Southeast Missouri State football team returns from bye with OVC matchup vs. Tennessee Tech

The Southeast Missouri State football team is looking at its final four games of the season as its fourth quarter of the season and wants to try to finish coach Tom Matukewicz's second season with a surge.

The Redhawks begin their last stretch of the season with a 1 p.m. game against Tennessee Tech on Saturday at Houck Stadium.

"We try to take pride in finishing things," Tom Matukewicz said. "I think that says a lot about you as a human being, and so we've just talked about fourth quarter of the season. All four are winnable, but they're all four losable, too, so we just want to make progress every single week and try to end this thing playing our best ball."

Southeast will wear pink uniforms for the Pink Up game as part of Breast Cancer Awareness month. The jerseys were auctioned off, raising more than $16,000, to provide mammograms for women in the region that would not be able to afford them otherwise.

The Redhawks (2-5, 1-2 Ohio Valley Conference) are coming off their bye week. Their last game was a 27-10 loss to one of the OVC's three undefeated teams, Eastern Kentucky, on Oct. 17.

Southeast Missouri State's Paul McRoberts hauls in a 3-yard pass from Dante Vandeven to score a touchdown against Eastern Kentucky during the first quarter Saturday, Oct. 17, 2015 at Houck Stadium. (Fred Lynch)

"I changed from last year in the fact that I just feel like this team needs a consistent schedule, so we ran it just like it'd be any other week," Matukewicz said of the week off from a game. "Our first practice [this week] was Tuesday, and so they're in a routine. We've just talked about if you want to have a consistent Saturday, you've got to have a consistent Monday, a consistent Tuesday and so on, and so we'll see what kind of progress we've made."

The Golden Eagles have won seven of the last nine meetings, including a 27-26 defeat of the Redhawks in Cookeville, Tennessee, last season.

Southeast led for the majority of the game but turned the ball over four times -- an interception and three fumbles. The Redhawks, who had 480 yards of total offense in the loss, were just 5 of 14 on third down and had several drives stall out and result in field goals.

Kicker Ryan McCrum made his first four field goal attempts of 43, 32, 40 and 19 yards before missing a 62-yard attempt in a last-ditch effort in the closing seconds of the game.

"We moved the ball well and only punted once, but turned it over a bunch and then in the red zone wasn't able to score, so that's been a focus," Matukewicz said. "They have taken a lot of sacks and not sacked a lot of people so we talked a lot about third down this week and keys to win on third down."

TTU (2-6, 1-4 OVC) is last in the conference, allowing an average of 538.4 yards of offense per game and is second to last in points allowed with an average of 38.6 points a game.

"Defensively they've struggled if you look at yardage, but when you look at red zone and third down they've made some real critical stops, and so that's what our focus on offense is," Matukewicz said.

Matukewicz expects to see either sophomore Colby Brown or redshirt freshman Ty Jobe at quarterback in place of Jared Davis, who returned last week after missing two weeks with a hand injury and struggled, going 1 for 6 with four interceptions.

Brown was 7 for 15 for 115 yards before leaving the EIU game with an injury.

"No. 5 [Colby Brown] is the guy they brought in right away and he's played the most. They feel like he gives them the best chance," Matukewicz said. "He's banged up a little bit and so we prepared for No. 4 [Ty Jobe], too, a little bit. A little different body types, but we can't really worry about that. Defensively we do what we do and match it up the best we can, and our players need to play."

Southeast quarterback Tay Bender, who missed the last three games with a non-throwing shoulder injury should be available against TTU. Bender, who lost the starting job, took some snaps against Shorter University before exiting the game with the injury.

Defensive end Selwyn Carrol, who injured his back against Eastern Illinois and missed the EKU game, is expected to play along with nose tackle Joshua Wilson.

Wilson tore his ACL in a win over Murray State on Oct. 3, but is going to try to hold off on having surgery.

"We decided not to, see how he did, and he has repped and played well, so our plan is to play him," Matukewicz said. "If it ends up where he can't perform, then we'll have surgery, but we just felt like we'll try to save the four games as much as we can, so he should be in the game."

Series history

Tennessee Tech leads the series 14-9

Last meeting

Tennessee Tech won 27-26 last season in Cookeville, Tennessee

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By the numbers

1 -- Southeast senior receiver Paul McRoberts is one receiving touchdown away from breaking the school record set by Willie Ponder, who racked up 26 receiving TDs in two seasons from 2001-02. McRoberts tied the record during the first half of the Redhawks' 27-10 loss to Eastern Kentucky on Oct. 17. He's currently third in school history in receiving yards with 2,098 and fourth in pass receptions with 143 catches.

6 -- Tennessee Tech had six uncharacteristic turnovers in its loss to Eastern Illinois. The Golden Eagles, who entered the game with eight turnovers on the season, fumbled three times and lost two of them. Quarterback Jared Davis, who returned after missing two games with a hand injury, was picked off four times. He'd thrown four interceptions the remainder of the season. TSU has forced 16 turnovers this season.

28 -- The Golden Eagles are last in the conference in sacks allowed with 28. Southeast is fourth in the conference in sacks, getting to the opponent's quarterback 15 times. TTU also has recorded the fewest sacks of any league team with five. The Redhawks have allowed 11 sacks on the season, which ranks fifth in the OVC.

