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Redhawks Schedule and Results (2-1)
@ Iowa State, 10-42
@ #17 Southern Illinois, 34-31
vs Nicholls State, 42-16

Loss to ISU understandable for first game on the road at one of the toughest places in P-5 to win....not sure what has happened to Nicholls so far this season....best game to look at probably the road win at SIU which has played well...

Close game throughout..tied at 17 after Q3....SEMO drove 76 yards late Q4 to score winning TD on a 2yd pass with 11 seconds left....other scoring drives...

8 plays/75yds/6 yd pass to King
15/86/3yd pass to King
10/37/50 yd FG
7/33/45yd FG
8/77/4 yd pass to Flournoy

SIU's scores came on 65+ drives and short runs except one went for 42yds

Team stats...

SEMO - 26/58 rush + 33-45-4TDs-0INTs-332yd = 390
SIU - 31/132 rush + 21-37-2TDs-0 INTs-253yds = 385

SEMO - 5/15 on 3rd down and 2/2 on 4th
SIU - 9/16 on 3rd and 2/2 on 4th

SEMO - 3 sacks for 13 and 6 TFL
SIU - 2 for 10 and 6 TFL

Individual leaders:

QB Paxton DeLaurent (6'5, 215) .....all the passing yards and only 7 rush for 6yds
RB Geno Hess.(5'8, 222)....19-67 with a long of 11
Ryan Flournoy (6'2, 197) 10-145yd and 1 TD receiving
Johnny King (6'4, 206) 14-125 and 2 TDs receiving
6 other receivers caught at least 1 pass for 52 yds total
DC Pippin missed a 50 yd FG then later hit a 50 and 45....4/4 on PATs...5 KOs to about 15....another kicker had 2 that avg 29 each

Both teams are shown as running almost all plays with no huddle out of the shotgun

SEMO ran for 168 vs Nicholls and passed for 304 for 472...Nicholls managed 50 rush and 249 pass for 299....4 SEMO receivers had 60+....Redhawks were 8/13 on 3rd down and 1/1 on 4th..Colonels were 4/13 and 2/2....SEMO was 5/6 on redzone scores and Nicholls 3/3....SEMO also blocked a PAT

Attendance at home vs Nicholls was only 3500.....

https://semoredhawks.com/facilities/houck-field/20

Houck Field seats 10,000....opened in 1930....record attendance vs UTM in 2010 with 11,126....which is also the last time over 10,000....avg 3500 in 2021 ..highest was home opener vs #7 SIU....

Redhawks have a proud football tradition with recent accomplishments of note....see some excerpts as follow plus the full bio at link below:

https://semoredhawks.com/sports/football/roster/coaches/tom-matukewicz/2649

"Tom Matukewicz begins his ninth year as the Redhawks head coach in 2022. He guided his teams to one Ohio Valley Conference title (2019), two NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Playoff appearances (2018, 2019) and the school’s only FCS Playoff win (2018). Matukewicz has seven wins over nationally-ranked FCS opponents, most of any head coach in SEMO history. Additionally, he holds the most wins (41) and OVC victories (33) of any head coach during the school’s NCAA Division I era.

SEMO put together four-straight winning seasons in OVC play, another program first for Matukewicz. The Redhawks put together back-to-back nine-win campaigns for the first time in program history when they finished at 9-4 each of the 2018 and 2019 seasons. SEMO went a combined 12-1 at home over that span, as well.

A year ago, the Redhawks tied for second in the OVC with a 4-2 record marking the third time in the last four seasons where they finished either first or second in the league standings.

"SEMO led the OVC in kick returns (25.7 ypr), fourth down conversions (10-of-15, 66.7 pct.), opponent fourth down conversions (10-of-23, 43.5, pct.), red zone offense (33-of-33, 1.00 pct.) and red zone defense (31-of-40, 77.5 pct.). The Redhawks led the FCS in red zone offense as one of only two teams in the country that converted all of its chances inside the 20-yard line.

The Redhawks also ranked second among OVC leaders in rushing offense (195.1 ypg), punting (38.8 ypp), PAT kicking (36-of-37, 97.3 pct.) and turnover margin (+6).

In a challenging year brought on by a global COVID-19 pandemic, SEMO finished its abbreviated 2020 season with an overall record of 4-4 and took fourth in the OVC with a 4-3 mark."

{Interesting tidbit.... SEMO's defensive line coach Jerone Steckel played at Eastern Illinois and was the roommate of a guy named Jimmy Garoppolo which means he probably played vs UCA when the Panthers and Bears played a few years back.....he is the adopted son of former Mizzou long time defensive coach who preceded Petrino as head coach at Mo State....oddly, EIU's head coach at the time was Kim Dameron (Rogers native and played for Hogs) who now coaches at Ft Smith Southside who plays at Rogers this Friday night....Steckel also played HS ball in St Louis very near where I used to live.....}

SEMO's upperclassmen summary....

