Southeast Missouri State University student publication

Coach Tom Matukewicz signs second class

Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Southeast football coach Tom Matukewicz addressing media at the Knox Media Center inside Houck Field House. Photo by Sean Burke

All college football team's aspirations to become a championship caliber program began on Feb. 4, which was National Signing Day, and the Southeast Missouri State football team added 26 players on that day.

All 26 of these future Redhawk football players signed their National Letter of Intent before noon.

Eleven of the recruits were from Missouri and 15 were out of state.

"It's an exciting day," Southeast coach Tom Matukewicz said. "This morning we celebrated my daughter turning 8, so this was double duty here. This is a day that all coaches are really looking forward to because you work your tail end off to put together a great class because it's the lifeblood of any program, obviously. We come in and instituted a recruiting model, and we've stuck to it."

This is Matukewicz's second recruiting class after signing his first class last year when he added 22 players to the roster, which was highlighted by inside linebacker Hunter Bledsoe and wide receiver Adrian Davis.

This year's recruiting class has two quarterbacks, two running backs, four wide receivers, one tight end, four offensive lineman, two defensive linemen, four linebackers and a position-high seven defensive backs.

There are a total of nine defensive backs currently on the roster with two starters expected back next season in cornerback, JJ Flye and strong safety Eriq Moore.

Matukewicz and his staff focused on signing athletes who could play right away and added that the team's secondary is depleted.

"I didn't get a seven-year contract, I got three years left on this thing and we've got to win," Matukewicz said. "When that [senior] class went out, we had a lot of empty classes. We signed more junior college players than I normally will. I'm a junior college product, so I'll always recruit some of those kids, but we had to fill in some of these empty classes that we've had and just get more depth."

Southeast lost five defensive backs from last year's secondary, which included All-Ohio Valley Conference second-team cornerback Tim Hamm-Bey and three-year starting cornerback Reggie Jennings.

Out of the seven defensive backs in this year's class, four of them played at a junior college prior to signing with Southeast.

Two of the defensive backs signed, Taron Divens and Jamarl Holloway, were teammates at Pearl River Community College in Poplarville, Mississippi.

Southeast will be without last year's starting quarterback Kyle Snyder and senior Alex Niznak will run with the starting offense come spring, but Matukewicz feels that competition is needed at the quarterback position heading into next season.

One of the quarterbacks that was signed in this year's recruiting class is Tavarius "Tay" Bender, who previously played at Iowa Western Community College and went 22-2 as the starting quarterback.

Before attending Iowa Western, Bender originally was enrolled at Kansas State and was the second-string quarterback in its spring game in 2012.

Bender led Iowa Western to the NJCAA national championship game last season by throwing for 1,192 passing yards with 25 touchdowns and nine interceptions. He also scored four touchdowns on 82 carries.

"We knew about him in June," Matukewicz said. "We didn't think that we could touch him. In our off week, before we played Tennessee Tech, his offers weren't stuff that I feel like we couldn't compete with, and that's when it really started at that point. Matt Martin went to visit him and then I flew up there [after the season] to visit with him and his family. We know a lot about him, and I'm very fortunate that he's on our team."

Matukewicz added that Bender is a very athletic quarterback who runs a 4.50 40-yard dash and is a Bowl Championship Series type of player.

Southeast will also be without its two starting offensive tackles from last season, which were Corey Porter and Kyle Finney.

The rest of the starting offensive lineman will return for next season, but Matukewicz went out and signed three offensive linemen that are over 6 feet 5 inches tall.

"On the offensive line we didn't have a kid over 6-5, and we signed three of them this year. Just the fact that you've got to have the frame so you can put that 300 pounds on there and still be quick. ... All three were in a padded camp, we have padded camps. A lot of kids come and were a bunch of lingerie and run a 40-[yard dash]. Well that's not what football is, it's not a cross country race. There's a physicalness to it, and that's why we have padded camps."

One of the offensive lineman signed is Drew Forbes out of Bonne Terre, Missouri, who was a two-sport athlete at North County High School.

"Drew Forbes came in -- I saw him in camp, and I went and watched a football game live. He scores about 15 points a game on the basketball court. Physically he can, but there's a big jump going from high school to college. [We'll] see how he handles that jump and learns the playbook and stays healthy, but we didn't give him a full scholarship to not play."

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