Secondary plays primary role in Southeast Missouri State football's win over Austin Peay

Southeast Missouri State coach Tom Matukewicz adjusts his headset during the annual Pink Up football game played with Austin Peay Saturday, Oct. 29, 2016 at Houck Stadium.

Fred Lynch

When Southeast Missouri State junior cornerback Mike Ford went down with a broken arm last week at Tennessee Tech, the Redhawks defensive secondary lost an All-Ohio Valley Conference, shutdown corner.

Not ideal timing ahead of a matchup with the OVC's leading wide receiver.

But on Saturday against Austin Peay at Houck Stadium, a revamped Southeast defensive backfield filled the void successfully in a 41-21 victory.

"[Ford] is a great athlete," senior linebacker Roper Garrett said. "He makes a lot of plays. We just know we've got have next-guy-up mentality. It really sucked not having Mike out there. We wished we could have him out there, but I'm proud of our DBs tonight. They came out and played really, really well."

The new-look secondary saw the regular starting senior pair of Eriq Moore and Ryan Moore at safety, with senior Jamarl Holloway getting the nod at one cornerback spot and sophomore Steve Durosier at the other. Omar Pierre-Louis, a junior, was heavily rotated at safety, while junior J.J. Flye backed up on the outside. Freshman Taj Jenkins also got regular snaps late in the game at cornerback.

That unit was able to hold Austin Peay to 147 yards through the air, 68 of which came late in a game that was all but decided.

In the process, junior Governors wideout Jared Beard was contained to nine catches for 59 yards and a garbage-time touchdown.

Beard entered the contest leading the OVC in receptions per game (7.0), receiving yards per game (99.0) and total receiving yards (693). He is 10th, 14th and 12th, respectively, in those statistical categories in all of the Football Championship Subdivision.

But the Southeast defensive backs were able to limit his impact in the game.

"When you get film on an opponent, you know who their best players are, and he obviously was one of them," defensive coordinator Bryce Saia said. "We tried to use some coverages over and under and doubled him some. He got loose on one third down and he ended up with a touchdown catch, but besides that I think our players and our coaches behind them did a good job."

Ryan Moore finished third on the team with seven tackles plus a forced fumble. Holloway, Pierre-Louis and Flye all had three stops, with Flye adding a pass breakup.

Saia gave a lot of credit to safeties coach Eric Burrow and cornerbacks coach Salim Powell for having the unit ready to adjust to Ford's loss, and Pierre-Louis agreed. Especially with the defense having to make constant adjustments to Austin Peay's quarterback rotation, each QB with a different offensive package.

"[Beard] is a great player, but our coaching staff came up with a great plan," Pierre-Louis said. "At times we had one-high coverage and leaned over there [to his side of the field].

"The most important thing is everyone does their job. If you have a running or passing quarterback, you might have to step up, but we stayed on our keys and everyone did their job."

Despite a greater dispersal of defensive snaps and the absence of its best lockdown guy, the secondary held up well. The longest passing play of the game for the Governors was 19 yards, and they averaged just 7.4 yards per catch.

"It's hard because they're an option offense so you can't play 2-on-1 [on Beard] or be short in the box," Southeast coach Tom Matukewicz said, "but our guys did a good job with awareness."

Saia and Matukewicz both credited improved depth at defensive back for a mostly seamless transition -- the head coach said they've worked over the past few weeks to spread out playing time more throughout the unit -- though there is still room for improvement.

A pair of Austin Peay rushing touchdowns of 68 yards or more proved that. Even if it wasn't the fault of the defensive backs that a runner got loose, there are strides to be taken in providing support and limiting how big the play gets.

"The [defensive backs] did a good job," Matukewicz said. "But I still feel like that's the next step we need to take. If you get a ball that breaks into the secondary, you've got to run that down."

Still, it was a good first step toward adjusting to Ford's loss, even if he's not quite replaceable.

Ford, whose season is over, entered the week third on the team with 40 tackles with a team-high six pass breakups, one interception and a pair of sacks.

"He is, when you talk about Division I FCS football, his tools, it doesn't get better than that," Saia said. "He hits all the measurables -- everything you want as far as being a next-level player, he's got it. That's hard to find at this level.

"Mike's a really good player. I know he's had ups and downs this year, but Mike Ford's a good player and we're going to miss him for the rest of the year. But we have depth -- we've recruited well since we've been here -- along with good coaching."