Southeast Missouri State football prepares for unpredictable UT Martin

Southeast Missouri State's Cameron Sanders returns a kickoff 33 yards before he is tackled by Jacksonville State's Nate Craft during the second quarter Saturday at Houck Stadium.

Fred Lynch

For the Southeast Missouri State football team, there's still plenty to play for with two games remaining.

After coming up just short against the second-ranked team in the nation last week, the Redhawks will square off against the Ohio Valley Conference's second-place team when they hit the road for the final time this season to face UT Martin at 2 p.m. Saturday at Graham Stadium.

"At the end of the day, we can finish as high as No. 2 in the conference if we win out, so there's still a lot to play for," Southeast coach Tom Matukewicz said during this week's OVC teleconference. "I'm just looking to see if we can repeat a lot of our intensity, and then make some improvements on offense this week."

The Redhawks (3-6, 3-3 OVC) are coming off a 17-10 homecoming loss to No. 2 Jacksonville State last week. Southeast was held to zero net yards rushing on 28 attempts, a lot of which was attributed to bad snaps and sacks.

"I'm certainly disappointed that we weren't able to run the ball," Matukewicz said. "That better not happen again as long as I'm the head coach here. We're going to really focus on that."

It'll be another challenge for Southeast this week, as the Skyhawks (6-4, 5-1 OVC) bring in the conference's second-best rushing defense, allowing an average of 121 yards per game.

The Redhawks' rushing offense ranks seventh in the league, generating 136 yards per contest, with senior running back Will Young leading the way. Young has amassed 688 yards, which is third in the OVC, on 129 rushes. He has four touchdowns.

Matukewicz said one of the key problems he noticed against the Gamecocks was a lack of patience against a physical front-seven.

"You know you're playing just an extremely good defense," Matukewicz said about JSU. "You've just have to have a commitment to stick with it and our guys to keep blocking because eventually you've got to try to wear guys down.

"They're deep, so they're able to rotate a lot of guys in. It was a combination of a lot of things, but probably the biggest issue we had was we just had a hard time with their front-seven. They're really good."

Junior quarterback Jesse Hosket threw two interceptions against the Gamecocks but also threw a long TD pass to redshirt freshman wide receiver Kristian Wilkerson. Hosket ranks third in the league with 222.2 passing yards per game and has exactly 2,000 yards on the year. He's 156 of 293 with 11 TDs and four picks. Wilkerson has been Hosket's best receiving option, with 28 catches for 561 yards and four TDs.

Defensively UTM has combined for 14 interceptions on the season. Joseph Este leads the way with three of those picks.

"They're tremendous on defense at that," Matukewicz said. "I think they've created a really good culture. I think the physical side lends to that, and then their ability to stop the run, which creates the long passing situations. ... Athletically they've got some guys that can do something after they catch it."

Troy Cook directs the Skyhawks' offense and has a league-best 153.2 efficiency rating. Cook has thrown for 1,885 yards on 132-of-220 passing with 19 TDs and eight interceptions. UTM's passing offense ranks fifth in the conference.

The Skyhawks have the top scoring offense in the league, averaging 35.6 ppg. Matukewicz believes unpredictability is one of the team's greatest assets.

"I learned my lesson. The first year, you think you're going to get this, and you don't. The second year, the same thing. We won't plan for a certain style," Matukewicz said. "Hopefully he won't invent any new football players. He might. ... We just can't zero in on something because you really have no idea how they're going to attack us, so we're just going to really focus on our fundamentals."

Jaimiee Bowe leads the Skyhawks' rushing attack with 613 yards and six TDs on 118 carries this season. UTM ranks fifth in the conference in rushing offense, producing 159.7 ypg.

"I think Coach Simpson's the best coach in the league. That's what bothers me so much because I think he's a better coach than I am," Matukewicz said. "He can beat you throwing it 50 times, or he can beat you running it 50 times. His kids play real hard and physical, so he certainly has my respect, my team's respect."