New coach, returning players settling in to secondary for Southeast Missouri State football

By the end of the Southeast Missouri State football team’s first week of practices, cornerbacks coach Salim Powell was feeling pretty comfortable in his new role.

Powell, who was a Redhawks’ cornerback from 2006-09 and started three years, spent the previous two seasons at the helm of the wide receivers, so on Monday, when he started seeing everything from a different perspective as spring ball got underway, it was a little odd.

When the team’s third practice wrapped up on Friday he was in full defensive back mode, though.

“Really it’s just getting my eyes adjusted to just seeing the whole back end,” Powell said. “It was a little weird the first day but I’m kind of catching on now, so it’s been a pretty smooth transition.”

Powell replaced Melvin Rice, Jr., who left after one year on coach Tom Matukewicz’s staff for the same spot at Southern Illinois, but has since taken the cornerbacks coach job at his alma mater, Northern Illinois. The year before, Travis Fisher was the CB coach, but departed after one season for his alma mater, the University of Central Florida.

His move back to the defensive side of things brings Powell and junior Mike Ford back together. Ford, who spent his freshman year with the wideouts, had a breakout season as a cornerback a year ago. He had five interceptions, 44 tackles, two for loss, seven pass breakups and a sack en route to second-team all-Ohio Valley Conference honors last year.

“Coach asked me one day, he was like, ‘Backpedal for me,’ and after that it was like it clicked, it all came natural,” Ford said. “I played a little bit of DB in high school and when I got to corner it was just easier.”

Ford’s talent didn’t escape the eye of Powell last year, even from the other side of the ball. He knew coming into this spring that the group he had could run fast, had long arms that they used well and included explosive players like Ford and senior Jamarl Holloway.

“You’ve got these guys that can really fly. My main thing was just not to screw them up,” Powell said with a laugh. “That was my main thing. Don’t screw them up.”

The Redhawks’ defense ranked fourth in points allowed in the OVC, with opponents averaging 27.2 points in 11 games. They were also fourth with 11 interceptions.

In the spring, Powell has placed an emphasis on footwork and staying square on assignments.

“I think that’s an area we can grow, and I’m going to try to consciously keep staying on them about their footwork and the smaller things,” Powell said. “They’re athletes, but I think they can be a little bit better at that level.”

Ford’s athleticism was on display in the weight room earlier in the week. Southeast's first-year offensive line coach Ben Blake posted a video to Twitter of the 5-foot-11, 188-pound Ford jumping onto several workout boxes stacked on top of each other.

Ford, who competed in triple jump and high jump for his high school track and field team at Marquette Catholic in Alton, Illinois, cleared the boxes — measured at 58 1/2 inches — with ease.

“In the weight room, strength and conditioning coach [Justin] Guy was like, ‘[No.] 4, we’re going to get you fast, we’re going to get your legs stronger.’ He emphasized my legs so much,” Ford said. “Yesterday he told me, ‘Man, I just made a great jumper turn into even more of an amazing jumper.’ Just putting all that work on my legs and strengthening my legs helped me a lot and improved my numbers. All my numbers have rose, so that’s a great thing.”

Ford has been impressed with his fellow defensive backs and said that he’s not afraid of them getting beat down the field by any receivers because everyone in the group has 40-yard dash times in the 4.4-second and 4.5-second range.

The closeness in abilities also leads to a drive to push each other every day.

“Everybody in this group is a competitor. I mean, everybody,” Ford said. “There’s not one person that I can say is not going to come to practice today and compete. Everybody’s on each other, everybody’s going to build each other up. If somebody’s down we’re looking to tell them what they did wrong or we’re looking to build them up and make sure they don’t mess up the next time. Everybody’s a leader in their own way.”

The Redhawks practice at the Rosengarten Athletic Complex on Monday and Wednesday from 3:30-5:30 p.m. and will hold their first scrimmage there at the same time Friday.

“Just trying to get the rust off my cleats,” Ford said. “We’re just coming back out here, got to get back fresh and get our feet going. We were slowing our feet a little bit, our techniques, we had to get them back together, we had to get our feet moving. Just getting back out here we’ve just got to get used to what we were doing last year. It’s nothing new it’s just we have to get the job done again.”