Southeast Missouri (1-3) at UT Martin (0-4)

Game Information
Date: Saturday, September 27, 2025
Kickoff: 6 p.m., CT
Location: Martin, Tenn.
Facility: Hardy M. Graham Stadium (7,500)
Surface: Field Turf
Series: Tied, 20-20
Last Meeting: SEMO 45, UTM 42 (2OT) | 9/7/24 | Cape Girardeau, Mo.
Last Meeting in Martin: UTM 41, SEMO 14 | 11/11/23

Head Coaches
Southeast Missouri: Tom Matukewicz (65-66 overall; 64-66 at SEMO; 47-32 OVC-Big South)
UT Martin: Jason Simpson (124-95 overall; 124-95 at UTM; 93-50 OVC-Big South)

Follow the Redhawks
Video: ESPN+ 
Live Stats: UTMSports.com
Radio: Real Rock 99.3 FM (Erik Sean, Rick Wieser)
X: @SEMOfootball
Game Notes: Southeast Missouri (PDF) 

Conference Play Begins
•    Southeast Missouri (1-3) starts its eight-game Ohio Valley Conference-Big South Association slate at UT Martin (0-4) Saturday. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m., CT at Hardy M. Graham Stadium.
•    Saturday marks SEMO's final night game of the season. This will be the fourth night game in five contests for the Redhawks.
•    SEMO and UTM were among four teams that shared the 2024 OVC-Big South crown along with Tennessee Tech and Tennessee State.
•    The Skyhawks and Redhawks were picked second and third in this year's OVC-Big South Preseason Poll, respectively.
•    Tennessee Tech, which is presently 3-0, is the OVC-Big South preseason favorite.

Series History
•    Southeast Missouri and UT Martin, schools located less than two hours apart, meet for the 41st time in 2025.
•    The all-time series, which began in 1966, is deadlocked at 20-20.
•    SEMO is 11-8 against UTM in Cape Girardeau and 9-12 against the Skyhawks in Martin.
•    The Redhawks won five of the last seven meetings between the teams.
•    The home team won each of the last four matchups of the series.
•    Tom Matukewicz is 6-5 against UTM as SEMO's head coach.
•    SEMO last beat the Skyhawks in Martin on Apr. 3, 2021 (21-16) during the COVID-19 spring campaign.

OVC-Big South Openers
•    The Redhawks are 14-19 all-time in Ohio Valley Conference-Big South Association openers.
•    SEMO is 9-2 in such games with Tom Matukewicz at the helm.
•    This year marks SEMO's 35th season as a member of the OVC-Big South.
•    The Redhawks open conference play against the Skyhawks for the fifth time in program history.

What a Game in 2024
•    Southeast Missouri battled back from a two-score deficit to force overtime and take down then-OVC-Big South preseason favorite UT Martin, 45-42, at Houck Field on Sept. 7, 2024.
•    Last year's slugfest featured 87 combined points, 12 touchdowns, two overtimes, five lead changes, five ties, three 100-yard receivers, two 250-yard passers and one 100-yard rusher.
•    Paxton DeLaurent threw for 376 yards and a SEMO single-game record six touchdowns and DC Pippin kicked the game-winning 37-yard field goal to key the victory.

Simpson and Matukewicz
•    UT Martin's Jason Simpson and Southeast Missouri's Tom Matukewicz are the longest tenured head coaches in the OVC-Big South Association.
•    Between them, there are a total of 32 years and 188 wins as head coaches.
•    Matukewicz has also won three OVC-Big South titles (2019, 2022, 2024), while Simpson has five league crowns (2006, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024).

Leatherwood Clears 1,000 Passing Yards
•    Jax Leatherwood is one of two quarterbacks in the Ohio Valley Conference-Big South Association with over 1,000 passing yards this season.
•    Leatherwood cleared that mark when he threw for a season-high 422 yards vs. #11 Southern Illinois (Sept. 20).
•    He leads the OVC-Big South with 1,064 passing yards through four starts.
•    Lindenwood's Nate Glantz (1,030) is the other OVC-Big South quarterback with over 1,000 passing yards this year.

Conference Success
•    Since 2018, Southeast Missouri has put together a record of 35-13 in conference games.
•    During that span, SEMO won three league titles (2019, 2022, 2024) and made the FCS Playoffs four times (2018, 2019, 2022, 2024).
•    The Redhawks finished with winning conference records six times and a .500 league record once in the last seven seasons.

