SEMO football preview: Top players make up kickoff, punt coverage teams

This story is part of the Southeast Missouri State football preview series. Click here to read about how three of the Redhawks best specialists made their way to Southeast.

There's one group on the Southeast Missouri State football team that's made up of what coach Tom Matukewicz and his staff consider to be the best players they've got.

The Redhawks punt and kickoff coverage teams, made up of players from the offense and defense, are where some of the most important roles on Southeast's team are.

"It's just how we are as a program," special teams coordinator Matt Martin said. "We're going to be as tough as we can and try to run the ball on offense and defensively we're going to build around stopping the run and being as tough as we can, but special teams -- that can be a game-changer."

The punt team includes players like junior running back Tremane McCullough and sophomore cornerback Michael Ford, who will be playmakers as the team's gunners that run downfield to make a tackle on the returner.

Linebacker Roper Garrett has been practicing as the team's weak upback and along with others, like defensive lineman Jon Slania and offensive linemen Garrett Baker and Jake McCandless, will be responsible for protecting punter Alex Knight.

Receiver Darrius Darden-Box and cornerback Ryan Moore are also part of the Redhawks' coverage units along with star receiver Paul McRoberts.

"We've got a lot of guys who we really trust and what Coach Tuke always talks about is the most trusted people and the best players on our team are going to play on punt and that's what we try to do," Martin said.

The Redhawks were third in the Ohio Valley Conference in net punt at 36.9 yards and their net kickoff was tops in the league with 41.4 yards. Those statistics factor in the distance of the punt or kickoff minus the opponent's return yards.

"The hidden yardage -- you know, we want to win net punt every game, we want to win net kickoff every game -- that's very important because it looks at a lot of different facets of special teams and not just the kicker, the punter, the snapper, but all the guys that are on the depth chart on those different teams," Martin said. "The hidden yardage is a big deal."

Matukewicz praised the special teams players and coaches on more than one occasion as making the difference in a win last year, which included everyone from All-OVC kicker Ryan McCrum and Knight to the punt and kickoff teams.

"We kick the ball all over the field, so we've got to make sure everybody communicates and knows exactly where the ball is going to go so we have the best chance to get down there and tackle it as soon as possible," Martin said.

The staff has a deeper pool of players to construct the teams from this season.

"We're always just trying to continually improve on everything that we do whether it be from a scheme standpoint or from a personnel standpoint," Martin said. "[Safeties] coach [Eric] Burrow and I were joking about this the other day -- we were working on the depth chart and it's really nice that we've added a bunch of versatile players to our team and it makes it a lot easier to fill out a depth chart when you've got a lot of guys to choose from. There's a lot of guys competing for spots there, so that's always good for a special teams coordinator to have."