COLUMN: Steady Kyle Snyder powers Southeast football team to another impressive win

It had been more than 20 minutes since the Southeast Missouri State football team added to its point total against No. 20 Tennessee State when the Redhawks' lead that had been 17 points was trimmed down to just three late in the third quarter on Saturday.

Southeast took over on its own 38-yard line and faced a third-and-5 just moments later, risking giving the ball back to a Tigers' offense that was suddenly racking up passing yards at an alarming pace.

Quarterback Kyle Snyder kept the ball on third down and ran up the middle. He was met by a defender yards short of the first-down marker but powered on anyway, leaving the defender grabbing at his legs as Snyder drug him forward for three more yards and an important first down in the Redhawks' 28-21 victory.

"I wanted to run out and French kiss him because that's exactly what a good quarterback does," said Southeast coach Tom Matukewicz before noting that his wife asked him to stop using the term after saying he could French kiss her and wide receiver Peter Lloyd in two separate interviews following the Redhawks win a week earlier.

"You have to move the chains," Matukewicz continued. "He was hit at two yards. He got three other yards -- why? -- because he wanted it more than the other guy."

The drive Snyder kept alive eventually led to a Southeast field goal and just as importantly 6 minutes and 19 seconds of rest for the Redhawks defense.

Snyder is not an outwardly fiery guy by nature. He's not into passionate speeches -- or even talking much at all.

"I'm not the most vocal guy, but I just go out there every day and give it my all and that carries on to the teammates," Snyder said. "They go out there and work hard, too, so it's just one of those things that, hey, each and every day everyone's looking at you. You've got to be that guy."

And he is that guy. The guy. Matukewicz's guy.

That's more important than you might realize.

Snyder shared time with Scott Lathrop last season and was never sure when his next snap would be.

"I know my team's got my back and my coaching staff," Snyder said. "It's just a huge boost right there. The guys around me, too -- they have a lot of confidence in me just like I do them. That's obviously a big benefit."

Matukewicz said Snyder is "steady," and that's an apt description of his performance on Saturday.

He was 11 of 18 passing for 134 yards and gained 74 yards on 18 carries. Most importantly, he did that without a turnover.

Snyder had thrown at least one interception in every game this season except a season-opening rout of Missouri Baptist and fumbled three times in Southeast's ugly loss at Southern Illinois.

"In the past it just seemed like I was out there on the edge," Snyder said. "I knew if I make a mistake here I might not come back out the rest of the game. It was just one of those things, but now it's not like that. It's 'Kyle, you make a mistake you've got to bounce back.' That's how it is. Like I said, it's just an awesome feeling knowing that my coaches and my team has my back."

That was the message after the loss at SIU. I asked Matukewicz after that game if Snyder would remain his "guy" -- that guy. He answered with just one word: "Yes."

So while Snyder was understandably and rightfully dejected after that game, he wasn't despondent. In the weeks since he seems far more relaxed both during and after games -- of course winning helps in that regard.

"I sat down one-on-one with Coach Tuke and Coach Poteete," Snyder said about the days following the SIU loss. "They said, 'Hey, we're going to get after you this week.' That whole week after that game they did. It really benefitted me a lot. I think it's carried over these past three weeks."

Since then Snyder has led the Redhawks to three consecutive wins, including two against ranked opponents, something no other Southeast quarterback has ever done. And he did it with plenty of excuses -- reasons even -- why he shouldn't have been able to.

His starting running back is injured and his premier wide receiver, the one that might play in the NFL someday, won't step back on the field for weeks. Yet he seems to keep playing better.

"We had to coach him up," Matukewicz said. "He's young. I think Coach Poteete's done a phenomenal job with him. Lennies McFerren helps him because he's running the ball and not relying on him throwing it 50 times. It's a group effort, but he's certainly -- just like a lot of our kids -- really tried to buy into the [idea of] 'Don't be the same player.' Find something that you can take off the film because at the end of the day if every single man takes something off the film you're just going to be a lot better football player the next week."

Snyder smiled when I mentioned his team was the first Southeast team to beat two ranked opponents in a season and said Matukewicz had already shared that fact with the players in the locker. But his reply perfectly summed up his attitude.

"We don't look too much into the rankings and stuff," he said. "I just look more at the film and what they're going to do."

He's not the type of player to be unimpressed or unsatisfied with his team's remarkable accomplishments, but he's not the kind to spend much time pondering the specialness or significance of it all either.

"It's on to the next one," Snyder said. "It's just like Coach Tuke always says, 'Once you're in OVC play it's just like the playoffs, so you've got to keep winning. Obviously the goal here is to have an opportunity to win the OVC, but you never want to look too far ahead. You just want to go week-by-week. Obviously this is a big win for us. We'll enjoy it for 24 hours like coach says."