CARBONDALE, Ill. — Here are excerpts from Saluki football head coach Nick Hill‘s weekly press conference held Monday afternoon at Saluki Stadium. Southern Illinois plays at Missouri State on Saturday at 2 p.m. CT in a game that will be televised on ESPN+.
On this week’s opponent Missouri State.
Coach (Dave) Steckel has done a good job building their program in year four and won a couple games early in the season against ranked opponents. They had a tough game at home last week against Western Illinois. When you look at the middle of our league, everybody has played each other really close and they’ve won some close games. It’s just another week in the Missouri Valley where we have to go on the road and play a good opponent. We’ve not been able to close (a win) out as some of these other teams have, but the process isn’t going to change. We have to keep fighting, developing, and some guys that are being called upon have to continue to grow and get better.
We have to stop the run. That has been our Achilles’ heel throughout the season and it won’t change this week. (Missouri State) is a team that, to be successful, wants to run the football, whether it’s with the quarterback or their backs. We have to be gap-sound, we have to be in our gaps and we have to tackle.
On the offense’s performance against Indiana State.
We had 11 explosive plays in the game last week and probably left a couple out there. We feel any time you have more than 10 you’re going to have a pretty good day. We count an explosive play as any run over 12 yards and any pass over 16. For us, it’s about executing in the red zone, scoring points when we get down there. You don’t want to kick field goals, but on two of the trips (against Indiana State) we didn’t get an opportunity to do that, which hurt.
We gave the player of the week to the entire offensive line. I thought they did a great job. Zeyveon (Furcron) probably had his best game. We ran for 294 yards and controlled the line of scrimmage.
On the quarterback position.
Matt (DeSomer) will start again and Sam (Straub) has to be ready to go. I felt like Matt did what we thought he would do, which is go out there and compete and lead our team. Obviously, there’s a couple plays we wish we had back — the two turnovers — but he competed and played his butt off.
On the importance of keeping DeSomer out of 3rd-and-long.
With any quarterback, your success rate on 3rd-and-long is not good, no matter if you’re a pocket passer or running quarterback. For the most part we did a good job of that, we were 4-of-9 on 3rd downs, (he) picked up some with his feet and threw for one. We stayed out of a lot of third downs, we had 28 first downs and were able to run the football with success on the early downs. We have to continue to do that.
On whether the team’s freshmen will play more in the final four games.
We’re preparing and competing to win every single game, all the way down to the end. The best players that give us the best chance to win will be the ones that are playing. As the season gets going and the younger guys continue to step up, some of them will get some opportunities. Some of them got some opportunities on kickoff and special teams things, but we have to line up with the guys that give us the best chance to win.
On the defensive line struggling to stop the run.
I don’t think it’s for lack of personnel or talent. There’s a lot of those guys that would be playing for every team in our league. Jordan Berner, Anthony Knighton can play for a lot of teams in the country. Up front it will be good to get Malik (Haynes) and Tyree (Jackson) back. They were out with concussions. Kyonta (Stallworth) has played well, probably played his best against Youngstown but then got a concussion, was out, then came back last week and probably played as good as anybody up front. Up front, we have a lot of depth, but we’ve gotta get them in spots and they have to execute so we can stop the run.
On the depth of talent on the two-deep.
There’s obviously things you’re going to keep recruiting and trying to fill holes. We’ve had some injuries that when you get into your second and third guy, we have to continue to coach our depth and develop and recruit for our depth. When we started this (season), we felt like our two-deep talent-wise was as good as anybody. When you look at our games, besides the one (at Illinois State), we easily could have 3-4 wins and we’re sitting there with the rest of the league at 4-3 or 3-4. These games come down to the very end, all the games you watch and break down, and we’re right there in that same pack, but we haven’t found a way to win any of these games there at the end.
On the absence of linebacker Cody Crider.
He’s one of our best players. Not having his physicality, his athleticism, running things down — we’ve been hurt with the stretch play and pin-and-pull. He’s as fast a linebacker as there is in our conference. The depth at those positions, Bryce (Notree) and Luke (Giegling) are basically playing the entire game.
Luke Giegling was recruited by everyone in our league and is playing at a super-high level. He got defensive player-of-the-week again, another week with double-digit tackles as a freshman.
On Iowa transfer wide receiver Matt Quarells.
He’s a good player, hasn’t had the season that he’d like, but shows up every single day and models the way for some of these freshmen. Sometimes, that’s what you want if they’re not going to have the season statistically. He’s a guy that’s about to get his master’s degree. The effect he can have in the locker room with your freshmen and your guys that are trying to figure it out, he’s at a different stage of his life. I’m happy as could be to have Matt Quarells as a part of this program.
On the wide receiver corps.
We still have good receivers. Ralph (Leonard) has had a good season, Landon (Lenoir) has come on. We haven’t had the big plays in the passing game that you’d like to see. We’ve called a lot of things to get the ball down the field and continue to. We have to play good at the quarterback spot to get them the football, but we do have good receivers and we have to keep finding ways to get them the ball.
