SEMO Redhawks move up in the college football polls

CAPE GIRARDEAU Mo. (KBSI) – Red and black are packing the house and traveling well.

SEMO students, staff, and parents are excited for the first day of fall and football season as they load up in their cars and travel to their local rivalry this weekend at Saluki Stadium in Carbondale.

SIUC was originally at #7 on the Stats Perform Media and American Football Coaches Association polls and because of SEMO’s victory against SIUC they moved up to #13 in the polls.

Philip Francis is a second-year graduate student at SEMO who went to the game against Carbondale.

“How I felt driving away from Carbondale into the sea of Missouri license plates we were driving away all in pride together.”

Francis has been a student for six years at SEMO and due to wins like this his Redhawk pride grows more and more every year.

“My pride in SEMO is just growing and growing and growing so the number of shirts I have collected. You should see the red and black I wear all the time, and I bought a truck that is red, and somebody said of course you would have a truck that’s Semo red.”

Francis says throughout his years of being at SEMO this is the most hype the school has during the fall for football season.

He has seen the dedication in student athletes increase as they are always working whether it’s in the classroom, on the field, or selling Redhawk merchandise.

“I have seen a lot of them spent time in the summer and see them working in the summer for their camps and just moving forward and their shirts brick by brick and keep moving forward I mean all the things that they’ve worked towards and the pride that they all have for this campus and for the Redhawks is just great and so they’re working towards success.”

Jordan Foye is a senior at SEMO. He says he has noticed the hard work the team puts in as they improve every year. 

“I would definitely say that the football team has improved. I haven’t been to that many games but the games that I have been to have gotten better since the last time I watched them.”

SEMO is among the top 15 football championship teams in the nation for the first time since last September of 2023.

They are #15 in AFCA coaches’ poll and #13 in Stats Perform Media Poll.

“I definitely see that they are very dedicated to winning and really just represent SEMO and really looking forward to seeing what they’re going to do.”

The Redhawks gave their head coach Tom Matukewicz his ninth win over a ranked opponent and fourth victory over a top 10 team.

No coach in SEMO history has more victories over top 10 ranked opponents.

SEMO football is now 3-1 overall and 1-0 in their conference.

The next SEMO Football game will be at home Houck Stadium for family weekend against Northwestern State University. 

Kick off for the game will start at 3 p.m.