SYCAMORES' COACH EYES 'REAL' OPENER (SEMO NOTES)

Indiana State football coach Tim McGuire was philosophical about his team's first game of the season last Saturday -- a somewhat forgettable 66-0 destruction at the hands of national powerhouse Kansas State.

McGuire understands that often times Division I-AA programs like his have to bite the bullet in order to gain a huge payday -- often times as much as $400,000 or $500,000 -- in exchange for getting mauled by a I-A power.

"You need to play those games for a lot of reasons and one of them is financial," said McGuire. "That was quite a group of players Kansas State has put together there."

Because the Sycamores realistically had no chance of hanging with the Wildcats -- much less beating them -- McGuire is looking at Saturday night's game at Southeast Missouri State University as basically his team's season opener.

"This is really our first game against our level of competition," he said. "We'll know a lot more about our team Saturday night. We expect an extremely tough game. After that, we'll know where we need to go."

McGuire is in his first year as the Sycamores' head coach after spending the previous six years as their defensive coordinator.

Indiana State, which went 3-8 in 1997, returned eight starters from last year's solid defense, so that unit figures to be strong. Offensively, the Sycamores are using a new offense, the triple option.

"We have a lot of guys who have played a lot of football on the defensive side of the ball. They take a lot of pride in the defense," McGuire said. "Offensively, it's a new system and it takes time. But we feel like we have two effective quarterbacks and some pretty good running backs."

Southeast coach John Mumford is wary of the Sycamores for a variety of reasons.

"They play in what most people think is the toughest I-AA conference in the country," he said. "You can't go by their score against Kansas State. They've got a very good football team and it's going to be a huge challenge for us to defend the triple option."

* Troy Bagglio, John Smith, Kevin Meachem and Marcus McClellan wound up being the defensive stars of Southeast's season-opening 23-18 win over Truman State last Thursday.

Bagglio led the way with total 12 tackles -- 10 unassisted -- from his defensive tackle spot.

Smith, a safety from Jackson High School, had 11 total tackles, five unassisted.

Meachem, a linebacker, had 10 tackles, eight unassisted, while McClellan had both Southeast quarterback sacks from his end position and he also blocked a punt.

* Fullback Britt Mirgaux, who sprained his right knee in the opener, definitely won't play against Indiana State, but Mumford said he will probably be ready for Murray State the following week.

Junior Broderick Benson is expected to start at fullback.