Nov. 7, 2001

Saturday's game marks the end of the second season of the Tim Billing 'New Era' of football at Southeast Missouri State. Upon his arrival from Marshall University two season ago, Billings' promised an exciting brand of football known as 'basketball on grass' that would put plenty of points on the board and fans in the seats as he and his coaching staff turned around the Indian program. And as year two closes, the Billings' staff has done just that, put more fans in the seats and made the games exciting. Although the Indians have not had a winning record yet, success for the Southeast program is not far away.

One of the major positives the Billings' system has brought to Southeast is an exciting offense that is challenging Indian all-time records in only its second season of implementation. Freshman quarterback Jeromy McDowell broke the freshman passing record earlier this season, breaking a 31-year old school record. Junior receiver Willie Ponder is closing in on season receiving marks in receptions and yards that have stood for nine and 12 seasons respectively. And senior running back Curtis Cooper became only the third Indian rusher to ever eclipse 1,000 yards in a season last week against Eastern Kentucky.

One of the biggest obstacles that Billings and his staff have had to face the past two seasons is the transition phase. The coaching staff has been busy implementing their offensive and defensive sets and bringing in the players they feel will fit best in their system. With an entire new system, not only are the freshman starting from scratch but the upperclassmen were also learning an entirely new system and starting over like they were newcomers into the program.

"Our lack of strength has really hurt us this season," Billing said. "Late in games teams are pushing us around and injuries have taken their toll on us. In the off-season we intend to work hard, develop our strength and become a better football team."

The hard work will not only be done by the players in the offseason, however. "As coaches we will be working our butts off this summer," said Billings. "We are going to work hard and find a way to win next season. I believe I can do it and I believe that our staff can do it."

Although a 3-7 record may not be what most Southeast fans wanted this season, Coach Billings has seen several positives this year. "It's nice to see our kids get close to and break some records this season," Billings mentioned referring to the numbers that Cooper, Ponder and McDowell have produced this year. "We have a lot of young kids doing a lot of good things. Although Curtis Cooper is a senior, it is his first year at running back and he has done outstanding there. His numbers are a testament to the outstanding job our offensive line has done. They are young but they have done a good job allowing Curtis to produce yards and they see his records as their records also."

And last weekend's defensive performance against Eastern Kentucky ranked as one of the tops of the season in Billings' opinion. "We played probably our best defensive game of the season against a very good Eastern Kentucky team," Billings said.

With the right combination of players and an off-season strength and conditioning program, Southeast should be a much improved team in 2002.

"We are going to use the Quincy game as a chance to prepare for next season. We have quality athletes and after this season there will be no excuses for not winning. It is time that our program started winning football games."