COACH'S VIEW: INDIANS TRY NEW PIECES IN EFFORT TO COMPLETE PUZZLE

We are still trying to fit all of the pieces of the puzzle together. The last two games have been very frustrating for our coaching staff and players.

In all areas we showed brief signs of becoming the type of team we want to be but we had a number of mental errors and mistakes that kept us from capitalizing on the good things we were doing.

It is just a matter of putting all the pieces together and playing a complete football game.

At Eastern Kentucky, we moved the ball and scored 24 points, but at times we stopped ourselves with mistakes. Sometimes receivers ran wrong routes, sometimes we missed blocks and sometimes we just didn't make the throw or run we wanted. All of the mistakes came at different times and kept us from sustaining drives. A lot of this can be attributed to inexperience not only in games played, but in games played under our new system with many players playing new positions.

Defensively, we are playing hard, but we continue to make crucial mistakes and we simply haven't been able to stop the run. In the two games we were able to stop the run and force the other team to pass, we won (Southern Illinois and Illinois State). We have to find a way to stop the run.

Special teams play has continued to get better and is certainly a bright spot on our team. Jason Witczak has emerged as a tremendous punter and kicker despite a knee injury. He is averaging more than 43 yards per punt and had several punts inside the 20 last week. He also kicked a 41-yard field goal.

Curtis Cooper is giving us a tremendous threat on both kickoff and punt returns. After he returned the opening kickoff 77 yards, Eastern Kentucky kicked away from him the rest of the game.

Kyle East has continued to improve on kickoffs and freshman Travis Bucher has taken over deep-snap responsibilities and is doing a tremendous job. Nick Reggio has been perfect on PATs.

The punt and kickoff coverage has been good and overall the players are taking great pride in special teams play.

We have to find a way of taking our positives and developing them into a winning formula. We have to find the right combinations and then we have to execute.

This week, we are moving tight end Ryan Roth to defensive end to give us more size at that position and we are going to insert true freshman Rick Farmer at a linebacking position.

Farmer is an excellent football player from Fort Myers, Fla. We had hoped to redshirt him this fall, but we need his help and he will gain valuable experience the rest of the season. I've known him for a long time. His grandmother lives in Huntington, W.V., and he has attended the Marshall football camp since he was 8 years old.

When I got the job at Southeast, I knew I wanted Rick Farmer on my team. With several of our linebackers battling injuries, hopefully Ricky can come in and give us some enthusiasm and solid play at linebacker.

As we prepare for another tough opponent in Tennessee Tech, we are stressing elimination of the mental errors. We can't get a lot bigger and stronger during the season, but we can cut out the mental errors.

As we continue to try and find the right combinations, the kids are still confident and believe in what we are trying to do. We have to continue to get better every week. A win against Tech would give us a tremendous lift going into our off week when we can get some players healed up and ready for the stretch run.

Tim Billings is the head football coach at Southeast Missouri State University.