COLUMN: On elephants, injuries and the Southeast football team

There is an elephant walking around with the Southeast Missouri State football team, plodding along behind the players, doing its best to slow them down.

Not an actual, living and breathing elephant, of course.

While coach Tom Matukewicz has done plenty of unorthodox things this season, I don't think he'll be inviting circus animals to join the team, even if he said he had some fun planned for his team during the bye week following its 33-21 loss at No. 18 Eastern Kentucky on Saturday.

Southeast's elephant is the metaphorical type, the one in the room no one wants to talk about. Yet no amount of ignoring will help the Redhawks escape from the crushing effect it has every time its gigantic feet hit the field.

No one on the Southeast football team likes to talk about the injuries sustained this season. The coaches talk about them almost exclusively as opportunities for others, and the players have been trained to follow suit.

"It's college football," linebacker Terrance Hill said. "People are going to go down.

"I think it makes other players hungry. I feel it's a negative turned into a positive because one goes down we're all like, 'Next man up.'"

I understand the message, and I appreciate the attitude. There's really no good that can come of the coaches and players feeling sorry for themselves and focusing on what might have been.

But those of us outside the locker room can afford to take a look at the bigger picture, and the reality -- not excuse -- is that injuries have decimated the Redhawks and turned what had the potential to be a season full of upset wins and unexpected success into a war to keep the elephant out of the room and their best players on the field.

We've run them down before. There was starting running back DeMichael Jackson, who missed several weeks with a broken hand. Then star wide receiver Paul McRoberts and defensive even Selwyn Carrol each broke their foot in a win over then No. 3 Southeastern Louisiana. Lineback Wisler Ymonice and offensive lineman Garret Baker missed multiple games, and last week defensive lineman Jon Slania, running back Lennies McFerren and special teams player Ryan Moore all left with significant injuries. Meanwhile, quarterback Kyle Snyder has been knocked out of more than one game -- although he's always made his way back in.

There are several more, but you get the idea.

Ideal football teams are built to withstand injuries, although this many to top players would have been difficult for any team to overcome, but another reality is this Southeast team was never deep to begin with. Matukewicz has said it for months, even going so far as to say his staff wass easier on players than he would have liked at some points in preseason practices because of the need to keep people healthy. He's mentioned numerous times that that depth won't come until he's had a few years to recruit.

It looked like Southeast might be getting a bit healthier on Saturday. Ymonice returned to the field and McRoberts was in uniform on the sideline and, although he didn't play, is expected back for the team's final three games.

Then with 5 minutes, 26 seconds remaining in the second quarter the elephant rushed back onto the field.

Star linebacker Roper Garrett, who entered the game with 90 tackles, three sacks and a dominating presence in the Redhawks' defense, was down on the field, writhing in pain before being helped off the field.

Other than Snyder, he may have been the one player Southeast could least afford to lose.

"He's a guy that's just done everything," Matukewicz said, clearly exasperated. "When something that's not in his control happens like that, it's why sports are good because they'll teach you to handle adversity. At the end of the day it is a long way from his heart and his head, and he's going to be OK. But I know he's hurting because he'll feel like he let him teammates down. It'll be an opportunity for another guy to step, and we'll figure out who that is."

The Redhawks were a thrill to watch earlier this season as they piled up four consecutive wins, including two over ranked opponents for the first time, and I'm not counting them out for more victories this season.

But three losses over the last three weeks have been a reminder of how small the Redhawks' margin for error has been all along.

Their effort has been fine. Their execution is still much-improved from early season losses at Kansas and SIU, but they've been out-manned and out-played in key moments.

It's difficult not to think about what might have been, which is exactly what Matukewicz wants his players to avoid.

"You've got to just go to work and [figure out] what is it I can do to be a better football player?" Matukewicz said. "What is it Coach Tuke can do to have a better football team two weeks from now, and that'll be our focus."

Southeast was a better football team Saturday night than it was a week earlier in an ugly 52-13 loss at home to Eastern Illinois.

"I'm just proud because I've been on teams that would have laid an egg after the Eastern Illinois game," Matukewicz said. "They just let it go, and this team didn't. We played well enough to be in a fourth-quarter game with a Top 20 team."

He paused here for a second let out a deep breath that signaled he wished he wasn't talking about the elephant but indulged me anyway.

"I'm proud of them," he continued. "They're hurting, and they've just got to understand it's about a process. You've just got to keep doing the same things, and eventually it'll turn, brick by brick."