Southeast players, coaches resolve to learn from loss to Southern Illinois

Southeast Missouri State senior running back Lennies McFerren was adamant following the Redhawks' 50-23 loss to No. 14/20 Southern Illinois that the team that spectators had just watched commit 12 penalties and five turnovers was not the team he and his teammates are capable of being.

He also was adamant that the team will bounce back from consecutive losses -- to Big 12 opponent Kansas and the ranked Salukis -- quickly, and that he and his teammates' trust remains with the Redhawks' first-year coaching staff under Tom Matukewicz.

"It's going to make us so much stronger," McFerren said. "These coaches are going to put their foot on us. We're going to work. We're going to work every day until we get it right and we're going to get this thing right."

In both losses, Southeast committed four turnovers and had a double-digit penalty total. The Redhawks lost to teams that were supposed to beat them, but it was their own mistakes that made the losses disheartening.

Junior receiver and captain Paul McRoberts noticed teammates getting frustrated on the sidelines during Saturday's game.

"We didn't finish because people did get down," McRoberts said. "Everybody's heads dropped. We tried our best, a couple of us, to keep them up, and it just didn't work. We've got to take more leadership. I think as brothers we just don't want to hurt anybody's feelings by saying something, so we might have to drop the brother thing and get on people and start being real leaders, and get on people for not doing what they need to be doing and helping them."

Matukewicz said he was pleased with his player's attitudes after the game, if not their execution.

"The stuff that's really hard to get corrected is when they lose their head and start doing ignorant things, turning on each other," Matukewicz said. "That's when you almost have to give them a lobotomy. We don't have any of that."

McRoberts said there's "no doubt" that the team will move past these two defeats and correct issues on the field. The Redhawks, who finished with three wins in the last three seasons, have not won consecutive games since their Ohio Valley Conference championship season in 2010.

"Losing isn't fun at all," McRoberts said. "It's not if we want to (fix it) or not. We have to. ... We're going to fix it. I feel like this is jitters from last year, like people are so used to, comfortable with, losing. We need to get used to winning. Once we get that feeling we'll have it."