OVC hopes dimmed, but Indians still have hopes for big finish

Southeast Missouri State University's football resurgence has hit a major road block the last two weeks. Fans of the Indians hope they can get things back on track enough to post the program's first winning season since 1995.

Saturday's 38-31 loss at Murray State was certainly not due to a lack of effort; the Indians rallied from an early 14-0 deficit to take the lead before giving up a late touchdown that decided the contest.

Still, the Indians' second straight defeat left their record 5-4 with three games remaining.

A disappointed Southeast coach Tim Billings, who seemed about as down Saturday as he has been after any loss this season, conceded that the Indians -- now 2-2 in the Ohio Valley Conference -- basically had been eliminated from a shot at the conference title and a Division I-AA playoff berth.

But while it's admirable that Southeast aspired to those heights, the chances of the Indians reaching them in their third year of Billings' rebuilding project weren't very likely to begin with. As down as the program has been in recent years, winning the OVC and making the playoffs would almost have been too much to ask.

More realistically, however, the Indians still are very much in the hunt for a winning season, which would be their first since 1995 and only their second since moving up to Division I-AA in 1991.

Which makes Saturday's home game against Tennessee Tech so important. Looking at the Indians' last two contests, they probably will be heavy underdogs at Eastern Kentucky on Nov. 9 and solid favorites at home against Samford on Nov. 16.

Tennessee Tech is the lone remaining game that appears on paper to be close to a tossup, although the Eagles are having a down year after being strong the past few seasons.

To be sure, a victory over the Eagles -- particularly if Southeast can shore up its recently porous defense -- looks to be well within the Indians' grasp.

And, despite the events of the last two weeks, so does a winning season, which given the Indians' recent history would be quite an accomplishment -- and certainly something to continue building on for the future.

Southeast sports fans won't want to miss the Tennessee Tech game for more reasons than just football. The inaugural class of Southeast's new athletic hall of fame will be honored at halftime after an induction ceremony on campus earlier in the day

Fourteen individuals and three national championship teams will make up the school's first class of inductees.

I'm finally through thinking that Notre Dame's football team is simply lucky this year. After I picked the Irish to lose the past two weeks, they made a true believer out of me by beating Florida State Saturday.

Sure, the Irish have benefited from a lot of good fortune this year. But you don't go 8-0 against a tough schedule simply on luck.

Notre Dame is for real, although I still hope Miami and Oklahoma stay undefeated and wind up playing for the national championship. That's the game I'd really like to see.

Here's wishing Cairo (Ill.) High School football coach Ronnie Woods all the best as he steps down after 17 seasons directing the Pilots.

Woods, who coached his final game Friday night against Sesser-Valier, is stepping away from football to become a full-time minister.

Cairo is on the fringe of our coverage area so I really never had the chance to get to know Woods well, but every time I talked to him on the telephone he was nothing but a class act even as the losses for the Pilots continued to mount.

But the thing that really set Woods apart -- and made him so much fun to talk to -- was his unbelievable sense of humor that I had heard about for years and got to experience more than a few times over the phone.

Woods has long been respected in Southern Illinois as one of the truly good guys in high school sports and he will be missed on the sidelines.

Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian