Redhawks Host Southwest Baptist Thursday to Open Football Season :: Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Houck Stadium

Aug. 25, 2008

Date: Aug. 28, 2008
Kickoff: 6:00 p.m. (CST)
Location: Houck Stadium, Cape Girardeau, Mo. (10,000)
Affiliations: Southwest Baptist, NCAA II Independent, Southeast Missouri, FCS, Ohio Valley Conference
2007 Records: Southwest Baptist 0-11, SE Missouri 3-8, 2-6 (OVC)
2008 Records: SW Baptist 0-0, Southeast Missouri 0-0
WebCast: KFVS12.com, OVCSports.TV
The Coaches: Keith Allen is 0-11 in his 2nd year at SW Baptist, Tony Samuel is 7-15 at Southeast, 41-72 in 11 years
Radio: Southeast Radio Network anchored by K-103 FM in Cape Girardeau. Other network stations include Team 1380 in St. Louis, KSIM in Sikeston, KWOC in Poplar Bluff and KMAL in Malden. Erik Sean will do play-by-play with Rick Wieser offering analysis.
Internet: Southeast Radio Network broadcast can be heard over the internet at www.k103fm.com.

THE TEAMS: It will be the season opener for both teams. Southwest Baptist was 0-11 last season while Southeast Missouri was 3-8 overall and 1-6 in the Ohio Valley Conference.

THE COACHES: Tony Samuel is 7-15 in his third season at Southeast. He is 41-72 in 11 years as a head coach including eight seasons at New Mexico State. Keith Allen is 0-11 in his second season at Southwest Baptist.

THE SERIES: Southeast leads the series 3-2. The teams last met last season with the Redhawks winning 38-17. The last Bearcat win in the series was in 1989 when both teams were Division II.

ABOUT SOUTHWEST BAPTIST: The Bearcats, 0-11 last season, hope to be stronger in 2008 when they will compete as a Division II independent for the first time. Formerly, SBU competed in the MIAA. The Bearcats, believe that in addition to an independent schedule, they have made the right moves, both on the field and on the sidelines, for a successful season.
SBU is led by sophomore quarterback Steve Gachette who set five new passing records last season when he completed 315-515 passes for 2,953 yards. He completed 28-41 passes for 250 yards against Southeast last season but was intercepted three times.

LAST SEASON: The Redhawks pulled away in the fourth quarter for a 38-17 win. Southeast led only 20-14 going into the final quarter. The Redhawks prevailed 18-3 in the final quarter with one of the TD's a 100-yard interception return by Eddie Calvin.

CAPTAINS: The football team has elected five captains for the 2008 season. Quarterback Houston Lillard and wide receiver Michael Williamson will captain the offensive unit while the defensive captains will be linebacker Nick Stauffer, tackle Nick Ketelsleger and cornerback Kendall Magana.
Lillard, a senior from Oakland, Calif., will be the starting quarterback after throwing for 1,350 yards in an injury plagued season a year ago. One of his targets will be Williamson, a senior from Arlington, Texas, who was also a captain last season. Magana, a senior cornerback from Arlington, Texas, was a high school teammate of Williamson at Lamar High School in Arlington. Ketelsleger is a senior defensive tackle from Chino Hills, Calif., while Stauffer is a senior linebacker from Mansfield, Texas.

SPADA HANDLES ALL KICKING: Preseason all-OVC Doug Spada will handle all kicking and punting. Spada, who was an honorable mention All-American and first team all-OVC selection last season when he averaged 42.5 yards per punt while converting 14-23 field goals and 21-23 PAT's. As a prep player in Shelby, North Carolina, he was MVP of the soccer team and trained for soccer in England with the prestigious Chelsea Football Club.

REDHAWKS IN THE NFL: Three former Redhawks players are on NFL rosters going into the first game of the season. Eugene Amano is an offensive lineman with the Tennessee Titans, Dimitri Patterson is a cornerback for the Kansas City Chiefs while Edgar Jones is a tight end for the Baltimore Ravens.

COACHING CHANGES: There are minimal coaching staff changes for the 2008 season. Eric Ravellette has left the staff after two seasons to become an assistant coach at Ferris State. Graduate assistant Matthew Vincent has taken a job as a graduate assistant in compliance at Central Michigan.
Justin Kramer, who was director of football operations and defensive line coach, will move to the offense as tackles and tight ends coach. Kramer, who was an offensive lineman during his playing days at Southern Illinois-Carbondale, will also be recruiting coordinator.
Doug Brady, a former quarterback for Tony Samuel at New Mexico State, has joined the staff as a graduate assistant. He will work with the quarterbacks. Pat Christian, a defensive lineman for the Redhawks last season, will be a student assistant working with the defensive line that will be tutored by head coach Tony Samuel.
Creston Moore is the new director of football operations for the Redhawks. He worked with the team video last season.

