THE LATEST LINE: SEMO SET FOR BRUTAL SCHEDULE

The Tim Billings era for Southeast Missouri State University's football program officially begins Thursday night in Huntington, W.V.

While Billings and the Indians have high hopes of a turnaround season -- SEMO went 3-8 in 1999 and has a 13-31 record over the past four years --they figure to be greeted extremely rudely by Marshall's powerful Thundering Herd, who went 13-0 last year and have in just a few shorts seasons gone from a I-AA juggernaut to legitimate I-A powerhouse.

But Marshall is just the beginning of an extremely challenging road for the Indians, whose 2000 schedule is littered with virtually nothing but highly-regarded foes.

Following Marshall, it's another road game, against Southern Illinois. While the Salukis aren't expected to be world-beaters, they do compete in the Gateway Conference, which is arguably the nation's premier I-AA league. And they have routed the Indians the past two years.

Then it's the home opener against Gateway member Illinois State, which will probably be the best team SEMO plays next to Marshall. The Redbirds return all but a few starters from last year's team that reached the I-AA semifinals and they are ranked sixth nationally by The Sports Network.

Seven of the next eight games are against teams from the Ohio Valley Conference, a league in which the Indians are picked to finish seventh.

Only Tennessee-Martin among the OVC squads figures to be a pushover. The other six league games should be dogfights, with Tennessee State and Eastern Kentucky ranked 19th and 20th, respectively, by The Sports Network, and Murray State, Western Kentucky and Eastern Illinois all receiving votes in the poll. Tennessee Tech should also be formidable.

Rounding things out is a game on the second-to-last date of the season at Southwest Missouri, a third Gateway foe on the Indians' schedule. And the Bears figure to be smarting after SEMO, 0-7 at the time, stunned them last year.

After watching the Indians practice quite a bit these past few weeks, I don't think there's any doubt they'll be considerably improved over last season, partly because of some strategic position changes and partly because of an influx of talented newcomers. And it doesn't hurt that Rashad West will be the quarterback from game one.

I also don't think there's any doubt that the Indians have the potential to significantly improve upon last year's three-win total. But to say they will for sure is virtually impossible, because other than UT-Martin, there doesn't appear to be any "locks" on the schedule. There does appear to be a lot of games that could go either way, depending on which team performs the best on that given day.

But one thing is for certain. If the Indians are to significantly improve upon their 1999 record, they will certainly have earned it.

* Until he actually enrolls at SEMO nothing is official, but Indian basketball fans have got to be excited about the prospects of talented Villanova transfer Bobby Smith joining Gary Garner's program.

Smith told me Thursday that he plans to enroll Monday. If the point guard does join ranks with the Indians, he'll have to sit out the 2000-2001 season while practicing with the squad, then he'll have two years of eligibility remaining.

~Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian