COACH'S CORNER; SE FOOTBALL CONTINUES TO BE FRUSTRATED

Our 21-10 loss at Western Kentucky last Saturday night was as frustrating as our 0-4 record. We were in position to put up 14 to 21 more points but could only muster three.

Defensively, we held a team that had been rushing nearly 300 yards and scoring 30 points per game to 223 yards and 14 points. One of Western Kentucky's touchdowns came on an interception return.

In the third quarter, we shut the Hilltoppers down and had great field position that netted a field goal, but we certainly could have come away with more points.

Early, on fourth down of our first series, we missed a wide-open Leslie Weaver for a touchdown. Later, in the second quarter, we missed Andy Dunaway again in the end zone.

These two plays, coupled with the interception for a Western Kentucky touchdown, accounted for a 21-point swing that would have more than assured our first win.

A couple of other performances that stood out aside from our defense was that of our punt coverage team and Seth Carriere.

We held Western Kentucky to minus-3 yards on punt returns as Bobby Sippio, who had already had several punt returns for touchdowns, was held in check.

Seth had a good night punting away from Sippio and also handled our kicking duties, which included a 35-yard field goal. His performance earned Seth the Ohio Valley Conference Special Teams Player of the Week honors.

Our team was penalized only three times for 26 yards. One 5-yard penalty was intentional in trying to draw WKU offsides. Marked improvement in our play and penalty yardage is encouraging.

I thought we played our most physical game to date, which facing an option team will do.

Mike Gross got his first start at quarterback and was effective. He made some plays and missed some but played with poise.

We threw the ball to eight receivers and spread it around. Glenn Haley caught his first college touchdown pass. We must improve our running game by maintaining blocks longer and our runners must follow their blocks more consistently.

David Bowling, Donovan LaViness and Joel Becker all made several plays on defense. John Smith, Isaac Powell and Brian Hinton all had interceptions. Powell's pick set up a field goal.

After three straight road games, we are finally back at home this Saturday, facing a tough Eastern Kentucky team in a 6 p.m. kickoff on Family Weekend.

Eastern Kentucky features a typical Colonels' team, one that is very physical and powerful with good speed. They have two excellent tailbacks who eat up a lot of yardage, and they can hurt you with the play-action pass.

We look forward to the confines of Houck Stadium. Eastern Kentucky will be tough but a win right now would do wonders for our team.

John Mumford is the head football coach at Southeast Missouri State University