Missouri-Southeast Missouri football preview

When/where: 3 p.m. Saturday at Memorial Stadium in Columbia

TV/radio: SEC Network Alternate; KMBZ (98.1 FM)

The series: Missouri leads 2-0

The line: n/a

MISSOURI (0-0, 0-0 SEC)

SOUTHEAST MISSOURI (0-0)

What’s at stake

Experience. That’s what this game is for, to get experience for the younger players and ease into the college football season. It’s inconceivable that Missouri would lose, but Southeast Missouri has enough skill-position talent on offense to provide a nice test.

Cheers if …

Missouri dominates, especially on offense. The Tigers, who are 14-0 against FCS opponents all time, didn’t exactly blow out South Dakota last year, putting up only 38 points. The only time Missouri has scored fewer points in 11 games against FCS competition under Gary Pinkel was a 37-0 victory in 2003 against Eastern Illinois.

Jeers if …

Missouri lets Southeast Missouri hang around deep into the second half. There is some talent on Redhawks’ roster, especially on offense, but the Tigers should be getting reps for backups by the middle of the third quarter.

Three things about Southeast Missouri

1 Senior wide receiver Paul McRoberts is a NFL-caliber talent. Several NFL teams made the trek to Cape Girardeau, Mo., to get eyes on McRoberts, who had 44 catches for 711 yards and nine touchdowns in only seven games last season. He missed five midseason games because of a Lisfranc fracture in his right foot.

2 Junior Tay Bender won the starting quarterback job in a hotly contested training camp battle. Bender, a transfer from Iowa Western Community College, started his career at Kansas State and was second on the spring depth chart in 2012. He led Iowa Western to a national championship appearance last fall.

3 Southeast Missouri’s second-year coach, Tom Matukewicz, shares coaching roots with Missouri’s Gary Pinkel. Matukewicz was Toledo’s defensive coordinator/linebackers coach from 2012 to 2013. Pinkel is the Rockets’ career coaching victory leader, going 73-37-3 from 1991 to 2000.

Key matchup

Missouri’s defensive line vs. Southeast Missouri’s offensive line: The Redhawks allowed only nine sacks in 12 games last season and return the interior of that line with left guard Garret Baker, center Jake McCandless and right guard Traven Mable. Meanwhile, the Tigers have rebuilt up front with new full-time starters at each position. It should be a nice battle in the trenches, especially for MU’s tackle rotation.

MISSOURI OFFENSE

MISSOURI DEFENSE

SOUTHEAST MISSOURI OFFENSE

SOUTHEAST MISSOURI DEFENSE

Tod Palmer’s pick: Missouri 49-9

Missouri has outscored its FCS opponents 543-93 in 11 games under coach Gary Pinkel. That’s an average margin of 49.4-8.5. Southeast Missouri isn’t without talent, but the Redhawks probably aren’t ready to knock off the back-to-back SEC East champs quite yet.

This story was originally published September 3, 2015 at 2:58 PM with the headline "Missouri-Southeast Missouri football preview."