The 2013 campaign marks the eighth year at Southeast Missouri for head coach Tony Samuel.
Southeast has become one of the more dominant rushing teams in the Ohio Valley Conference and Football Championship Subdivision in recent years with Samuel at the helm.
The Redhawks led the OVC and ranked among the top-10 in the FCS in that category each of the last three seasons. Southeast averaged 262.4 yards per game as the nation’s No. 8 rushing team in 2012.
Southeast also had the OVC Defensive Player of the Year (Blake Peiffer) and OVC Freshman of the Year (Scott Lathrop) last season. It was the first time the Redhawks garnered those awards in the same year under Samuel. Southeast also secured its second OVC Team Sportsmanship Award.
This fall, Samuel will coach the first NCAA football game at Busch Stadium when his Redhawks take the field against longstanding rival Southern Illinois on Sept. 21.
In 2010, Samuel guided Southeast to its best NCAA Division I season.
Southeast flipped a 2-9 record from 2009 to a 9-3 mark in 2010 after being picked to finish eighth in the OVC Preseason Poll. The Redhawks also finished 7-1 in OVC play en route to their first-ever conference title and NCAA Playoff appearance in the 107-year history of their football program.
Samuel, who won the Sports Network Eddie Robinson, Fritz Pollard, Roy Kidd OVC and American Football Coaches Association Region 3 Coach of the Year awards, orchestrated one of the most remarkable turnarounds in Football Championship Subdivision history.
The Redhawks were a Top-25 team for the last nine weeks of the season and achieved their highest national ranking when they were voted seventh in the Nov. 8 Sports Network Poll.
As Samuel will attest, Southeast’s magical journey into the national spotlight kicked into high gear when the Redhawks overcame an 18-point third-quarter deficit to stun then-No. 5 Southern Illinois on the road. It was a victory that sent shock waves through the FCS.
“It was a huge win for our program and definitely the biggest since I’ve been at Southeast,” said Samuel. “The most gratifying thing was seeing the looks on our players’ faces in the locker room after that game. From that point on, I knew our season was going to be something special.”
Samuel coached four All-Americans (Henry Harris, Frank Knights, Tylor Brock, Sean Middleton), 10 All-Conference selections (Harris, Knights, Middleton, Brock, Matt Scheible, Bryan Curry, Evan Conrad, J.J. Sanchez, Justin Woodlief, Joshua Jackson), one Academic All-American (Sanchez), the OVC Offensive Player of the Year (Harris) and FCS Rimington Award-Winner (Middleton) during the historic 2010 campaign.
In addition, the Redhawks ranked among the top-five teams in the nation in sacks allowed (1st, 0.50/game), least interceptions thrown (t1st, 3), rushing offense (3rd, 265.1 ypg), fourth-down efficiency (3rd, 72.2 pct.), interceptions (4th, 20), third-down efficiency (5th, 47.3 pct.) and turnover margin (5th, 1.08).
Samuel’s dazzling success certainly didn’t go un-noticed.
A school record average of 8,342 fans turned out to watch Southeast at home in 2010, an improvement from 5,835 in 2009. That included two crowds over the Houck Stadium capacity of 10,000, with a school record home crowd of 11,126 vs. UT Martin.
Increased football attendance generated a positive economic effect as local hotels and restaurants filled up with fans.
The resurgence also gave retailers of team apparel a major boost.
More importantly, Samuel’s Redhawks landed in the national media, bringing plenty of noteriety to the city of Cape Girardeau and surrounding areas.
Southeast, which was one of 15 FCS teams with nine or more wins in 2010, saw its storybook season come to an end when it fell to eventual National Champion Eastern Washington in the second round of the NCAA Playoffs.
Two months after the monumental 2010 campaign, Samuel signed a five-year contract extension to remain Southeast’s head coach through Mar. 31, 2016.
Along with Samuel’s new contract extension came several facility upgrades. New lighting, FieldTurf, goalposts and a state-of-the-art Daktronics video scoreboard were installed prior to the 2011 season. Renovated locker rooms, meeting rooms, coaches offices and athletic training areas at the Rosengarten Complex were also part of the renovation project.
Samuel, the ninth head coach in Southeast football history, was named to the position on Dec. 21, 2005.
In his first seven years at Southeast, Samuel coached seven All-Americans, 16 First-Team All-OVC selections, one Academic All-American, one OVC Offensive Player of the Year, one OVC Defensive Player of the Year, one OVC Freshman of the Year, five OVC All-Newcomer picks and one Rimington Award winner.
Samuel also coached Edgar Jones, who played five seasons for the Baltimore Ravens and is currently with the Kansas City Chiefs. Jones is one of three former Southeast players presently active in the NFL.
Samuel has coached at the NCAA Division I level for 31 years, working 16 seasons as an assistant coach and 15 as a head coach.
He made stops at Western Michigan, Stanford, Nebraska, New Mexico State and Purdue before taking over at Southeast.
Samuel spent the bulk of his coaching career on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States.
A graduate of the University of Nebraska, Samuel both played and coached football at his alma mater.
He coached the linebacker and rush end positions under legendary head coach Tom Osborne for 11 seasons (1986-96). Samuel mentored six First-Team All-Americans and 12 future NFL players. Nebraska won two National Championships (1994, 1995), captured seven Big Eight/Big 12 Conference titles and played in 11 bowl games over that span.
As a player, Samuel was a member of Osborne’s first recruiting class at Nebraska. He was a two-year starter at defensive end and played in four bowl games, including the Sugar, Fiesta, Astro Bluebonnet and Liberty Bowls. Samuel earned honorable mention All-Big Eight honors as a senior in 1977.
Samuel and four other members of his coaching staff have ties to the University of Nebraska.
Samuel went on to be the head coach at New Mexico State from 1997-2004, where he presently stands as the third-winningest coach in school history with 57 victories.
New Mexico State went 6-5 in 1999, recording its first winning season since 1992 and only its third in 32 years.
In 2002, Samuel’s Aggie squad posted a 7-5 mark which represented the most wins in a season since 1967.
His teams won the Rio Grande Championship twice, and he led the Aggies to an undefeated home record in 2002. Samuel was instrumental in leading the 2003 New Mexico State squad to a No. 13 ranking in graduation rates among all NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly I-A) programs (76 percent).
Samuel then spent one year as the defensive ends coach at Purdue University (2005) before accepting the head coaching job at Southeast. In 2011, Samuel made his first trip back to Purdue with the Redhawks.
While at Purdue, Samuel coached Rob Ninkovich, the team’s Most Valuable Player and Second-Team All-Big Ten defensive end. Ninkovich is now with the New England
Patriots.
In all, Samuel coached 16 players who have played in the NFL during his career. Among those are four first-round draft picks, including Mike Croel (Denver Broncos, 1991), Trev Alberts (Indianapolis Colts, 1994), Grant Wistrom (St. Louis Rams, 1998) and Broderick Thomas (Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 1999). Samuel has coached a total of 14 players drafted in the NFL.
Samuel received his undergraduate degree in education from Nebraska in 1981. He was elected to the American Football Coaches Association Board of Trustees in 2002.
Samuel is a native of Trinidad, West Indies, and moved to Jersey City, N.J. at the age of 10. He and his wife, Diane, have four children, Travis, Serena, Phillip and Terryn, and one grandaughter, Madalyn.
