Southeast Missouri State football team looking for fresh start vs. Murray State

With each week of the Southeast Missouri State football team's non-conference slate, coach Tom Matukewicz's main focus was in preparing for Ohio Valley Conference action.

Matukewicz learned a lot about his team in the first four weeks, during which the Redhawks went 1-3, and his opinion of the team hasn't changed.

"I still feel the same way," Matukewicz said. "We've got a good football team here. We've got to play like one."

The Redhawks face their first OVC test Saturday when they host Murray State.

Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. from Houck Stadium, and Southeast looks to snap a two-game losing streak.

The Redhawks followed up a near upset of nationally-ranked Indiana State with a 26-21 loss to Division II Shorter University last weekend.

Southeast Missouri State's Tremane McCullough leads Shorter's Willy Dorcin in a chase along the sideline during the second quarter Saturday, Sept. 26, 2015 at Houck Stadium. (Fred Lynch)

"It comes down to focus, and that is really our kryptonite as a team right now -- the fact that we haven't played disciplined football," Matukewicz said. "You just go through every game, we've had problems. And we haven't been able to fix that, and so that's just the main goal. And you don't just fix it. You just get better at it, and eventually it goes away, just like us last year on some stuff."

The last four meetings between the Racers and Redhawks have been decided by a touchdown or less, with the past two meetings ending in overtime.

MSU finished with a record of 3-9 last season. Its lone conference win and win against a Division I opponent came against Southeast in a 44-41 double-overtime victory.

"You've got to bring your A-game," Southeast safety Eriq Moore said. "We're only guaranteed 11 games. You've got to treat every game like it's your wedding day. Coach Tuke always says, 'Sign off,' every game and really treats every game like it's the same, so that's what we're trying to do. Sign off every game, getting ready for conference play and get going."

The Racers have lost their last three games, including their OVC opener last week against Tennessee Tech. Their other two losses were to Mid-American Conference opponents Northern Illinois and Western Michigan.

MSU boasts the third-ranked passing offense in the country, averaging 365.8 yards per game. Quarterback KD Humphries has thrown for 1,461 yards already this season, which is No. 2 nationally.

He threw for a season-high 491 yards against the Golden Eagles last weekend.

"They've thrown on everybody they've played, and they'll throw on us," Matukewicz said. "You don't just stop somebody like that. You've got to limit it and try to get takeaways, but I just think it's their skill. They're throwing it to some really good dudes, so deep balls or short balls, we've got to get them down."

Matukewicz emphasized the "three Ts" to his defense this week -- turnovers, tackling and tempo -- in an effort to contain the Racers' up-tempo, pass-heavy offense.

"That's what we've got to do well," Matukewicz said. "We've got to [force them to] turn the ball over. That ball is all over the place. They throw it, lots of people handling it, and a lot of times that leads to turnovers. And they throw a lot of short passes. So they just whip it out there, and if you tackle it, we're going to have a great day. But the problem is you miss it, now it goes 8 to 10 yards, so we have to tackle well. Then the tempo's the problem because they may get cheap yardage just because we're not lined up."

MSU has won 39 of the previous 49 meetings, with one tie, and three of the last four. Six of Southeast's wins over the Racers have come at Houck Stadium. Saturday marks 85 years since Southeast football started playing at Houck, with the first game ever being played there on Oct. 3, 1930.

"We've only beat them nine times in the history of the series so we're trying to do something that 40 other classes couldn't do," Matukewicz said. "That'd be something, kind of a feather in our cap."

Series history

Murray State leads the series 39-9-1.

Southeast Missouri State coach Tom Matukewicz meets his players after they scored a touchdown against Shorter during the second quarter Saturday, Sept. 26, 2015 at Houck Stadium. (Fred Lynch)

Last meeting

Murray State won 44-41 in double overtime last season in Murray, Kentucky.

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By the numbers

3.5 -- The last four meetings between the Redhawks and Racers have been decided by an average margin of 3.5 points. Southeast's lone win in that span was a 37-34 triple-overtime win in 2013. Murray State won by one in 2011, seven in 2012 and three in double overtime last season.

6 -- MSU defensive end Elijah Daniel broke the school record for tackles for loss that had stood since 1996 with 6 TFLs against Tennessee Tech. Daniel, a junior who transferred from Auburn, was named the OVC's newcomer of the week following his performance, which included 9 total tackles and 2.5 sacks.

14 -- The Redhawks have recorded 14 sacks on the season, which is one shy of their total from last season. They rank first in the conference and ninth in the Football Championship Subdivision. Southeast has nine sacks over the last two games.

