Oct. 4, 2006

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. -

Eastern Illinois Football Notes
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Southeast Missouri State @ Eastern Illinois
Date:  Oct. 7, 2006
Kickoff:  1:30 p.m.
Location:  O'Brien Stadium, Charleston, Ill. (10,000)
Affiliations:  Eastern Illinois,  I-AA, Ohio Valley Conference
	       Southeast Missouri, I-AA, Ohio Valley Conference
2005 Records:  Eastern Illinois 9-3, 8-0 OVC
            SE Missouri, 2-9, 2-6 OVC
2006 Records:  E. Ill.  2-3, 1-0 OVC, SE Missouri 3-1, 1-1 OVC
The Coaches: Bob Spoo is 121-101-1 in his 20th season
  	    Tony Samuel is 3-1 at Southeast,
                      37-58 in 9 years overall
Radio:  Southeast Radio Network anchored
by K-103 FM in Cape Girardeau.  Other network stations include
1380 ESPN in St. Louis, KSIM in Sikeston,
KWOC in Poplar Bluff and KMAL in Malden.
Internet:  Southeast Radio Network broadcast can
be heard over the internet at www.k103fm.com.
Internet Video:  Live video streaming provided on
a subscription basis by OVCSports.TV.

THE TEAMS: Southeast Missouri is 3-1 overall and 1-1 in the OVC after a 38-13 win over Austin Peay, a 44-23 win over Missouri-Rolla. A 38-7 loss at Jacksonville State and a 19-14 win over Samford. Eastern Illinois is 2-3 overall but 1-0 in the OVC. The Panthers lost at Hawaii 44-9 in their last game.

THE COACHES: Tony Samuel, an assistant at Purdue last season after serving as eight years as head coach at New Mexico State, is 3-1 in his first season at Southeast. He is 37-58 in his ninth year as a collegiate head coach. Bob Spoo, who has been sidelined after having surgery, is 121-101-1 in his 20th season as head coach. During Spoo's recovery, Mark Hutson has been acting head coach.

THE SERIES: Eastern Illinois leads the series 9-4 and has won five straight games in Charleston. The last Southeast win at EIU was in 1957.

LAST SEASON: Eastern Illinois jumped to a 28-3 halftime lead and coasted home with a 48-24 win. Vincent Webb rushed for a season-high 148 yards and three touchdowns. The Panther defense recovered four fumbles and intercepted two passes.

REDHAWKS LEAD THE NATION IN TO MARGIN: Southeast has played four games without a turnover and leads the nation in turnover margin at 2.75. The Redhawks are seventh in net punting with 37.83 yards per punt.

SIMONHOFF LEADS THE NATION IN PUNTING: David Simonhoff continues to lead the nation in punting with an average 47.14 yards per punt. After averaging 51.2 yards per punt against Jacksonville State, Simonhoff was voted the OVC Special Teams Player of the Week. At Jacksonville State, Simonhoff had five punts go over 50 yards, including two over 60, with a long of 66 yards. Simonhoff was named a first team preseason All-American by The Sports Network and I-AA.org. Simonhoff was a first team All-America pick by the American Football Coaches Association after last season when he again led the OVC in punting. In the opening win at Austin Peay, Simonhoff had four punts for an average of 45.5 yards per punt with three inside the 20. Simonhoff averaged 43.6 yards per punt during his previous three seasons at Southeast. In 2004 he established a new Southeast and OVC individual season record when he averaged 46 yards per punt. He has three punts of 80 yards or more and eight punts of 70 yards or more.

Edgar Jones LEADS THE NATION IN SACKS AND TFL: Senior defensive end Edgar Jones is leads the nation in sacks and tackles for losses. He averages 2.00 sacks per game and 2.75 tackles for losses per game. Jones had two sacks vs. Samford.

POSITION CHANGES: During the off week, there were some position changes. Defensive linemen Nick Ferguson and Jaunell Pugh moved to the offensive line. Ferguson will be a backup at one guard with Pugh a backup at the other guard. Fullback Corey Andrade moved to the defensive line.

BALANCED ATTACK: In the season opening win over Austin Peay, Southeast had 178 yards rushing and 180 yards passing.

SOUTHEAST IN THE OVC STATS: The Redhawks lead the league in scoring with 27.00 ppg and rank fourth in scoring defense, allowing 22 ppg. The Redhawks also lead the league in turnover margin (2.75) and sacks with 11.

INDIVIDUAL OVC STATS: David Simonhoff, the OVC leader in punting the last two seasons, is again on top with 47.14 yards per punt. Edgar Jones leads the league in sacks with 2.0 per game and tackles for losses with 2.75 per game.

CAPTAINS ELECTED: The Redhawks have elected two offensive and two defensive captains. Serving the offense will be quarterback Kevin Ballatore and wide receiver Oge Oge. The defensive captains are linebacker Seth Harrell and defensive end Edgar Jones who is serving his second season as a captain.

SCHOLAR BALLERS: The Southeast football team is participating in the Scholar Baller program as a pilot project for the NCAA. Scholar Baller is a committed team of educators, administrators, professional athletes and entertainers dedicated to educating today's youth about the importance of academics using sports and entertainment. Scholar Baller is a nonprofit organization inspiring youth to excel in academics using incentive based educational programs that recognize the cultural power that sport and entertainment have in the development of character in a manner that transcends race, gender and class. The Southeast soccer and volleyball squads are also participating. All Southeast football players who have 3.0 or higher cumulative grade point averages will wear a Scholar Baller patch on their game jersey. Players with the special patches include Terry Anderson, Kevin Ballatore, Matt Boyack, Clayton Caron, Adam Casper, Joe Goff, Zach Leible, Kendall Magana, Francisco Perez, Colin Schermann and Joe Tuineau.

NEXT WEEK: Southeast plays at Arkansas of the Southeastern Conference. Game time at a sold out 72,000 seat Razorbacks Stadium will be 1:30 p.m.

REDHAWKS IN THE NFL: Three former Redhawks players are on NFL rosters. Eugene Amano is an offensive lineman with the Tennessee Titans, Willie Ponder is a wide receiver and return specialist for the Seattle Seahawks and Dan Connolly is a lineman, currently on injured reserve, for the Jacksonville Jaguars.

REDHAWKS ADD ST. LOUIS RADIO STATION: The Southeast Football Network has added 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 adding color during the road games. Todd Bonacki will be a sideline reporter for home games.

REDHAWKS FOOTBALL WITH Tony Samuel: Coach Samuel will have a weekly 30-minute television show on Heartland's CW, WQWQ-TV. The show airs at 11 p.m. on Fridays and is hosted by KFVS-TV and The CW sports director Todd Richards. The show is also shown on Charter Cable Channel 11 in Cape Girardeau on Saturday mornings at 8:00 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.

COACH SAMUEL ON RADIO: Coach Samuel can be heard each Wednesday from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., live from Port Cape Girardeau, on KAPE Radio, 1220 AM. Erik Sean hosts the show that will include audience participation and call-ins.