry Flannigan returned to the Rams' helm after spending the past few years as an assistant at Sikeston.

While Scott City figures to have little trouble keeping its record perfect through five games -- the Rams host winless Chaffee Friday night -- Jackson should receive its stiffest test to date as the Indians entertain perennial state power Jefferson City.

Southern Illinois is back at No. 1 in the Division I-AA poll and it will be interesting to see how long the Salukis can stay there, considering they compete in the rugged Gateway Conference.

The Salukis sure are looking good, but they're almost certain to have quite a few extremely tough conference games because the Gateway is regarded as one of the premier I-AA leagues in the country.

Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian.

Missouri seemed to shake off its stunning loss to Troy by destroying Ball State 48-0 last Saturday.

But toying with a weak Ball State squad and being able to have success against Big 12 Conference teams are two totally different animals.

The 2-1 Tigers had an open date Saturday, then they jump into league play next Saturday with a home game against Colorado.

Based on what they did last year and the amount of talent they returned, there's no reason to believe the Tigers won't fare well in the Big 12, but we'll start learning a lot more about that soon.

• Southern Illinois is back at No. 1 in the Division I-AA poll and it will be interesting to see how long the Salukis can stay there, considering they compete in the rugged Gateway Conference.

The Salukis sure are looking good, but they're almost certain to have quite a few extremely tough conference games because the Gateway is regarded as one of the premier I-AA leagues in the country.

Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian