Redhawks face air attack in home debut

~ Southeast and Missouri-Rolla will renew an old rivalry today.

The University of Missouri-Rolla might not rank among the nation's premier Division II football teams.

But the Miners do possess one of the nation's more explosive offenses, one that figures to test Southeast Missouri State's defense tonight.

Southeast will try to slow down the pass-happy Miners and move to 2-0 for the first time since 2002 when the squads square off in the Redhawks' home opener. The kickoff is set for 6 p.m. at Houck Stadium.

"They're an interesting group that can score a lot of points in a hurry," Southeast first-year coach Tony Samuel said. "They'll present a real challenge to us."

Samuel figures the Redhawks' biggest challenge will be slowing down the Miners' aerial attack that has helped coach Kirby Cannon revive what had been a floundering program.

UMR went 7-4 last year, its first winning season since 1985. Part of the turnaround might be attributed to the Miners' leaving the power-packed Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association following 2004.

But Cannon also believes UMR's wide-open passing attack has been just as important in getting the program back on track.

Last season, the Miners had the nation's fourth-best passing offense in Division II and set school records with averages of 34.5 points and 433.8 yards passing per game.

"We threw over 500 balls last year. It's just who we are," said Cannon, whose squad competed as an independent last year and is now in the Great Lakes Conference. "It's helped us get better and allowed us to recruit a certain type of player who wants to play in this system."

If UMR's first game of 2006 is any indication, the Miners' air attack will continue to hum.

Despite suffering a 58-32 loss at Tiffin (Ohio), quarterback Joe Winters completed 25 of 43 passes for 402 yards and four touchdowns, with two interceptions.

Winters, a senior transfer from Division I-AA Columbia University who is attending graduate school at UMR, was named Division II's national player of the week.

"He's very intelligent. He's learned the offense really well," said Cannon of Winters, who replaced Evan Gray after Gray set school records with 39 touchdown passes and 3,583 yards passing as a senior last year.

Samuel said all it took was watching Winters on film for a short while to realize he will present the Redhawks' defense with plenty of problems.

"He can play, now. I'm telling you, he's good," Samuel said. "He can throw the ball around and he can also scramble. And he's got a good group of receivers.

"We need to do a good job in coverage because he's very intelligent. I'm very curious how we'll do against him because this is a very experienced quarterback."

Cannon believes the Miners have two of the top receivers in Division II.

Junior Ashton Gronewold, an honorable mention All-American last season and a preseason All-American this year, caught a school-record 75 passes for 1,080 yards and 17 touchdowns in 2005.

Senior receiver Brandon Landry, who switched from quarterback last season after throwing for 2,830 yards and 19 touchdowns in 2004, caught 69 passes for 908 yards and nine touchdowns in 2005. Cannon said Landry runs the 40-yard dash in 4.4 seconds.

"We have two very good receivers. Landry is one of the top pro prospects in Division II," Cannon said. "With those guys coming back, it was a matter of finding a quarterback to live up to what we did last year."

Defense, however, could be another story. Cannon said UMR graduated some of its better defensive players last year. In this season's opener at Tiffin, the Miners allowed 551 yards, including 406 yards rushing.

Southeast and UMR used to be longtime rivals in the old Missouri Intercollegiate Athletic Association, but the squads have not faced each other since 1990, which was Southeast's final Division II season.

Southeast captured that contest 28-17 and has won five straight in the series, which Southeast leads 34-23-3.

"Historically, it's an old rivalry I guess you would say, so for the alumns and so forth, it's a back-to-the-future type game," Cannon said.

And one the Redhawks will be solid favorites in, since they compete on the Division I-AA level. But Samuel is wary -- and Cannon said he is not about to concede a thing.

"We have a lot of respect for SEMO, and we know it will be a big challenge," Cannon said. "But hopefully we can go over there and pull off an upset."