Football Game Information

Southeast Missouri State at Southwest Missouri

Date: Saturday, Nov. 11, 2000

Time: 1:00 p.m.

Location: Plaster Field, Springfield, Mo. (16,300)

2000 Records: Southest Missouri 4-5 (2-3 Gateway), Southeast Missouri 3-6 (1-5 OVC)

The Coaches: Tim Billings is 3-6 in his first year at Southeast Randy Ball is 9-11 in his 2nd season at SMS and is 73-52-1 in 11th year

Radio: Southeast Radio Network anchored by K-103 FM in Cape Girardeau. Other network stations include KSIM in Sikeston and KWOC in Poplar Bluff. Erik Sean will do play-by-play with Rick Wieser providing color.

Internet: Southeast Radio Network broadcast can be heard over the internet at www.k103fm.com.

Football Notes

The Teams: Southeast Missouri is 3-6 after a loss to Marshall, a road win over Southern Illinois, a home win over nationally ranked Illinois State and OVC losses to Western Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky, Tennessee Tech, Murray State and Eastern Illinois. The Indians' win in the OVC was over Tennessee-Martin. Southwest Missouri is 4-5 overall and 2-3 in the Gateway Conference. The Bears have wins over Missouri Southern, Indiana State, Southern Illinois and Tennessee-Martin with losses to Arkansas, McNeese State, Youngstown State, Western Illinois and Northern Iowa.

Series Record: Southwest Missouri leads the series 39-28 and leads 3-1 since Southeast moved to Division I-AA in 1991.

The Coaches: Tim Billings, an assistant at Marshall the past 10 seasons, is 3-6 in his first year as head coach at Southeast. He also served as an assistant at Missouri and Oklahoma. As an assistant, Billings coached in five I-AA title games and in four bowl games. Randy Ball is 9-11 in his second season at Southwest Missouri and is 73-52-1 in his 11th year as a collegiate head coach. He is 0-1 vs. Southeast.

Last Season: Southeast defeated the Bears 28-23 at Houck Stadium in Cape Girardeau. SMS led 16-14 at the half, but the Indians had two third quarter TD's to claim the lead and held on for the victory. Rashad West was 12-16 passing for 173 yards and had 20 rushes for 97 yards. He passed for two touchdowns and ran for another.

Last Week: Eastern Illinois beat Southeast Missouri 38-9. The Indians trailed only 17-9 until late in the third quarter. Eastern Illinois had 549 yards in total offense while Southeast had 319 yards. Southwest Missouri beat Tennessee-Martin. The Bears had 543 yards in total offense while holding the Skyhawks to just 193 yards.

Southeast is 2-0 vs. Gateway: The Indians are 2-0 against Gateway Conference schools with wins over Southern Illinois and Illinois State. Prior to this season, Southeast was 3-13 vs. Gateway teams since the Indians move to Division I-AA in 1991.

Attendance Record: Despite a season low attendance of 3,850 for the Tennessee-Martin game, Southeast still established a new school record for home attendance, averaging 8,056 fans per game for the four-game home schedule.

Williams 2nd Nationally in Tackles: Defensive safety Joe Williams leads the OVC and ranked second nationally in tackles in defensive stats released by the NCAA last week. He currently has 128 tackles for an average with 112 tackles for an average of 14.2 per game. Williams had 19 tackles against Western Kentucky and had a career high 20 tackles against Southern Illinois. Isaac Powell ranks fifth in the OVC and 25th nationally in tackles with 106 for an average of 11.8 per game.

Witczak Ranks 10th Nationally in Punting: Southeast punter Jason Witczak, who was selected as the I-AA national Special Teams Player of the Week after his punting performance against Illinois State, currently leads the OVC in punting and ranks 10th nationally with an average of 41.4 yards per punt. Witczak has a long punt of 66 yards which is second best in the OVC. He is 4-6 in field goals and is 12-13 in PAT's.

Mathis 16th Nationally in Tackles for Losses: Corey Mathis has a total of 17 tackles for losses of 46 yards to rank third in the OVC and 16th nationally. He had two tackles for losses against Eastern Illinois. Mathis is tied for the lead in OVC sacks with six for losses of 17 yards.

Brune Goes Over 3,000 Yards Passing: Junior quarterback Bobby Brune surpassed the 3,000 yard mark in career passing yards during the Murray State game. He is currently 94-168 for 1,150 yards this season to give him career totals of 271-471 for 3,202 yards. Brune is currently ranked fifth in the OVC in passing and total offense. He is third in passing efficiency. Brune has a passing efficiency of 120.48 and has 1,180 yards in total offense for an average of 131 yards per game.

Weaver over 1,500 Yards Receiving: Senior wide receiver Leslie Weaver has 33 catches for 547 yards this season to push his career totals to 110 catches for 1,613 yards. Weaver currently ranks fourth in the OVC in total receiving yards with 427, fourth in yards per game with 61.00 and fifth in receptions per game with 3.29

Personnel Changes: Kent Langston has been moved from defensive end to tight end on offense. David Fielder, last year's starter at center, was moved back to center and will start at center tonight. He had been starting at guard this season. Ryan Roth, who started a tight end in four of the first five games, was moved to defensive end during practice drills prior to the Tech game. True freshman Rick Farmer had hoped to redshirt this year, but was pressed into action in the Tech game as a starter at middle linebacker and responded with 19 tackles. He came back with ten tackles vs. Murray State and ten tackles vs. Tennessee-Martin. True Freshman Eugene Amano is the starter at left guard for the Indians.

Multiple Receivers: A total of 14 Southeast players have had catches this season. Leslie Weaver leads the way with 33 while Corey Chester has 28 and Tarik Simpson and Jerl Huling each have 20. Others with receptions include, Curtis Cooper, Ryan Roth, Andy Dunaway, Jake Hill, Iven Brown, Byron White, Charles McElroy, Mark Blissett, Marcus Patton. and offensive lineman Jonathan Jensen who caught a deflected pass in the SIU game.

Injury Update: Freshman linebacker Ricky Farmer suffered a knee injury late in the first quarter at Eastern Illinois and missed the rest of the game. He has a knee sprain and is probable this week. Running back Iven Brown suffered a contusion to the outside of his left leg early in the Murray State game. He did not play against Tennessee-Martin or Eastern Illinois, but is probable this week. Defensive end Charlie Sorter remains sidelined with a shoulder injury.

Six Captains: The Southeast players have elected six captains, three on offense and three on defense. Offensive captains are quarterback Rashad West, offensive guard David Fielder and wide receiver Leslie Weaver. Defensive captains are safety Isaac Powell, defensive end Asim Thomas and strong safety Joe Williams.

NATIONAL HONORS:

9-16 -- Jason Witczak, Special Teams Player of the Week

10-9 -- Ricky Farmer, Newcomer of theWeek by Teamlink/CFAA

OVC HONORS:

9-11 - Bobby Brune, Offensive Player of the Week.

9-11 - Curtis Cooper, Newcomer of the Week.

9-18 - Jason Witczak, Specialist of the Week.

10-9 - Ricky Farmer, Newcomer of the Week.

10-30 - Marcus Patton, Newcomer of the Week.

Next Week: Southeast will close the season with an OVC game against Tennessee State at Adelphi Coliseum in Nashville.