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Stat leaders

Murray State

Passing: KD Humphries 1461, Houston Hartz 2

Receiving: Jeremy Harness 490, Paul Rice 282, Janawski Davis 239

Rushing: Nick Taylor 190, Roman Clay 187, KD Humhries 50

Tackles: DeQuinten Spraggins 32, Toby Omli 32, Jonathan Jackson and Joey Cicoria 27

Southeast

Passing: Tay Bender 298 yards, Dante Vandeven 219, Tyler Manne 9

Receiving: Paul McRoberts 209 yards, Adrian Davis 89, Peter Lloyd 65

Rushing: Tremane McCullough 302 yards, DeMichael Jackson 265, Tay Bender 179

Tackles: Roper Garrett 41, Chad Meredith 25, Eriq Moore 23

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Murray State football coach Mitch Stewart. (Tab Brockman)

Opposing coach's view: "It's always a good game. I think us and SEMO, I think we match up very well together. What I mean by that is I think that one problem that they present is they're pretty big, especially defensively. They're pretty long, and they've got some big guys. But I think that in the past has matched up with us pretty well because we'll try to spread them and try to use some speed with some of our littler guys. But then again, offensively they're pretty big. Their line of scrimmage is pretty big. They've got a huge wide receiver [Paul McRoberts] ... and then our defense is not that big in some spots. So they have some ways to come after us and present some problems for us offensively. With that being said, the two teams kind of match up well together, and it always makes for a good game."

-- Mitch Stewart, Murray State coach

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Scouting the opponent

Murray State quarterback KD Humphries is averaging 365.2 yards passing per game with 11 touchdowns this season. (Tab Brockman)

Through four weeks, Murray State quarterback KD Humphries has completed 68.5 percent of his passes for an average of 365.2 yards per game and 11 touchdowns to lead the prolific offense.

Humphries, who threw for a career-high six touchdowns in the Racers' double OT win against Southeast last year, has rushed for 50 yards and two touchdowns this season. He has four interceptions.

"Humphries, to me, looks like a poor man's Jimmy Garoppolo," Paducah Sun reporter Edward Alan Marlowe said in an email. "We know the 'Italian Stallion' had a number of weapons at his disposal at [Eastern Illinois], but what separates Humphries from other OVC quarterbacks is his uncanny sense to escape the pocket and extend plays. Garoppolo was the same way."

Humphries' top target is 5-foot-8 senior receiver Jeremy Harness, who's had 100-plus yards receiving in each of the first four games. He has 490 yards and three touchdowns on 33 catches.

Paul Rice, a 5-10 senior WR, has 282 yards and a touchdown on 26 grabs while 5-7 senior Janawski Davis has caught 15 passes for 239 yards and five touchdowns in three games.

Marlowe also mentioned Dominique Rhymes and Jesse Blackburn, who has 141 yards on 10 catches and 42 yards on five catches, respectively, as other important targets.

"Harness, Rice and Davis all have that explosive shiftiness to them, where on bubble screens and deep routes, they have the knack of disappearing and then reappearing 20 yards downfield," Marlowe said. "Rhymes and Blackburn are bulky space-eaters who often exploit soft zones or man-to-man coverage that hilariously pits hapless linebackers or undersized DBs to get torched."

MSU ranked last or second to last in the OVC in all but two defensive statistic categories last season.

The Racers are No. 8 out of nine teams in total defense this season, allowing 501.8 yards per game. They're last in pass defense, giving up an average of 326.2 yards through the air.

"Over the last 18 months, defense has been one of the most harped-on topics for a team that finished nearly dead last in every statistical category in 2014," Marlowe said.

Safeties DeQuinten Spraggins and Toby Omli lead the Racers with 32 tackles apiece while linebackers Jonathan Jackson and Joey Cicoria each have 27.

Marlowe expects cornerback D'Montre Wade, who has 10 tackles and three pass breakups this season, to rise to the tough task of defending Redhawks receiver Paul McRoberts after Wade didn't play against TTU.

"D'Montre Wade returns this week to reclaim his No. 1 slot at corner and should give NFL hopeful Paul McRoberts everything he can handle," Marlowe said.

MSU is coming off a two-point loss to the Golden Eagles. The Racers lost four fumbles, missed a field goal, had a PAT blocked and failed on a game-tying two-point conversion on their final drive.

"Mentally, the Racers don't want to continue to shoot themselves in the foot," Marlowe said. "They'll be paying attention to where they're aiming this Saturday in Cape Girardeau."

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OVC Schedule

Saturday

• Mississippi Valley State at #1 Jacksonville State, 1 p.m.
• Eastern Illinois at Austin Peay, 4 p.m.
• Murray State at Southeast Missouri, 6 p.m.
• UT Martin at Tennessee Tech, 6 p.m.

The Skyhawks and Golden Eagles battle in the first Sgt. York Trophy series game of the year, which is a series between the conference's four Tennessee schools -- UTM, TTU, Tennessee State and Austin Peay.

UTM won last year's meeting 17-10, and the past six meetings have been decided by an average of 5.3 points. The Skyhawks are coming off a 48-41 loss to No. 1 Jacksonville State while TTU will try to remain perfect in the conference after a 31-29 victory over Murray State.

• #17 Eastern Kentucky at Kentucky, 6:30 p.m.