TE: one SR 6'5 261

OL: 5 SR (avg 6'3 300, largest 330) + one JR 6'5 303 + one grad transfer 6'4 309
Two of the SRs are transfers from Fresno State

DL: 2 SR 6'2 300 + one JR 6'1 289

LB: 4 SR (avg 6'2 235) + 3 JR (avg 6'2 227) + on Grad Student 6'2 214 from Northern Illinois.....also includes a couple community college transfers

DB: 4 SR 5'8-6'1 + one JR 6'1 202.....includes a couple community college transfers

Sounds pretty even with UCA....however, OL looks to have more depth as does DBs...they have LOTS of freshmen on the roster also....hoping temp is not terribly high Sat afternoon at The Cape as Bears will be busy with a no huddle hurry up offense that throws the ball around a LOT....Bears would need to ground out yards and first downs and run clock to help defense...

Current weather forecast is mid 80s for high, partly cloudy with 15-20mph winds and a pretty good chance for light showers....

UCA record vs SEMO.....7-7-1 with 4-3 at Conway and 3-4-1 at The Cape ...first game in 1953 and most recent in 1986 (13-9 win under Coach Horton)....the only game I have been at was 1978 at The Cape where Bears lost 0-16....muggy night and we just had no luck getting much offense...still ended season at 9-2 and the NAIA playoffs (under Coach Stephens)...

Looking forward to a great game. We demolished our stadium last year and just started the rebuild of our new stadium which will be built in four phases. All we have this year is temporary seating for a few thousand people.

Nice re the stadium.....our radio team said they understand they will be offsite calling the game....

Should be a good test for both teams....your win over SIU is impressive....no one voluntarily goes to play at Ames without a big paycheck...not sure what is going on at Nicholls now that we are no longer in Southland...they are struggling....

Looks like our D-backs and LBs will have to be on their game with your passing attack....we are still figuring out our offense this season with 2 new QBs and loss of two AA level WRs....felt we could have won over Mo State had we had a decent first have but offense just not settled enough until mid Q3,,,,...we had no chance at Oxford with early miscues....Better at Pocatello last week but Idaho State is not SEMO....if it like most UCA games it is a mad scramble in Q4...Go Bears!!

I watched your game with Missouri St. It was a good game (as I expected). It just took you guys to long to get your offense going.

Our radio team will be off site also. I think it will be like that all year.

I know it's still early in the year but I think this just might be the best offense, barring injuries, we've had since moving to DI. We have a very good and veteran offensive line (they gave up 0 sacks against Iowa St.). An All American running back with a good backup. Two wide receivers (6'4" 206lb Johnny King and 6'2" 197lb. Ryan Flournoy) that every Pro scout that comes to practice is asking about. They are backed up by three other solid wide receivers. But the biggest surprise this year (BY Far) is the play of our transfer QB Paxton Delaurent (6'5" 215lb). He has a good accurate arm, stays cool under pressure and can tuck it and run to get out of trouble.

The defense is where we've had some problems. We lost 6 defensive starters during the Iowa St. game. We are still banged up on defense. But on the bright side that has forced us to play more players building depth for latter in the year.

I think this is a very important game for both teams. I've had it circled since our schedule first came out. I've never understood why we haven't played each other lately. It would be a good OOC game for both schools. Can
t wait for game time. Weather should be fairly warm, mid 80's

Agree as to SEMO and UCA being logical OOC opponents....I think we should play Mo State and SEMO every few years at least as it is a fan friendly trip for all the fan bases.....plus all are solid FCS programs that get decent ranking respect....our schedule is pretty packed for the next few years for FCS OOC including a couple games with North Dakota State.....but never know what ADs can work out where there is a will..

Hoping for a good game tomorrow and a Bear win....sounds like you do also except for a Redhawk win....we may have to hope we can run clock and score with our run game....our past success with heavy pass no huddle offenses has not been pleasant as SE Louisiana often wore us out....Go Bears!!

Sigh. This is not UCA football.

i’ve never seen more horrendous special teams than what nathan brown has. we do not play sound football. i cant believe we are settling for this mediocre BS.

where is the outrage? it doesn’t matter how good the opponent is, you still don’t have to beat yourself

One yard of rushing in the first half ? Good Gosh!!!!

This is pretty cool, heard the coaching staff and players are getting an NIL deal from charmin extra extra soft!

Go get an actual coach and coaching staff

And add an athletic director to the list as well.

Clean the damn house out......

Disappointing to lose the way it came about....hard to believe SEMO held us to only 16 yards rush......sounded like we just got beat on the LOS....could not stop their RB and we could not run....still with those troubles the 97yd KOR was the difference...2nd time this year ..got to get kick coverage team squared away asap.....troubling that we missed a block like in Mo State game where McElvain got sacked and lost the ball for the scoop and score.....

McElvain had a good game passing and Kylin James had a superb game running, throwing and catching....we got a lot of receivers into the action and we had success throwing to RBs....defense held Redhawks offense to 21 points in spite of not being able to stop Hess....