Southeast Missouri State football coaches use bye week to recruit

The Southeast Missouri State football team's bye week doesn't just give the players some time to condition, recover from injuries and then step away from practice for a few days off.

The first-year coaching staff is using the time to hit the road in search of its next recruiting class.

While the Redhawks were busy running through condition drills and competitions Tuesday at Houck Stadium, four coaches were absent.

Offensive coordinator Sherard Poteete, defensive coordinator Bryce Saia, defensive line coach Ricky Coon and running backs/special teams coach Matt Martin were busy recruiting during the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision's evaluation period.

"Schools that are practicing, we can go watch them practice and see our recruits [live] -- not just on some YouTube video," Southeast coach Tom Matukewicz said.

Matukewicz said that he expects to sign 26 or 27 players, but it "depends on how far we can stretch the dollar." Per NCAA rules, the team can spread 63 scholarships between up to 85 players on its roster. Some players are offered full scholarships while some others scholarships are split between players.

Matukewicz said that there's no specific position they're focused on picking up a majority of players for. He plans to sign one or two quarterbacks.

The ideal plan is to build the program with high school kids, but Matukewicz said that his first few recruiting classes could have more transfers.

"We hit the ground running," Matukewicz said. "We've got several commitments that we saw live -- they came to camp or we saw them up at Mizzou's camps. We worked really hard in the summer to get our recruiting board together, and so we've got it all lined up. There's certainly kind of a food chain to this. Every kid's dreaming about going to Oregon or Alabama or wherever, and then when that doesn't happen we want to be there to tell them all the great things about Southeast Missouri."

Matukewicz cannot comment on specific recruits due to NCAA rules. The signing period begins Feb. 4.

Southeast has received verbal commitments, which are non-binding, from Jackson senior quarterback Dante Vandeven, Parkway West senior offensive lineman Drew Swihart, and Ridgeway (Memphis) senior tight end Marquette Murdock, among others.

Southeast, which is 4-5 and 2-3 in the Ohio Valley Conference, helped its recruiting resume with wins over then-No. 3 Southeastern Louisisana and then-No. 20 Tennessee Tech earlier in the season.

"I think they love what they're hearing, but now they have some proof from a couple of the victories and then just the overall aura about our program," Matukewicz said of recruits thoughts on Southeast. "What people are saying about what's going on down here is extremely positive, so hopefully we transition that into some top recruits."

Matukewicz has been in attendance for some regional football games throughout the season because he likes to be visible locally. The entire Redhawks coaching staff was in attendance for the Central-Jackson rivalry game Sept. 26.

"We've got a lot of rules," Matukewicz said. "We can only see a team play once, period. If one of my assistants sees so and so, that's it for the whole year. We pick our games really close. It's sad because you've got two games locally I'd love to go to this Friday, but I can't because we've seen them play. It's a process. We have a big board where we talk about where everybody's going and trying to get all of our guys on our board at least seen, and then I want to try to be visible local."

The coaches won't be out at games this Friday as Matukewicz gave his staff the night off to spend Halloween with their families. The staff will return to the sideline for the Redhawks' Nov. 8 game at Tennessee Tech.

"What I told the guys is, 'Hey, everybody knows we can coach. We've proved that. Now we need to prove we can recruit,'" Matukewicz said. "We're still going to really finish this season, but that's the next part because if we can recruit and if we can look like Southeastern Louisiana then people better duck."