Notebook: Vandeven makes first start, teammate honors Jackson in final non-conference game

True freshman quarterback Dante Vandeven and the Southeast Missouri State football team found themselves in a challenging situation against the visiting Division II Shorter University Hawks.

In Vandeven's first career start, he spent 36 and a half minutes on the sideline while the defense tried to stop the Hawks.

"It's supposed to," Vandeven replied when asked if the extensive time on the sideline affected the offense. "It's supposed to as a team, but I felt like as an offensive unit, we really came together and at times we were in rhythm, in sync good, just came up short."

Vandeven, who led the Redhawks on three fourth-quarter touchdown drives in his debut a week earlier, orchestrated three touchdown drives for Southeast against Shorter.

He completed 13 of 17 passes for 104 yards with one interception and no sacks.

He rushed for 28 yards on six carries, including his first career rushing touchdown.

"He had the one bad interception right before half, so obviously that's something that he's got to take out of his game," Southeast coach Tom Matukewicz said. "He had a couple misreads in the run game, but I thought he played a really solid game. I think he's going to be a really, really good football player here."

The Redhawks offense punted twice and turned it over on downs once late in the fourth quarter.

Southeast compiled 370 yards of offense -- 266 on the ground and 104 in the air -- in 54 plays in its 23:29 on the field.

"For me it's knowing that the offense can do something and put positive drives together because the defense held us down in the first two games," McRoberts said of his takeaway from the game. "The defense was really on fire and the offense wasn't really able to go and do our thing (the first few games). The offense came out doing our thing. We've got to be able to pick the defense up and keep going strong and be able to all come together and just make it happen."

Tay Bender, who started the first three games at QB for Southeast, replaced Vandeven for three plays against Shorter.

He rushed for 11 yards on three carries before exiting the game with a left shoulder injury. Matukewicz did not have more details on the injury.

"He's done a lot of good things," Matukewicz said. "He was the starting quarterback for a really big win, so I don't think his snaps should go from 80 to zero. We're trying to see what that looks like each and every week."

Matukewicz used him in the run game to help pick up some of the slack left by starting running back DeMichael Jackson, who will miss the remainder of the season with a torn ACL.

"I thought that was something that we've got to be able to do is distribute the run game a little more out that we lost," Matukewicz said. "He came in and did a good job. We missed a block and that was unfortunate at the end."

Tremane McCullough rushed for a career-high 166 yards on 18 carries. It's the second straight game he's rushed for more than 100 yards. He had 114 on 18 carries against Indiana State after Jackson left the game with the injury.

He had runs of 53 and 48 yards against the Hawks.

"It takes a load off the offense's shoulders when you've got a kid that can run that much and go through that much pounding on him," Vandeven said. "That's really what sparked our offense, him picking up 7 yards a play, 10 yards a play, adding on a 40-yard run. That really got us in the groove and put us in a good rhythm."

Meredith's jersey switch

Starting linebacker Chad Meredith, who usually stands out from the crowd at 6-foot-5, was hard to spot early in the game on Saturday.

His usual No. 57 jersey was nowhere to be seen on the field or on the sidelines.

Instead he wore the No. 20 jersey that usually belongs to Jackson, who was on the sidelines in his white away jersey on Saturday.

Jackson, who is scheduled to have surgery on Monday to repair his torn ACL, plans to use a medical redshirt and return for a final season of eligibility next year.

"DMike, both of us are from Louisville and I've just got a lot of respect for him so him going down really affected me," Meredith said. "I just asked him if I could wear his jersey in his honor."

Meredith had a career-high 10 tackles, including one for a loss of four yards, and a sack while wearing Jackson's jersey.

Junior linebacker Roper Garrett led the Redhawks with 11 tackles. It was the third consecutive game he's recorded double-figure tackles.

He surpassed 200 career tackles in the game and now sits at 202.

He is the first Redhawk to record more than 200 tackles since linebacker Blake Peiffer, who ended his four-year career with 359 in 2012.