Another losing season ends on a winning note

Southeast Missouri State closed out its football season Saturday in the best way possible, pulling out a thrilling 33-30 win at Austin Peay.

But the bottom line was another losing record for the Redhawks.

Southeast finished 4-8 overall and 2-6 in Ohio Valley Conference play, which tied the Redhawks for seventh place in the nine-team league.

That makes it 16 losing seasons in 18 years since the program moved up to the Division I-AA level in 1991.

In addition to the two winning records -- 7-5 in 1994 and 8-4 in 2002 -- Southeast has recorded more than four victories in only two other Division I-AA campaigns, 5-6 in 1995 and 5-7 in 2003.

Only four times has Southeast posted a winning Ohio Valley Conference mark, the most recent in 2003 when a victory in the final game would have given the then-Indians a share of the OVC title and the league's automatic playoff spot.

Since then it's been nothing but futility for Southeast, which has not won more than four games in a season and has not posted more than three OVC victories in any campaign.

For all that Southeast coach Tony Samuel and his staff appear to know about football, they have been able to make no significant headway in the all-important wins column since taking over the program in 2006.

Samuel's three-year record is 11-23, including 5-18 in the OVC. The Redhawks' top OVC finish under Samuel has been seventh place.

From a final score standpoint, the Redhawks were more competitive in many games this season than they had been for a while.

And, the Redhawks did exceed expectations since they were picked last in the OVC preseason poll.

But I just don't see Southeast having enough across-the-board talent to consistently match up with the OVC's better programs.

How much of that is due to the facility and financial limitations the program faces is open to debate, but it sure can't be helping recruiting.

Southeast has had three head coaches since moving to Division I-AA -- John Mumford, Tim Billings and Samuel.

Mumford and Billings had their moments -- each was responsible for one of the winning seasons -- but neither was able to produce even modest success on a consistent basis.

Whether Samuel, who has two years left on his contract, will be able to break through with a winning record remains to be seen. I hope he does, because I really like him and his assistants. I believe they are good football coaches.

Southeast had 16 seniors this year, many of them ranking among the squad's top players.

The Redhawks did have some promising underclassmen, including true freshman quarterback Matt Scheible. He looks like he could be a real keeper.

But, unless a fairly significant number of impact newcomers are brought in, I wouldn't count on next season turning out much different than this year.

I've said this before, and I'll say it again: Southeast football just might be a black hole that no coach -- save for a miracle-worker in the form of somebody like Jerry Kill, who turned around an SIU program that was worse off than Southeast's several years ago -- will be able to escape.

I'm hoping Samuel proves that theory wrong.

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After two lopsided losses against major-conference opponents to begin the season, the Southeast men's basketball team enjoyed its first win by routing NAIA Culver-Stockton 89-50 Friday.

That is the only home game among Southeast's first six contests.

The Redhawks hit the road again this week, leaving today for a Tuesday night game at Iowa as part of the Las Vegas Invitational.

That could be an interesting matchup, since Iowa still appears to be down. The Hawkeyes went 13-19 last year and finished eighth in the Big Ten Conference.

It's hard to predict a win by the Redhawks, but they just might have a chance to be competitive and keep things close in the late going. Then who knows what happens.

This would be a good year to play Iowa if the Redhawks' program was on the upswing, but unfortunately that's not the case.

Iowa shouldn't be nearly as tough as Southeast's first two opponents, New Mexico (102-59) and Kansas State (88-68), the latter contest also part of the Las Vegas Invitational.

After facing Iowa, Southeast will close out the Las Vegas Invitational with two games in Sin City, against Longwood Friday and either Oakland or Delaware State on Saturday.

If the Redhawks beat Longwood, they likely would meet Oakland, which recently pulled off an upset at Oregon, so that would be another difficult matchup.

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Several notes from the Culver-Stockton game had to be cut out of my story because of space limitations, so I'll give them to you here.

Freshman walk-on guard Marty Dames from Bell City received his first collegiate playing time and scored his first points on a 15-foot baseline shot in the final minutes.

Junior guard Jimmy Drew did not play, this time because of a lingering foot problem that also plagued him last year.

Drew missed the first two games of the season for undisclosed disciplinary reasons.

So for the third straight contest, Drew was on the bench in street clothes.

Also on the bench in street clothes was junior forward Israel Kirk, who injured an ankle last week at Kansas State.

Southeast acting coach Zac Roman said Kirk should be available for Tuesday's game at Iowa. Roman said Drew is questionable.

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The Southeast women's basketball team is in a stretch that has it playing six of its first seven games at home.

But the only road test for the Redhawks during that period is a real doozy.

Southeast, which improved to 3-0 after Friday's 57-45 win over a strong Arkansas-Little Rock squad, visits Florida State of the Atlantic Coast Conference Tuesday.

Florida State, which beat Southeast two years ago at the Show Me Center, is ranked 21st nationally and is a perennial NCAA tournament participant.

The Redhawks finish up the week with a Friday night home game against Indiana State of the Missouri Valley Conference.

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Neither Southeast basketball team has much more time to gear up for the start of OVC play, which is less than two weeks away.

Both squads start out their league schedule with two home games, Dec. 4 against Austin Peay and Dec. 6 against Tennessee Tech.

When the OVC expanded its schedule several years ago so that every team plays each other twice, it became necessary to squeeze in some conference games before January.

Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian.