Garrett leads the Redhawks in tackles with 96

The Southeast Missouri State football team's leading tackler, sophomore inside linebacker Roper Garrett, suffered a broken leg in a 33-21 loss at Eastern Kentucky on Oct. 25.

Garrett underwent surgery on Oct. 28 and will miss the remainder of the season.

"He is certainly out for the year," coach Tom Matukewicz said. "They felt good about his surgery. They didn't have to put in a plate, but they put some screws in to hold everything together."

As far as a timetable for a full recovery goes, that is still up in the air and the team is hoping to find out more about the extent of the injury in the coming week.

"It's six to eight weeks, but you don't really know," Matukewicz said. "About a week from now you have a good idea about how things are healing and they'll put a timeline on it."

Matukewicz remains positive despite the loss of Garrett, and has been pleased with Garrett's attitude following the season-ending injury.

"Well, I believe in everything happens for a reason," Matukewicz said. "You may not know the reason yet, but some day that reason will be revealed for you. You can take a victim mentality and complain, and say 'Why me?' and all this, or you could take the positive attitude, 'What can I learn from this and how can I come out of this a better person and a better player?' and that's exactly how he's handled it. He is a top shelf individual."

While Garrett's team has been there for support, Matukewicz said his parents have done all they can to be there for their son and credited them for the teammate and athlete Garrett has become.

"It starts with his parents, his parents came down and helped him through this, and he is going to be just fine. He has taken a great attitude towards it," Matukewicz said.

Erik Sean, the play-by-play announcer for the Redhawks, has been witness to every game Garrett has played since his career began last year. Sean believes it will be difficult for Southeast's defense to rebound after losing Garrett, who is just one of many defensive players to catch the injury bug this season.

"Certainly it will be a hit to the defense, not only by losing one of their leaders, but just sheer tackle numbers," Sean said. "Just by losing their leading tackler, I mean, that's going to be a huge loss on that side of the ball."

To put what Garrett has done in perspective, the next leading tackler for the Redhawks, senior safety Ron Davis, will need to record 34 more tackles this year to tie Garrett, who ended his year with 96 tackles.

However, Garrett's impact on the team has gone further than just the numbers.

"He was the second highest vote getter on our leadership council, and that's the highest honor our program gives," Matukewicz said. "He can still affect games by his leadership and being positive, being a good finder on the sidelines, and we expect him to do that, too."

"He is a guy that leads by example on the defense," Sean said. "A lot of the players respect the work ethic and the work that he puts in not only in practice, but the way that he plays all out with reckless abandonment during the game. He's a smart football player, he's young and he's only getting better."

While the loss of Garrett is no small hit to the team, Matukewicz is confident in his other players to replace him and find a way to still compete with three games remaining on the schedule.

"We're building a foundation, and what we do is not player based, it's a system," Matukewicz said. "We certainly wish he [Garrett] was there and those type of things, but we have to move on and prepare the next guy."

Matukewicz didn't specify who Garrett's replacement would be for the Redhawks' next game on Saturday against Tennessee Tech at 1:30 p.m., but did say that he will review film and determine who is deserving of the start based off of what he sees.

Freshman inside linebacker Hunter Bledsoe, the third leading tackler for Southeast, is also injured with a torn bicep, but the team believes he will be able to play through the pain. Nonetheless, the Redhawks must move forward without two of their best linebackers, statistically, this season.

Sean believes the Redhawks will make some adjustments on the defensive side of the ball to counter the injuries to Bledsoe and Garrett.

"Linebackers have been especially hit hard by injury, and I think they have a little bit more depth in the defensive secondary," Sean said. "So, we've seen them actually go with a nickel package a little more where they can bring in an additional safety or a fifth defensive back rather than go with just four linebackers."