Tech game a good indication of things to come

Of all the games in all the stadiums in college football, ESPNU walked into this one.

Ingenious.

The TV cameras and a small national spotlight will be pointed tonight toward Cape Girardeau's Houck Stadium for Southeast Missouri State vs. Tennessee Tech, one of just two Ohio Valley Conference games that will get some national television love this season.

With good reason, too, because it is obvious now — as it must have been to ESPNU folks long ago — that Week 3 college football showdowns don't get much bigger than this one.

Oh sure, Southern California is hosting The Ohio State University this weekend, but USC's Pete Carroll and OSU's Jim Tressel each have won a national championship, and they likely will have their teams in contention for others in the future.

For the two programs involved in the clash in Cape, this game could be make or break for the 2008 season.

One of these two teams will win, and, well, that's a rarity. Southeast and Tennessee Tech haven't needed more than one hand to count their respective victories since 2004 (and it wasn't the Redhawks).

Southeast coach Tony Samuel's eight wins in two-plus years in Cape are fewer than Carroll or Tressel knock off in a single season. But the mark also ties Samuel with Tim Billings for the best overall record after two seasons at Southeast in the Division I-AA era.

If this is going to be the turnaround, breakthrough season for Samuel, it has to begin tonight.

The start of the 2008 campaign hasn't been impressive. After scraping by Division II Southwest Baptist in overtime in the opener and playing as respectable as one can in a 52-3 loss against Missouri, the No. 6 team in Division I-A, this is the first test for Southeast on its own level.

And it's a winnable one at that.

There are probably four games that Redhawks fans reasonably can expect their team — picked last in the OVC preseason poll — to win this year, but this is the only one at home.

Sweep the four — Tennessee Tech, Indiana State, Murray State and Austin Peay — and Southeast finishes 5-7 for its most wins since 2003. Pick off Missouri State or another OVC team picked to finish in the upper half and the Redhawks can reach .500, and that would be a step forward.

But the four winnable games, beginning with tonight's contest, offer a chance to compare the progress of Samuel's rebuilding process against his counterparts.

Watson Brown is in his second year at Tennessee Tech, which hasn't played the Redhawks since a 32-29 victory in Cape Girardeau that closed the 2006 season. Tech was 2-6 in the OVC last year, one-half game ahead of Southeast's 1-6 mark.

Indiana State has started its process under Trent Miles. The Sycamores have lost 15 straight and 39 of their last 40, which helped lead to the sacking of former coach Lou West after just 26 games. While it will be the Sycamores' home opener, the Redhawks should pick up their first road win since an Oct. 28, 2006 trip to Murray State, which has been Samuel's only conference road win so far.

Matt Griffin was hired by Murray State at the same time Samuel took the helm at Southeast. After an 0-8 run through the OVC in 2006 (which followed a winless 0-7 OVC campaign the year before), Griffin brought the Racers into Cape Girardeau for a startling 31-17 win to spoil homecoming last year. That was the Racers' only league win.

Rick Christophel is just 18 months into his job at Austin Peay, which returned to scholarship football and the OVC last year, but he guided the team to a 7-4 record in 2007, including an overtime win in Cape. The 0-2 Governors have opened with two ranked I-AA teams on the road and have spent more regulation time in the lead this year than Southeast has.

Unfortunately for Southeast, the only momentum that might come out of wins at Murray State and Austin Peay would be for 2009. Those are two of the last three games of the season.

That makes tonight's game essential ... if the program is going to build any confidence about this season, if there's a chance to chase .500.

Lose tonight and Southeast fans would have a hard time believing 2008 can be any different or any better than the last four seasons.

Tennessee Tech is ripe for the picking.

Southeast has shown it can move the ball by air. The Golden Eagles already have lost their top two safeties to injuries this season, which could help senior quarterback Houston Lillard and his receivers fire up some more good numbers.

They have been about the only bright spot so far, finding open spaces in Mizzou's defense and leading the rally past Southwest Baptist.

While Southeast enters tonight's game at the expected 1-1 mark, the Redhawks only have won two quarters of football out of eight. Save for the final quarter and OT session of the win against the Bearcats, during which time Lillard passed for 204 yards, the Redhawks have been outscored 80-15.

The Redhawks' showing in tonight's game and next weekend's home contest with Missouri State could be crucial to another of Samuel's goals — building community support for the program.

Attendance tends to dwindle as the season moves into November, with last year's home finale dipping to 2,325 for the smallest home crowd since November 2002. The Redhawks better use tonight to give their fans good reasons to come back to Houck, because after next week's home game with the in-state rival, it's three road dates and 35 days between home games.

Without TV following Southeast on the road, that may leave the Redhawks out of sight and out of mind.

Toby Carrig is editor of the regional Web site semoball.com. Write him at tcarrig@semissourian.com