Samuel pulls in OVC coach of year, bonus

Southeast Missouri State athletic director John Shafer couldn't be happier about having to find $3,500 in his department's budget.

The university will need to come up with at least $3,500 to pay football coach Tony Samuel, who has reached two incentive clauses in his current contract, which pays him $8,000 per month plus an annuity.

"I'd love to do it every year," Shafer said. "Well deserved."

Samuel, who has led the fourth-biggest one-year turnaround in Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) history, was named the Ohio Valley Conference coach of the year Tuesday. He is Southeast's third OVC coach of the year since the program joined the league and moved up to the FCS level in 1991.

Other OVC coaches of the year from Southeast were Tim Billings in 2002 and John Mumford in 1994.

"I've got a great coaching staff and we've been together a long time," said Samuel, in his fifth year at Southeast. "I get the award because I'm the head coach, but it's truly a team honor."

Samuel receives a $1,000 bonus for the honor. He also receives $2,500 for leading his team to the FCS playoffs, according to his original contract, dated Dec. 19, 2005. Shafer said he didn't budget for the incentives because of the football program's history.

"This is the first time this has ever happened in 104 years," Shafer said. "It's not something that you would do, but what you do is you look at your budget where you could make things fit."

The $2,500 bonus will increase to $10,000 if the Redhawks reach the national championship game and increase to $25,000 if Southeast wins the national championship.

Samuel has directed the Redhawks' remarkable turnaround after they went 2-9 a season ago, including a last-place 1-7 OVC mark.

Southeast, 9-2 overall and 7-1 in league play, won its first OVC title to earn the first playoff berth of any kind in the program's 104-year history.

The Redhawks have posted the program's first winning season since 2002 and only the third since joining the FCS. They have tied the school record for wins, matching the 1937 and 1955 squads that went 9-0.

Samuel also is one of 20 finalists for the Eddie Robinson Award, which honors the FCS national coach of the year.

Shafer said he would like to extend Samuel's contract, which is scheduled to end Jan. 31, 2011, but he hasn't led any formal talks with his coach.

"Obviously, Tony is a very important part of what we do," Shafer said. "He's done everything we've asked him to do, and turned the program around. Obviously, it would be no secret we want Tony Samuel here. But Tony is a very focused person and he's focused on the day at hand, the chore at hand, the game. So we've had several conversations, but we do it on his terms, where he is comfortable talking about it."

Shafer made it clear he doesn't want talk about contract extensions to distract from the football team's preparation for its Dec. 4 playoff opener at Eastern Washington. Shafer even seemed reserved about addressing the subject.

"I don't want to affect what he is doing," Shafer said. "But by the same token, I wanted to at least talk in general terms about what I was thinking and give him some time to digest it. But it's fair to say we haven't had any negotiations or anything like that. We've had casual conversations about moving forward at Southeast. That's where it is."