Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Football notes: Brandon Bourbon, Mitch Craft and William Moore

Potosi junior Brandon Bourbon could wind up at Mizzou in 2010 after all — word came today that couch Gary Pinkel made the offer this week for Brandon to join the Tigers as a running back. The Tigers join Kansas, Stanford, BYU and Harvard on the list of offers so far.

Among area seniors, Farmington teammates Andrew Huhman and Zach Oyler signed to play football in the fall at Missouri Valley College. They're among dozens of SEMO athletes who have signed with schools for the 2009-'10 season; the full list is here.

Mitch Craft, an all-state quarterback at Cape Girardeau Central who later played at Southern Mississippi, made his first start last week with the Acadiana Mudbugs of the new Southern Indoor Football League. Craft, playing as a linebacker with the new Louisiana-based team, had five solo tackles and three assists. The Mudbugs defeated Austin, Texas, 37-29.

• Hayti grad and Mizzou standout William Moore, who was picked by Atlanta in the second round of the NFL Draft on Saturday, became the second football player from Hayti to reach the pro level.

From Hayti historian Al Jackson: In 1961, G.W. Dean entered the pros when he signed with Toledo of the USFL; his career ended quickly after a knee injury during the exhibition season. At Hayti, Dean held rushing and scoring records after playing in just 17 varsity games; those records were later broken, but it took nearly twice as many games for it to happen.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Falcons pick Hayti's William Moore in NFL Draft

William Moore wanted Atlanta, and it looks like Atlanta wanted him.

Moore, an all-state safety from Hayti who played his final season at Mizzou back in the fall, was the 55th pick in the NFL Draft on Saturday. And before the Falcons ever said his name, Moore said he already felt Atlanta-bound.

"Everybody asked me where I’d love to go. I said Atlanta," he told the Alanta Journal-Constitution in a story published today. It’s like when I went to Missouri, I had the feeling, the players, the direction they’re headed. I know I can go in and make an instant impact.”

Read more of the AJC's story on Moore and his Mizzou days here.

And by the way, Moore is already angling to get to wear No. 25 at Atlanta — the same number he wore at Mizzou.

• With one Southeast Missouri athlete picked in one pro draft this year, another is likely to be picked in less than two months: Tyler Hansbrough of Poplar Bluff and the University of North Carolina is widely expected by NBA insiders to be a first-round or second-round selection. ESPN will broadcast the draft live from New York.

Monday, April 13, 2009

SEMO sets its 2009 football schedule

Southeast's football schedule is nearly firm for 2009, and the Redhawks are expected to make it official with an announcement soon.

Among the questions likely to come up before the season kicks off Sept. 5: Can Southeast find its defense, which went MIA for most of last season? Can the Redhawks keep focus on the game and out of the courts (case in point: Houston Lillard's public indecency charge)?

And maybe biggest question of all: Just how hot is that seat getting for coach Tony Samuel, whose teams have posted a combined three-year record of 11-23 — including last year's 4-8 season that included two wins in overtime. Will another 3- or 4-win season be enough to earn Samuel a fifth year leading the program?

This year's schedule highlights: an opener against Quincy University on Sept. 5, a payday game (likely worth $200,000 or more for Southeast) at Cincinnati on Sept. 12, and two final games at home against the Redhawks' biggest rivals — Nov. 14 against Murray State, and Nov. 21 against SIU-Carbondale.

None of this year's opponents are new to the schedule, but a couple haven't been around in a while. Southeast last played Quincy in 2001 (a 38-6 win), Southern Illinois in 2005 (a 58-23 loss), and Cincinnati in 2007 (a 59-3 loss).

The full schedule:

Sept. 5 — vs. Quincy
Sept. 12 — at Cincinnati
Sept. 19 — vs. Eastern Illinois
Sept. 26 — at UT-Martin
Oct. 3 — at Tennessee State
Oct. 10 — vs. Austin Peay
Oct. 17 — idle
Oct. 24 — at Tennessee Tech
Oct. 31 — at Eastern Kentucky
Nov. 7 — Jacksonville State
Nov. 14 — Murray State
Nov. 21 — SIU-Carbondale