Dec. 12, 2005

Cape Girardeau, Mo. - Two more candidates for the head football coaching position at Southeast Missouri State University will interview this week.

On Wednesday, Jerry Partridge, head coach at Missouri Western, will interview and on Thursday, Tony Samuel, former head coach at New Mexico State and currently an assistant at Purdue, will be on the Southeast campus for an interview.

Members of the Southeast community including boosters, university faculty and staff, students, members of public and media are invited to meet and question each candidate from 3:00-4:00 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday at the University Center. Partridge's open forum will be in the Missourian Room while Samuel will meet with the public and media in the Indian Room.

Partridge, who will interview on Wednesday, has been head coach at Missouri Western for the past nine seasons. The Griffons were 9-3 this season and won the Mineral Water Bowl for the second time in the last three seasons. Partridge is 62-40 in nine seasons at Missouri Western and is 52-28 over the past seven seasons.

A 1985 graduate of Missouri Western, Partridge has also coached at Murray State, Austin Peay, Notre Dame and Missouri.

Samuel, who will interview on Thursday, has 23 years coaching experience at the collegiate level including eight years as head coach at New Mexico State. He was part of two National Championship teams at Nebraska where he was on Tom Osborne's staff that produced ten seasons with nine or more wins and eleven bowl appearances. Samuel has also served as an assistant coach at Stanford, Western Michigan and Purdue.

Samuel is a 1981 graduate of Nebraska, where he was a two year starter for the Cornhuskers. He has coached 12 players who went on to careers in the National Football League.

Craig Schurig, head coach at Washburn University, was interviewed last Friday.