It’s unlikely that any team is entering the FCS Playoffs as wounded and battered as the Montana Grizzlies, after their rival Montana State Bobcats took the College GameDay spotlight and bludgeoned the Griz with it to the tune of 439 rushing yards in a 55-21 win to close the regular season.
That wrapped a 7-4 season with no wins over ranked teams, but Montana’s name still popped up during the FCS selection show on Sunday — and, as they say, all you need to win is to have your name in the hat. The Grizzlies’ route to redemption will start with a night kickoff on Saturday against Southeast Missouri State at Washington-Grizzly Stadium in a game that will be broadcast nationally on ESPN2.
The Redhawks blitzed Murray State 52-22 on Saturday to finish the regular season 9-2. Despite a 5-0 conference record, they didn’t know they’d won the Ohio Valley Football Conference’s auto-bid to the playoffs until later that night, when a coin flip between SEMO and UT-Martin went SEMO’s way (both had finished with identical 5-0 conference records). Ironically, that coin flip might also have put the Griz into the playoffs. If UT-Martin had won the OVC’s auto-bid, the Redhawks would likely have taken an at-large spot ahead of Montana.
MASCOT: Redhawks. The teams at SEMO changed their names from the “Indians” in 2005.
LOCATION: Cape Girardeau, Missouri
FOUNDED: 1873
ENROLLMENT: 10,603
FAMOUS ALUMNI: Slim pickings. Cedric the Entertainer; Kerry Robinson, who features prominently in Buzz Bissinger’s book about the Tony La Russa Cardinals, “Three Nights in August”; Dan Connolly, who made second-team all-OVC four straight years before going on to to a solid career with the Patriots.
LAST MEETING: Saturday’s meeting will be the first between the two teams. SEMO lost 48-23 at Weber State in the FCS playoffs in 2018 and lost 38-17 to Montana State in September of 2019.
THE COACH
Tom Matukewicz (ninth season at SEMO, 50-51, 51-51 overall)
This is the third time Matukewicz has hit the nine-win mark in his nine seasons with the Redhawks. The other two were in back-to-back years in 2018 and 2019, which included the first (and still only) FCS playoff win in school history, a triumph over Stony Brook in 2018, as well as a conference title in 2019. They repeated the latter feat this year with a 5-0 run through the OVC, with their only losses a blowout to Iowa State in the season opener and a close, 28-23 loss to to ASUN/WAC auto-bid winner Eastern Kentucky.
Matukewicz got his first big break under former Minnesota and current New Mexico State head coach Jerry Kill, following Kill from Emporia State to Southern Illinois to Northern Illinois over the course of the 2000s. When Kill abandoned NIU for the Minnesota job, Matukewicz took over as the interim head coach and led the Huskies to a win in the 2010 Humanitarian Bowl, explaining the slight discrepancy between his SEMO and overall records above. He then spent one more year as the assistant at NIU before taking over as the defensive coordinator at Toledo for two years and picking up the head job for the Redhawks in 2014.
Matukewicz has now led SEMO to three of the four FCS Playoff appearances in school history. Two of the others ended with losses to Big Sky teams (Eastern Washington, 2010; Weber State, 2018).
PLAYERS TO WATCH – OFFENSE
RB Geno Hess (5-8, 222, Sr.)
Hess is a legit Walter Payton Award contender after back-to-back All-OVC selections entering the season, sitting third in the nation with 1,569 rushing yards (142.6 per game) and tied for first (with Sac State QB Asher O’Hara) with 19 touchdowns. He was the national player of the week last week with 327 total yards and four touchdowns against Murray State, and has 10 touchdowns in the last three games.
QB Paxton DeLaurent (6-5, 215, So.)
After two seasons at Central Methodist University, DeLaurent has been more than serviceable for the Redhawks in his debut season, with 2,407 yards (267.4 per game), 19 touchdowns and five interceptions. He’s missed SEMO’s last two games with a foot injury and appears to be questionable for Saturday. The backup is freshman Patrick Heitert, who’s thrown for 221, no touchdowns and a pick in the last two games as the Redhawks have leaned on Hess.
WR Ryan Flournoy (6-2, 197, Jr.)
With previous stops at Central Missouri and Iowa Western CC, Flournoy has emerged as half of a good receiver tandem for SEMO (Johnny King has 65 catches for 774 yards and six touchdowns). Flournoy stands out a little more as the big-play threat, with 50 catches for 823 yards and seven touchdowns. He had 15 for 256 and a score in the Redhawks’ only FCS loss to Eastern Kentucky.
PLAYERS TO WATCH – DEFENSE
LB Bryce Norman (6-0, 226, So.)
Norman was a Freshman All-American in 2021 and a preseason All-OVC selection in 2022, and has justified those picks by leading the Redhawks with 108 total tackles. No one else on the team has more than 76.
S Lawrence Johnson (6-0, 196, Sr.)
An all-around standout at strong safety, Johnson is second on the team in tackles (76), first in tackles for loss (7 1/2), tied for first in sacks (4) and first in pass breakups (8).