STRENGTH COACH LEAVES: Redhawks strength coach Clete McLeod has resigned to accept a job as football strength coach at Oregon State. Southeast hopes to announce the hiring of a new strength coach next week.

BCS TRANSFERS: The Redhawks have two new BCS transfers. Running back Henry Harris is a transfer from the University of Memphis and Ashton Farmer is a transfer from Arkansas State. Both will be eligible this season.
Harris, 5-8, 185, played in four games at Memphis last season. As a prep star at Christian Brothers High School in Memphis, he rushed for 1,579 yards and 22 touchdowns as a senior.
Farmer, 6-7, 240, played basketball at Arkansas State the past two seasons. He played in 62 basketball games at ASU. Farmer, was a prep football and basketball player at Charleston High School. He caught 39 passes for 658 yards as a high school senior.

TEMPORARY SCOREBOARD: Due to the new dorm construction, there will be a temporary scoreboard this season with a new board in place for the 2009 season.

DORM CONSTRUCTION: A new student dorm that will include game day dressing rooms for the Redhawks football and soccer teams is now under construction just beyond the west end zone.

GAME DAY DRESSING ROOM: This season the Redhawks will continue to use the gymnasium in the Student Recreation Center South as a game day dressing room. The team will enter the stadium on the east end and use the south sideline.

NEBRASKA CONNECTION: Eight Southeast coaches have ties to Nebraska. New outside linebackers coach Troy Dumas was an All-American linebacker for the Huskers, wide receivers coach Lorenzo Brinkley, cornerbacks coach Kenny Wilhite, defensive coordinator Tim McGuire and offensive line coach Brian Boerboom all played for the Huskers. Running backs coach Chris Norris played under Tom Osborne when Samuel was an assistant in Lincoln and the father of offensive tackles/tight ends coach Justin Kramer had Samuel as a position coach.

REDHAWKS AGAIN HAVE ST. LOUIS RADIO STATION: The Southeast Missouri Football Radio Network will again include 1380 ESPN Radio in St. Louis. The network, operated by Mississippi River Radio will be anchored by 100,000-watt K-103 FM in Cape Girardeau. Other network stations include KSIM, Sikeston; KWOC, Poplar Bluff and KMAL, Malden. Erik Sean will be the play-by-play voice of Redhawks football with former quarterback Rick Wieser adding commentary for home games and Ron Hines, Sports Information Director, handling commentary on road games. Todd Bonacki will be a sideline reporter for home games.

Tony Samuel ON RADIO: In addition to pre and post-game shows on the Southeast Radio Network, Samuel will be on KGIR, 1220 Radio in Cape Girardeau every Monday at 9 a.m. Fans can call in questions to the show hosted by Erik Sean.

REDHAWKS FOOTBALL WITH Tony Samuel: Samuel will have a weekly 30-minute television show on The Heartland's CW, WQWQ-TV. The show will air at 11:05 p.m. on Mondays and will be hosted by KFVS-TV sports director Todd Richards. The show will also be shown on Charter Cable Channel 11 on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday's at 8 p.m. It will also be run on the KFVS-TV/Southeast Weather Channel (Charter Channel 113) on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights at 6:30 p.m.

KFVS 12 WEBCAST: All Southeast home football games, except the Sept. 11 game on ESPNU, will be WebCast by KFVS12.com. Randy Ray will handle the play-by-play with Todd Richards adding commentary.

OVC SPORTS.TV: Southeast football games will also be video streamed on the Ohio Valley Conference's premium website, OVCSports.tv which can be accessed by logging on to the league's official website, OVCSports.com. Subscriptions are available on an annual, seasonal and per event basis.

TECH GAME ON ESPNU: The Redhawks will host Tennessee Tech in the OVC opener on Thursday, Sept. 11, in a game that will be nationally televised by ESPNU. Charlie Neal will have the play-by-play with Jay Walker adding commentary.

NEXT WEEK: The Redhawks will play at Missouri in a 6 p.m. game on Saturday, Sept. 6 at Faurot Field in Columbia. The Cotton Bowl champion Tigers are ranked fourth nationally by Sports Illustrated. Missouri plays Illinois in St. Louis on Saturday.