Southeast Missouri won the War for the Wheel game this fall, its annual trophy rivalry contest with Southern Illinois. (Photo by GoLeathernecks.com)
By Barry Bottino
Southeast Missouri has played Southern Illinois, a regional rival, 92 times since 1909.
The Redhawks and Eastern Illinois have met every season but once since 1995 as conference foes.
But when SEMO (9-3) hosts No. 12 seed Illinois State (9-3) in the first round of the FCS playoffs Saturday, it will be the first time ever that the Redhawks have played all four Illinois FCS teams in the same season.
Prairie State Pigskin gathered insights from Eastern Illinois head coach Chris Wilkerson, Southern Illinois head coach Nick Hill and Western Illinois head coach Joe Davis, who went a combined 0-6 against the two playoff qualifiers, in advance of Saturday’s game.
Along with highly productive offenses, both teams have head coaches with vast defensive experience in ISU’s Brock Spack and SEMO’s Tom Matukewicz.
Illinois State is 8-3 all-time against SEMO, but 1-2 in the last three meetings since 2000. The last time the two teams played, in the 2019 postseason, James Robinson rushed for 297 yards and a touchdown as the Redbirds won, 24-6.
This season, Western joined SEMO and EIU in the Big South-Ohio Valley Conference Football Association and faced the Redhawks for only the second time ever – and first since 1944, when WIU was Macomb Teachers College.
Here’s what the coaches had to say:
The offenses
As a longtime quarterback coach and offensive coordinator before taking over at WIU, Davis understands the importance of the QB.
“Any time you qualify for the playoffs, that’s where it starts, at that position,” he said.
Senior Paxton DeLaurent is a three-year starter for SEMO who is the Big South-OVC Offensive Player of the Year and was named this week as a finalist for the Walter Payton Award, given annually to the best player in FCS. He has broken four school records this season, including passing yardage (3,520) and completions (320). He is currently tied for the record for touchdown passes (29).
“I’ve watched Paxton now for three years,” said Davis, the former EIU offensive coordinator. “He makes their whole offense go. Their offense is a little more quarterback-driven, meaning Paxton has a lot of freedom in that system. A big key for SEMO this year has been that they’ve been able to keep him healthy and in the saddle for the better part of 12 weeks.”
Wilkerson added: “He’s extremely accurate and gets the ball out of his hand very quickly. I’m sure he’ll see some different looks this week. If he can beat the ISU pressure with accurate throws, SEMO will have a great shot.”
When SEMO beat SIU, 38-21, earlier this season, the Redhawks were 6-for-11 on third down.
“He picked up some big third downs and they quickly took the momentum back,” Hill said.
Junior Tommy Rittenhouse is a first-year starter for the Redbirds and has taken control of what began this season as a two-quarterback system. He completes 67% of his passes and has thrown 14 touchdowns and only six interceptions. Rittenhouse is also adept as a runner. He’s second on the team in rushing with 424 yards and has eight TDs on the ground.
“Tommy is a cool story in that he was recruited to Illinois State, he stayed and served as a backup and stepped in and played a little as a young guy,” Davis said. “Now he has really embraced being a starting quarterback. He’s gotten better and better every single week. He doesn’t make many errors.”
Rittenhouse’s feet are also can be a major weapon. He ran for a career-best 128 yards against Murray State this season and broke off a 71-yard TD run against North Alabama.
Hill compared Rittenhouse to record-setting former Saluki QB Nic Baker.
“He plays with a good competitive spirit and he’ll run around and make plays,” Hill said. “He does a good job with some timely zone reads and pulling the football (from the running back). He also does a good job giving his receivers opportunities to make plays.”
Wilkerson called Rittenhouse “very underrated. His ability to move the chains and take care of the football will be critical.”
For both teams, the receivers are highly productive.
Junior Daniel Sobkowicz battled through injuries early in the season and now leads the team with 63 catches, 861 yards and eight touchdowns. Kansas State transfer Xavier Loyd has 60 catches for 853 yards and five touchdowns.
“Loyd and Sobkowicz fit more with Rittenhouse,” Davis said. “They run the right routes. They’re at the right depths. They’re very consistent. They’re very solid.”
SEMO boasts a three-pronged attack with 5-11 sophomore Cam Pedro (73 catches, 748 yards, four TDs), 6-foot-5 junior Tristan Smith (66-795-5) and 6-7 senior Dorian Anderson (63-930-10).