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Stat leaders

Tennessee Tech

Passing: Jared Davis 1,132 yards, Colby Brown 462, Ty Jobe 74

Receiving: Brock McCoin 747, Krys Cates 338, Jordan Smith 202

Rushing: Ladarius Vanlier 446, Dorian Carter 147, Radir Annoor 117

Tackles: Tra'Darius Goff 97, Jay Rudwall 72, Bill Dillard 61

Southeast

Passing: Dante Vandeven 817 yards, Tay Bender 298, Tyler Manne 9

Receiving: Paul McRoberts 603, Tremane McCullough 107, Darrius Darden-Box 101

Rushing: Tremane McCullough 590, DeMichael Jackson 265, Tay Bender 179

Tackles: Roper Garrett 66, Chad Meredith 47, Eriq Moore 40

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Tennessee Tech coach Watson Brown talks to tight end DaJuan Brown during the second quarter of an NCAA college football game against Arkansas in Fayetteville, Ark., Saturday, Sept. 4, 2010. (AP Photo/April L Brown)

Opposing coach's view

"Well, it's amazing. We seem to catch everybody when they've had an open date, so they've had time to heal. *... I'm sure that'll help them. I know when they came to us here last year they were beat to a pulp and we were lucky to win that game even with the injuries they had. They're very good. You better know where No. 1 [Paul McRoberts] is at all times. You better know where he is, but they can run the ball very well and you can't just run out there and put two on him."

-- Watson Brown, Tennessee Tech coach

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Scouting the opponent

Tennessee Tech's LaDarius Vanlier, shown playing for Maplewood in the 2011 Division I class 4A game at the Tennessee high school football championships, leads the Golden Eagles with 446 yards rushing on the season. (AP Photo/Mike Strasinger)

The TTU football team has yet to win a football game in the month of October and Saturday's its last chance.

The Golden Eagles have lost four straight to the league's top 4 teams -- a 31-17 loss to UT Martin, a 48-17 loss to EKU, a 42-13 loss to Jacksonville State and a 51-20 loss to EIU.

"They've held it together surprisingly well. Ever since winning the OVC championship in 2011, the Golden Eagles have had a string of bad luck with injuries -- which is continuing again this season with the unfortunate run of quarterback injuries," Cookeville Herald-Citizen reporter Thomas Corhern said in an email.

"So this is almost par for the course for Tech in the last three years. The Golden Eagles have still been able to come up with some key wins here and there, but this is the first time those games have been grouped together like this, making it a literal gauntlet for Tech to have to survive."

TTU QB Davis is not expected to play against Southeast. He has thrown for 1,132 yards and eight TDs on the season.

Brown, who has played in the last three games, completed 43 of 85 passes for 462 yards and a touchdown, but is questionable.

Jobe completed 2 of 9 passes for 74 yards and rushed for 13 yards and a touchdown on four carries in his only action of the season last week.

"I would expect Jobe to be penciled in as a starter, but there is another alternative," Corhern said. "Sophomore Brock McCoin played quarterback for the Golden Eagles last season as part of Tech's QW system that was abandoned after injuries went through the program. They may still try to get Davis ready again, but after last week's performance in Charleston, Ill., I don't think they're really going to be in a hurry to throw him back in so soon."

McCoin is TTU's top receiver with 747 yards receiving and four touchdowns on 61 catches.

"He has great speed and skill and he was really poised for a breakout sophomore season before the quarterback situation," Corhern said. "McCoin has a chance to be one of the best receivers ever to play at Tech in the coming seasons, but I think his numbers could be limited at receiver until Tech has a healthy quarterback again."

Ladarius Vanlier leads the Golden Eagles, and is eighth in the OVC, with 446 yards on 97 carries with one TD.

He leads the conference with an average kick return of 25.1 yards.

"His production isn't what it has been, and kickers definitely aren't giving him a whole lot of opportunities," Corhern said. "Granted, he still has explosive speed and can certainly be a game-breaker, but he just hasn't really shown it yet this season and hasn't been able to do a lot on the running game either."

Senior linebacker Tra'Darius Goff leads the OVC with 97 tackles and senior LB Jay Rudwall is fourth in the league with 72.

"The linebacker corps has pretty much been leading the way on the defense and has been the biggest bright spot," Corhern said. "Tra'Darius Goff and Jay Rudwall have been very reliable at that and Goff, especially, has been collecting a lot of tackles.

But that's a two-sided statement -- a lot of the reason he has so many tackles is that the Tech offense, in recent weeks, has struggled to stay on the field, giving the defense a lot of turf time."

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OVC Schedule

Saturday

• #13 Eastern Kentucky at #1 Jacksonville State, 1 p.m.

The Ohio Valley Conference's top two teams face off in the league's Game of the Week on ESPN3. The top-ranked Gamecocks host the No. 13 Colonels for the 12th meeting between the rivals. The series is tied at 6 wins apiece for each team, with JSU winning last year's game 20-6 en route to the conference title.

EKU and JSU remain undefeated at 4-0 in conference play this season along with Eastern Illinois.

• Eastern Illinois at Murray State, 1 p.m.
• Austin Peay at Tennessee State, 2 p.m.
• UT Martin at Arkansas, 3 p.m.