Strong Start for Leatherwood
•    Jax Leatherwood is off to a nice start as Southeast Missouri's first-year starting quarterback.
•    Leatherwood completed 92-of-139 for 1,064 yards and seven touchdowns through four starts.
•    He recently threw for a season-high 422 yards against #11 Southern Illinois (Sept. 20).
•    Leatherwood ranks among the top 20 national leaders in completions per game (5th, 23), passing yards (7th, 1,064), passing yards per game (7th, 266), passing touchdowns (18th, 7) and total offense (20th, 266.5 ypg).

100-Yard Receivers
•    Kalvin Gilbert and Cam Pedro each went over 100 receiving yards against Southern Illinois (Sept. 20).
•    Gilbert finished with 125 yards on seven catches and Pedro had 105 yards and one touchdown on eight receptions.
•    It was Gilbert's first 100-yard receiving game of his career. 
•    For Pedro, it was his third 100-yard game as a Redhawk.

Big Performance
•    Jax Leatherwood's 422 passing yards against Southern Illinois (Sept. 20) marked the third-most in a single game in Southeast Missouri's program history.
•    Leatherwood's 422 yards rank behind Paxton DeLaurent (567 yards, vs. Illinois State on Nov. 30, 2024) and Jack Tomco (429 yards, at UT Martin on Oct. 12, 2002).

Sellout Crowd
•    Longtime rivals Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois played front of a sold out crowd of 8,050 at Houck Field on Sept. 20.
•    It marked SEMO's fifth home sellout against SIU in program history.
•    The 59 points scored by the Salukis were the most scored by either team in the series which includes 93 meetings between the teams since 1909.

Pedro Among National Leaders
•    Cam Pedro, who has caught a touchdown pass in three of four starts this season, ranks 20th in the Football Championship Subdivision with three receiving touchdowns.
•    Pedro also ranks 29th nationally with 5.5 receptions per game.
•    For the year, Pedro has 22 receptions for 294 yards as Southeast Missouri's leading receiver.

Red Zone Offense
•    Southeast Missouri leads the Football Championship in red zone offense four games into its 2025 campaign.
•    SEMO has scored on all nine of its opportunities in the red zone thus far.
•    The Redhawks scored 51 of their 99 points inside the 20-yard line.
•    Additionally, SEMO has not turned the ball over in the red zone in 14 of its last 15 games dating back to last season.

Leading Tackler
•    Safety Landon Sylvie leads the Redhawks with 38 tackles this season.
•    Sylvie became the first Redhawk to reach double-digit tackles when he posted a career-high 12 at Arkansas State (Aug. 30).
•    He followed that up with eight tackles the following week vs. North Alabama (Sept. 6), nine at #1 North Dakota State (Sept. 13) and nine vs. #11 Southern Illinois (Sept. 20).
•    Sylvie was SEMO's leading tackler in all four games this season.
•    He ranks 25th in the Football Championship Subdivision and second in the OVC-Big South in total tackles (38, 9.5 per game).

Kicking Strong
•    Kicker Justin Keller is Southeast Missouri's top scorer with 27 points.
•    Keller, a transfer from Coastal Carolina, is in his first season as the Redhawks starting kicker.
•    He scored a season-best 12 points on 3-of-3 field goals and 3-of-3 extra points vs. North Alabama (Sept. 6).
•    For the season, he is 5-of-7 on field goals and a perfect 12-of-12 on PATs.
•    Keller is 18th in the FCS with 1.25 field goals per game. He leads the OVC-Big South with five field goals made.

Net Worth
•    Southeast Missouri ranks eighth in the FCS in net punting with a 41.2 average.
•    First-year starting punter Ryan Kingston is third in the OVC-Big South and 27th in the nation in punting with an average of 43.3 yards per punt.
•    Kingston dropped five of his punts inside the 20-yard line. Four of his punts traveled 50 or more yards, including a season-long 56-yard punt at #1 North Dakota State (Sept. 13).

About UT Martin
•    UT Martin is 0-4 this season, currently one of two winless teams in the OVC-Big South along with Charleston Southern (0-4).
•    Three of those losses were against Football Bowl Subdivision members Oklahoma State (Aug. 28), UTEP (Sept. 6) and Missouri State (Sept. 20). UTM's other loss was to then-#14 Southern Illinois (Sept. 13).
•    The Skyhawks, picked one spot ahead of Southeast Missouri in this year's OVC-Big South Preseason Poll, won four-straight conference titles.
•    UTM leads the OVC-Big South in pass completion percentage (80-of-117, 68.4 pct.).