SIU heads to Cape Girardeau for the War for the Wheel in the only FCS game this week between two ranked teams.
Meet the Redhawks:
The Redhawks are coached by Tom Matukewicz or Coach Tuke in his 10th season as head coach of SEMO. Coach Tuke served as an assistant coach under Jerry Kill at Emporia State before following him to SIU and NIU. Matukewicz is 52-52 as SEMO head coach and has led the Redhawks to the playoffs 3 times in the last 6 years. SEMO went 9-3 last year and 5-0 in the OVC before losing to Montana 34-24 in the first round in the playoffs.
The Redhawks were picked first in the newly formed Big South-OVC Football Association preseason poll. In their opening game, they lost 45-0 at #16 Kansas State and beat Lindenwood 45-7 in their home opener & FCS opener.
The quarterback for Southeast Missouri is 6-5 Junior Paxton DeLaurent. DeLaurent spent his first collegiate season at Central Methodist University before transferring to SEMO after his Freshman season. DeLaurent threw for 2,684 yards last year with 19 touchdowns and 6 interceptions and added 288 rushing yards and 3 rushing touchdowns. In their win over Lindenwood last week, DeLaurent threw for 267 yards and 3 touchdowns.
The leading rusher for the Redhawks is 5-8 Graduate Student Geno Hess. Hess is from Peoria High School in Illinois and is in his 6th year with the program. Hess has recorded double digit touchdowns in his last 3 seasons and rushed 236 times last year for 1,691 rushing yards and 21 rushing touchdowns leading him to be named OVC Male Athlete of the Year and OVC Offensive Player of the Year. Hess finished 5th in the Walter Payton Award voting last year. Hess has been named to the All-OVC First Team 3 years in a row. In their win over Lindenwood, Hess rushed for 115 yards on 20 carries and added a rushing touchdown.
The Redhawks leading reciever this year is 6-2 Senior Ryan Flournoy. Flournoy started his collegiate career at Central Missouri before transferring to Iowa Wester Community College. Last season in his first year at SEMO, Flournoy caught 61 passes for 984 yards and 7 touchdowns and was named to the First-Team All OVC team. In their win over Lindenwood, Flournoy caught 10 passes for 99 yards and 1 touchdown.
Note: After reading the SEMO message board, I found out that Flournoy is out with a broken wrist suffered sometime during the Lindenwood game. Apparently Coach Tuke said that SEMO could be without as many as 7 starters during his coaches show this week.
On defense SEMO is led by 6-0 Graduate Senior Cornerback Lawrence Johnson. Johnson was 2nd in tackles on the team last year and led the team with 10 TFL's. He was named to the All-OVC first team last year and this preseason was named a Preseason Athlon Sports All-American.
Weather:
Mostly sunny, with a high near 79. North northeast wind 5 to 8 mph.
Massey Ratings:
Massey Ratings has SIU winning 28-24 and gives SIU a 60% chance of winning.
Links:
Get your tickets now if you’re going. By all indications, this game is going to sell out.
That’s Awesome! Go DAWGS!!Get your tickets now if you’re going. By all indications, this game is going to sell out.
I had planned to drive down to this one, but it’s Apple Festival weekend, and family duties have put an end to those plans.
Should be a great game. Southern owes SEMO some payback after last year’s game when their QB threw all over our defense.
I’m hopeful.
Get your tickets now if you’re going. By all indications, this game is going to sell out.
Curious as to the capacity of the new stadium. 8,000? 10,000? From viewing pictorials online, it looks quite nice, and a major improvement over the former stadium.
@tj-mcflys 10,000 I believe. It’s basic, but looks nice. The fans down there are amped about the new stadium, and also SIU is always the game they circle on the calendar, especially this year.
@tj-mcflys 10,000 I believe. It’s basic, but looks nice. The fans down there are amped about the new stadium, and also SIU is always the game they circle on the calendar, especially this year.
Thank you kind sir. It should be a great atmosphere for a FCS Rivalry game!
GO DAWGS!!!
Go Dawgs! Keep the momentum. No let downs after two big wins to start the season.
Trying to figure out the seating for new stadium. Do fans all sit on one side or both?
https://semo.evenue.net/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/SEGetEventInfo?ticketCode=GS%3ATWSEMO%3AFB23%3AFB2%3A&linkID=twsemo&shopperContext=&pc=&caller=&appCode=&groupCode=&cgc=&dataAccId=596&locale=en_US&siteId=ev_twsemoTrying to figure out the seating for new stadium. Do fans all sit on one side or both?
Folks sit on both sides. SIU fans should buy tickets behind the visitors bench. I suggest you get tickets in section 110 if you are an SIU fan.
Got my tickets. Sitting in Section 103. My folks both work at SEMO and I at SIU. I'll be repping my Saluki maroon though!
Hello everyone, I am a SEMO fan so thanks for letting me comment on your board. Just to make things clearer on the stadium,they are upgrading it in phases so they just rebuilt a new south grandstand with updates on everything on the south side but the north side is still the same old grandstand. They plan on adding a pressbox and maybe luxury boxes to the new south grandstand next and then redoing the entire north side. They also plan on eventually putting a building in the East end zone and maybe either horshoeing the seating all the way around or adding some kind of boxes in that building too. They also just installed new turf and field goals and we just updated our video board two years ago. Everything looks great so far but still a work in progess. When it is all totally done it should be a premier FCS stadium.
Won't make any difference. We're still gonna kick your ass Saturday!!!! 😆
@mr_woogers You might. Currently it looks like we will be missing our All American Receiver, our All American Linebacker, our All Conference Kick Returner, our starting Punter and possibly three other starters. We are pretty deep this year but its a lot of guys to be missing. We do usually play pretty well at home and this game usually brings out the best of both teams so we will see.
