Young SEMO LB carries high expectations into 'War for the Wheel' game
Southeast Missourian file
The handful of fans that can attend the Southeast Missouri State football game at Southern Illinois more than likely won’t be focused on the play of Redhawk inside linebacker Mike Matthews. However, the SEMO coaches certainly will be due to the sophomore’s playing a critical role in how successful the Redhawk defense executes.
SEMO will open its 2020-2021 season Friday at 6 p.m. against the Salukis in the annual ‘War for the Wheel’ game.
The Redhawks will conclude their eight-game regular season with seven Ohio Valley Conference games in the spring.
“He is wise beyond his years,” seventh-year Redhawk coach Tom Matukewicz said of Matthews. “He is extremely intelligent. Our ‘Mike’ (middle linebacker) makes all of the checks, so he is the Zach Hall now.”
The shadow of Hall, who graduated last spring as the second-most productive tackler in SEMO history, looms large over the current group of Redhawk linebackers.
Heck, for that matter, so does the legacy of the graduated Justin Swift.
Hall and Swift combined for 217 tackles a year ago, which will create a lot of opportunities for Matthews and his fellow ‘backers this season.
“His intelligence,” Matukewicz continued, “along with his athleticism, gives him the best chance to make a lot of plays.”
Even in a reserve role as a true freshman in 2019, Matthews “made a lot of plays.”
He totaled 24 tackles, one of which was for a loss and had a pair of quarterback hurries.
In comparison, Hall had 36 tackles as a true freshman, but Hall wasn’t playing behind two guys of the football stature of himself and Swift like Matthews had to.
Matukewicz explained that Matthews’ ability – pre-snap – to get the SEMO defenders in the right position allows his teammates, as well as himself, “to play faster.”
“It allows the people around him to play faster,” Matukewicz said. “The louder his communication, the quicker that it happens, then everybody else gets their eyes and feet set and they can play faster.”
Matukewicz opining that Matthews “is wise beyond his years” is founded on the fact that Matthews really wasn’t a “true freshman” last fall, in a sense.
Matthews graduated a semester early in January of 2019 from Jack Britt High School (Fayetteville, N.C.), which allowed him to receive eight months of college strength training, including 15 spring practices, by Week One of last season.
“I expect to see a lot from him,” Redhawk defensive coordinator Bryce Saia said of Matthews. “He has been in the system for over a year now. He’s actually not a true sophomore.”
That development showed last fall, as Matthews became more productive with each passing week.
After making two tackles in his first collegiate game at Montana State, he had just one or two tackles in each of his next four games. However, in November games against Eastern Kentucky and at Eastern Illinois, Matthews exploded onto the scene with six tackles in each of those Redhawk victories.
“He’s long and loose,” Saia said. “He has good instincts. I expect a lot of good things from him.”
Matthews (6-foot-1, 236 pounds) is projected to start inside alongside ‘Will’ linebacker Brandon Mincey (senior, 6-foot, 230), while veteran Omardrick Douglas (‘Star’ linebacker, 5th-year senior, 6-foot-3, 221) and Bryant Pirtle (‘Rush’ linebacker, graduate student, 6-foot-2, 227) will form the rest of the linebacking corps.