The pairing of Smith and Anderson has caused issues for a number of SEMO opponents.
“They are massive receivers and can go up and get the ball,” Davis said. “We had guys in great position a few times and they were just taller. It’s like dumping the ball in the post to a power forward in basketball who just goes up and gets it. That makes it a little bit of a different challenge for Illinois State.”
Up front, ISU again has put together another productive season running the ball, averaging more than 175 yards a game on the ground.
“If ISU can establish the run and get Rittenhouse going with his feet, it might open up the passing game,” Wilkerson said. “Their offensive line and tight ends are strong and physical. They anchor a strong running game fueled by Wenkers Wright.”
When the Redbirds lost all-conference running back Mason King to a season-ending knee injury against Iowa, Wright stepped in and produced a 1,000-yard season.
SEMO, meanwhile, has had numerous injuries at running back and tight end, causing some late-season struggles.
True freshman Peyton Brown leads the team with 307 yards and five TDs, but he will back up junior Brandon Epton Jr. this weekend. Epton has played in five games, averaging 38 yards per game.
The defenses
The teams come from different states and different conferences, but Davis said they tend to look alike defensively.
“There’s actually a lot of schematic similarities between both defenses in terms of how they jump in and out of different fronts and play a lot of variations of man coverages,” he said. “Both defenses provide some significant challenges to the offenses in this game.”
The two middle linebackers – Illinois State sophomore Tye Niekamp and SEMO senior Bryce Norman – provide leadership by example.
“They are very physical players,” Davis said. “They know the defense inside and out. They know the calls. They get people aligned correctly.”
Norman (126 tackles, 13.5 TFLs) was the Big South-OVC Defensive Player of the Year while Niekamp (99 tackles, 10.5 TFLs) was this week’s Missouri Valley Football Conference Defensive Player of the Week for the second time this season.
“Both teams pride themselves on physical and mental toughness and that starts up front,” Wilkerson said. “Both teams are big and physical. Niekamp in the middle and (senior LB Amir) Abdullah on one of the edges cause problems for most teams.”
Abdullah was a preseason All-America selection who missed seven games after sustaining a knee injury in the season opener at Iowa.
While Wilkerson recognizes the impact of Norman and SEMO’s defensive front, he said “I think their strength lies in their secondary. (Senior strong safety) Khalani Riddick and (grad student free safety) Ty Leonard do a great job fitting the run and covering the pass.”
Riddick (82 tackles, five pass breakups) is also an all-conference return man, while Leonard leads the team with six PBUs and four interceptions.
ISU’s secondary also features two veteran starting safeties in Keondre Jackson (85 tackles) and Dillon Gearhart (65).
The coaches
Both Spack and Matukewicz have deep Illinois ties and long backgrounds on the defensive side of the ball.
Spack is in his 16th season at Illinois State and is the school’s winningest all-time head coach. He was an assistant at Eastern Illinois early in his career and recruited Wilkerson out of Indianapolis to play defensive line for the Panthers.
“Both coaches get their teams to execute at a high level and play with great physical toughness,” Wilkerson said. “This should be an exciting matchup.”
Davis added: “Coach Spack is the dean of all of us Illinois coaches. I think he’s a model of consistency. Illinois State is as good as anybody in the country at our level at getting good transfers. Two really good coaches will be going at it, no doubt about it.”
Matukewicz was an assistant coach at Southern Illinois and Northern Illinois under Jerry Kill. At SIU, he developed linebacker Bart Scott, who went on to an NFL career.
Matukewicz’s impact at Southern is still felt today, thanks to Hill. The two teams play annually for the War for the Wheel trophy.
Each year, Hill said he asks players to bring their cell phones into a team meeting.
He encourages them to text a family member, friend or former coach who impacted their lives.
“I text Coach Tuke,” Hill said earlier this season. “I love Coach Tuke as a person. He coached me. I saw how hard that staff worked. We play each other and we’re competitive, but he’s been a real mentor of mine.”
This season’s scores
Sept. 14: Illinois State 51, Western Illinois 34
Sept. 21: Illinois State 31, Eastern Illinois 7
Sept. 21: SEMO 38, Southern Illinois 21
Oct. 5: Illinois State 45, Southern Illinois 10
Oct. 5: SEMO 38, Eastern Illinois 27
Nov. 16: SEMO 54, Western Illinois 45
Barry Bottino is a co-founder of Prairie State Pigskin and a 19-year veteran of three Illinois newspapers. He has covered college athletics since 1995.
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