Nov. 25, 2002

Cape Girardeau - Southeast Missouri State University head football coach Tim Billings and star wide receiver Willie Ponder are both under consideration for prestigious national awards.

Billings, who guided Southeast to an 8-4 record this season, is one of 16 coaches on the ballot for the Eddie Robinson Award that goes to the top football coach in NCAA Division I-AA while Ponder, who led the Ohio Valley Conference in all receiving categories, is on the ballot for the Walter Payton Award, the I-AA equivalent of the Heisman Trophy.

Billings, a former assistant at Oklahoma, Missouri and Marshall, has forged a tremendous turnaround in the football program at Southeast. Taking over a program that had only one winning season in nine years at the Division I-AA level, Billings turned in seasons of 3-8, 4-7 and 8-4 in his first three years on the job. The eight wins by this year's team is the most wins for a Southeast Missouri football team since 1969.

Southeast broke 28 school records and had a number of firsts this season including the first win ever over a Division I-A team when the Indians whipped Middle Tennessee 24-14 and the school's first win ever over Eastern Kentucky and legendary coach Roy Kidd.

Southeast also ranked in the top 25 nationally for the first time ever during the regular season with a ranking of 24th in last week's Sports Network poll.

The Eddie Robinson Award has gone to the top coach annually since 1987. Last year's winner was Pete Lembo of Lehigh. The only OVC coach to win the award was Houston Nutt, currently the head coach at Arkansas, who won the award in 1995 when he was at Murray State.

Ponder, a senior from Tulsa, Okla., led the OVC in all receiving categories including receiving yards per game (121.1), total receiving yards (1,453) and receptions per game (7.25). He was third in the OVC in scoring with 7.4 points per game and ranked second in all-purpose running with 138.82 yards per game.

Ponder, one of 16 players under consideration for the Walter Payton Award, established four new Southeast records and two new OVC records. He was The Sports Network national Player of the Week after nine catches, 185 yards and three touchdowns in the win over Eastern Kentucky. Ponder compiled over 100 receiving yards in all but three games this season.

"It is an honor to be nominated for the Eddie Robinson Award and it is a thrill to know that Willie Ponder has been placed on the Walter Payton Award ballot," Billings said. "We had a great season at Southeast Missouri and we want it to be just the first of a number of great seasons. We want winning seasons to be the tradition, not the exception."