A gridiron reunion: SEMO’s Pedraza, McMillan ready to face former team

Southeast Missouri State linebacker Jared Pedraza celebrates a play against UT Martin on Saturday, Sept. 7, at Houck Field.

Kaiden Karper ~ kkarper@semoball.com

A year ago, linebacker Jared Pedraza and offensive lineman Tyler McMillan were rocking their blue and orange helmets on the Northwestern State football practice field at Turpin Stadium in Natchitoches, Louisiana.

Fast forward to today and the new pair of SEMO starters will be wearing two different colors – red and black – while competing against their former team at Houck Field on Saturday, Sept. 28.

But to both Pedraza and McMillan, there is no bad blood between them and their former program. In fact, it's the opposite. The two transfers developed and learned quite a bit during their time at Northwestern State and are blessed for the opportunities they received.

“I'm very grateful for my time at Northwestern,” Pedraza said. “I believe everything happens for a reason. I was able to go there and I grew as a man, and I grew as a player. We didn't win a lot of ball games, but I definitely found out who I am. I'm sad the way things went the way they did and why I had to leave, but I'm glad where I am now.”

On October 26, 2023, Northwestern State University announced that it was going to cancel the remainder of its football season following the tragic shooting death of safety Ronnie Caldwell.

It was a rough time period for the Demon football program, especially for Pedraza, who lost his father shortly after the incident.

“It was tough,” Pedraza said. “One of your friends passed away brutally, and then they take football away from you. Then you kind of just have nothing to do but school and you see everybody else playing football. Not long after that, my dad passed. But I just kept God first and a strong support system around.”

Pedraza, who logged 209 tackles and 10.5 sacks in 37 games for Northwestern State, transferred to SEMO this offseason and has quickly picked up where he left off.

Through four games as a Redhawk, the 6-foot-1, 240-pound grad student ranks fifth on the team with 20 tackles. His best outing so far came in the 37-15 win over North Alabama in the FCS Kickoff game in Montgomery, Alabama in which he had seven stops, including one sack and one forced fumble.

“What we found out right away about him was that he makes a lot of plays,” said SEMO defensive coordinator Ricky Coon in August. “He's shown that wherever the ball is, he is, and that's a sign of a good linebacker. You can tell that he's played at this level because when you turn on the tape and press play, man, he's making plays.”

McMillan has started at left tackle each game this season and has shown flashes in pass protection as one of the mainstays on the Redhawk offensive line.

The Detroit, Michigan native, who also played football and competed in track and field at Mississippi Valley State in 2022 prior to his arrival at Northwestern State, said that his transition to SEMO has been very smooth thus far.

“I learned a lot of stuff at Northwestern,” McMillan said. “It was a great team, some great coaches. But the sad thing about our teammate passing had us juggling all types of negative energy. Our headspace wasn't good. But now we're playing them this week and they're looking good. We can't sleep on them.”

McMillan said he’s “excited” to play his former team and reunite with his old teammates on the field, and that it will be great to see Northwestern State head coach Blaine McCorkle after the game.

However, his focus and attention during the week has been pinpointed on continuing to do the little things right each play and execute at a high level.

“I haven’t talked to or played against them in a minute, so it should be great competition,” McMillan said. “Our focus, of course, is executing through the little things. Making sure our technique and our fundamentals are right so we can dominate and keep on moving on.”

SEMO will square off against Northwestern State tomorrow afternoon at 3 pm at Houck Field.