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HISTORY & TRAD.
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Football Indians To Battle Tenth Ranked Eastern Illinois Game notes and depth chart for Saturday's matchup.
Oct. 8, 2001
Complete Release in PDF Format
Football Game Information
Date: Saturday, Oct. 13, 2001
Southeast Schedule/Results
This Week in the OVC
THE TEAMS: Southeast is 3-3 overall and 1-1 in the OVC after a 45-30 win over Tennessee-Martin. The Indians opened the season with 16-12 road loss at I-A Eastern Michigan, a 24-5 home win over SIU, a 31-28 home loss to Southwest Missouri, a 38-33 road win at Illinois State and a 20-14 loss at Tennessee State.
Eastern Illinois, ranked tenth nationally in I-AA, is 4-1 overall and 2-0 in the OVC.
THE COACHES: Tim Billings, a former assistant at Marshall, Missouri and Oklahoma, is 6-11 in his second season at Southeast Missouri. He is 0-1 vs. EIU.
Bob Spoo is 88-76-1 in his 15th season at EIU.
LAST SEASON: Southeast trailed just 17-9 at the half, but the Panthers scored 21 unanswered points in the second half for a 38-9 win at Charleston. The Panthers had 549 yards in total offense including 318 rushing yards. Bobby Brune was 13-18 passing for 167 yards in the loss.
LAST WEEK: Southeast came from behind in the fourth quarter to defeat Tennessee-Martin 45-30. The Indians had a 24-10 second quarter lead before the pesky Skyhawks got a touchdown with just seven-seconds remaining in the half and then scored two third quarter TD's to take a 30-24 lead into the final quarter.
With Curtis Cooper leading the way with two touchdowns, Southeast scored three fourth quarter TD's to clinch the 45-30 win.
Southeast rolled up 464 yards in total offense, but allowed UTM 445 yards. Cooper rushed the ball 31 times for 216 yards.
Eastern Illinois suffered its first loss of the season at San Diego State, 40-7.
COOPER IS OVC PLAYER OF WEEK: For the second time this season, Curtis Cooper is the OVC Offensive Player of the Week after rushing for a career high 216 yards against Tennessee-Martin. It was the best rushing performance by Indian running back since Kelvin "Earthquake" Anderson rushed for 222 yards against Murray State on Sept. 3, 1992
Cooper had 245 all-purpose yards against Illinois State and 250 all-purpose yards against Tennessee State, had 292 all-purpose yards against Tennessee-Martin giving him a three-game total of 787 all-purpose yards.
Against the Skyhawks, Cooper rushed for 216 yards, caught five passes for 18 yards, had three punt returns for 16 yards and two kickoff returns for 42 yards.
He continues to lead the OVC and ranks third nationally in all purpose running with 222.8 yards per game.
Cooper is second in the OVC and 11th nationally in rushing with 133 yards per game.
Cooper leads the OVC and ranks sixth nationally in punt returns with an average of 20.25 yards per return.
It is the second time this season that Cooper has been named OVC Player of the Week.
SOUTHEAST SECOND IN THE OVC IN PASSING AND TOTAL OFFENSE:
Southeast ranks second in the OVC in passing offense with 280 yards per game and in total offense with 429.3 yards per game.
SOUTHEAST IN NCAA STATS: The Indians rank 13th nationally in passing offense and rank 14th nationally in total offense.
PONDER, SANDERS LEAD OVC: Southeast junior college transfers Willie Ponder and Adrian Sanders rank at or near the top of every OVC receiving category.
In receptions per game, Ponder ranks first with 6.2 catches per game while Sanders is tied for second with 5.0 catches per game. Cooper also has 5.0 catches per game.
In receiving yards per game, Ponder is first with 118.5 while Sanders is third with 79.2 and in total receiving yards, Ponder is first with 711 and Sanders is second with 475.
Nationally, Ponder ranks eighth in receiving yards per game and 18th in receptions per game. He also ranks 17th nationally in all-purpose running with 159 yards per game and ranks 33rd nationally in scoring with 8.0 points per game.
PONDER CLOSES ON RECORDS:
Ponder has already tied the school record for touchdowns in a game with three against Southwest Missouri. He needs 36 catches, 406 yards and three touchdowns to hold each single season record outright.
ANDERSON TOPS OVC TACKLES:
Junior safety Prince Anderson leads the OVC and ranks fifth nationally in tackles with an average of 13.5 tackles per game. Ricky Farmer of Southeast is second in the OVC and 14th nationally with 12 tackles per game.
McDOWELL REINJURED IN UTM GAME: Quarterback Jeromy McDowell reinjured his knee during the first quarter of the UTM game. He suffered a sprained knee injury in the first quarter of the Illinois State game. An MRI on the injured knee revealed no structural damage. He came off the bench in the third quarter of the Tennessee State game and played the rest of the game.
Against UTM, McDowell was 4-5 for 43 yards and one touchdown before leaving the game with the injury.
McDowell has 1,206 yards passing after just six games as he closes in the school record for a freshman passer. He needs just 68 yards to break the record of 1,273 yards by Lance Brune in 1970.
The season passing record at Southeast is 2,580 yards by Jason Liley in 1990.
McDowell had a sensational second half against SIU and an equally sensational first half against Southwest Missouri. In the second half against SIU, he completed 14-23 passes for 317 yards and three TD's and in the first half of the SMS game he completed 16-22 passes for 257 yards and three TD's. That gave him consecutive half totals of 30-45 completions for 567 yards and six touchdowns
For the season, McDowell is 75-146 for 1,206 yards and nine TD's but has been intercepted seven times.
McDowell is second in the OVC and ranks 37th nationally in total offense with 216.8 yards per game.
Seniors West, who has been hampered by a knee injury, and Brune backup McDowell.
Brune is 38-63 this season for 375 yards. He now has 3,790 yards passing in his fourth season at Southeast.
FRESHMAN KICKERS: Southeast kicking duties are being handled by a pair of true freshmen. Derek Kutz is kicking PAT's and field goals while Brian Emmendorfer kicks off.
Kutz, who is 5-6 in field goals and 16-18in extra points, ranks 28th nationally and fourth in the OVC with an average of 0.83 field goals per game.
INJURIES: Quarterback Jeromy McDowell (sprained knee), defensive end Adam Jones (bruised knee), Leotis Belcher (sprained ankle). John Paul Usrey (concussion) and Adrian Sanders (bruised knee) all left the UTM game with injuries. Chaun Tate did not play in the UTM game because of a leg injury. They are all probable this week.
OVC HONORS:
9-1 - Corey Mathis, Def. Player of Week
YOUNG SQUAD: The current Indian squad has 47 freshman and sophomores on the 76 man squad. There are 37 freshmen including redshirt freshmen and 9 sophomores. There are 19 juniors and only 11 seniors.
ESPN FEATURES SOUTHEAST PLAY: ESPN featured the Adrian Sanders to Willie Ponder end-around pass play from the Illinois State game during halftime of the nationally televised game between Miami and Pittsburgh on Thursday night.
NEXT WEEK: Southeast Missouri will return to Houck Stadium for the 1 p.m. homecoming game with Murray State.
DEPTH CHART: See PDF file at the top of this page.
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