On the upcoming recruiting class.
The finalization of your class will happen at the end of November or (early) December. We’ve had 11 commitments now and just got a couple this week, today actually. We had a good group that committed to us before the season started and are still committed.
On this week’s opponent Missouri State.
Coach (Dave) Steckel has done a good job building their program in year four and won a couple games early in the season against ranked opponents. They had a tough game at home last week against Western Illinois. When you look at the middle of our league, everybody has played each other really close and they’ve won some close games. It’s just another week in the Missouri Valley where we have to go on the road and play a good opponent. We’ve not been able to close (a win) out as some of these other teams have, but the process isn’t going to change. We have to keep fighting, developing, and some guys that are being called upon have to continue to grow and get better.
We have to stop the run. That has been our Achilles’ heel throughout the season and it won’t change this week. (Missouri State) is a team that, to be successful, wants to run the football, whether it’s with the quarterback or their backs. We have to be gap-sound, we have to be in our gaps and we have to tackle.
On the offense’s performance against Indiana State.
We had 11 explosive plays in the game last week and probably left a couple out there. We feel any time you have more than 10 you’re going to have a pretty good day. We count an explosive play as any run over 12 yards and any pass over 16. For us, it’s about executing in the red zone, scoring points when we get down there. You don’t want to kick field goals, but on two of the trips (against Indiana State) we didn’t get an opportunity to do that, which hurt.
We gave the player of the week to the entire offensive line. I thought they did a great job. Zeyveon (Furcron) probably had his best game. We ran for 294 yards and controlled the line of scrimmage.
On the quarterback position.
Matt (DeSomer) will start again and Sam (Straub) has to be ready to go. I felt like Matt did what we thought he would do, which is go out there and compete and lead our team. Obviously, there’s a couple plays we wish we had back — the two turnovers — but he competed and played his butt off.
On the importance of keeping DeSomer out of 3rd-and-long.
With any quarterback, your success rate on 3rd-and-long is not good, no matter if you’re a pocket passer or running quarterback. For the most part we did a good job of that, we were 4-of-9 on 3rd downs, (he) picked up some with his feet and threw for one. We stayed out of a lot of third downs, we had 28 first downs and were able to run the football with success on the early downs. We have to continue to do that.
On whether the team’s freshmen will play more in the final four games.
We’re preparing and competing to win every single game, all the way down to the end. The best players that give us the best chance to win will be the ones that are playing. As the season gets going and the younger guys continue to step up, some of them will get some opportunities. Some of them got some opportunities on kickoff and special teams things, but we have to line up with the guys that give us the best chance to win.
On the defensive line struggling to stop the run.
I don’t think it’s for lack of personnel or talent. There’s a lot of those guys that would be playing for every team in our league. Jordan Berner, Anthony Knighton can play for a lot of teams in the country. Up front it will be good to get Malik (Haynes) and Tyree (Jackson) back. They were out with concussions. Kyonta (Stallworth) has played well, probably played his best against Youngstown but then got a concussion, was out, then came back last week and probably played as good as anybody up front. Up front, we have a lot of depth, but we’ve gotta get them in spots and they have to execute so we can stop the run.
On the depth of talent on the two-deep.
There’s obviously things you’re going to keep recruiting and trying to fill holes. We’ve had some injuries that when you get into your second and third guy, we have to continue to coach our depth and develop and recruit for our depth. When we started this (season), we felt like our two-deep talent-wise was as good as anybody. When you look at our games, besides the one (at Illinois State), we easily could have 3-4 wins and we’re sitting there with the rest of the league at 4-3 or 3-4. These games come down to the very end, all the games you watch and break down, and we’re right there in that same pack, but we haven’t found a way to win any of these games there at the end.
On the absence of linebacker Cody Crider.
He’s one of our best players. Not having his physicality, his athleticism, running things down — we’ve been hurt with the stretch play and pin-and-pull. He’s as fast a linebacker as there is in our conference. The depth at those positions, Bryce (Notree) and Luke (Giegling) are basically playing the entire game.
Luke Giegling was recruited by everyone in our league and is playing at a super-high level. He got defensive player-of-the-week again, another week with double-digit tackles as a freshman.
On Iowa transfer wide receiver Matt Quarells.
He’s a good player, hasn’t had the season that he’d like, but shows up every single day and models the way for some of these freshmen. Sometimes, that’s what you want if they’re not going to have the season statistically. He’s a guy that’s about to get his master’s degree. The effect he can have in the locker room with your freshmen and your guys that are trying to figure it out, he’s at a different stage of his life. I’m happy as could be to have Matt Quarells as a part of this program.
On the wide receiver corps.
We still have good receivers. Ralph (Leonard) has had a good season, Landon (Lenoir) has come on. We haven’t had the big plays in the passing game that you’d like to see. We’ve called a lot of things to get the ball down the field and continue to. We have to play good at the quarterback spot to get them the football, but we do have good receivers and we have to keep finding ways to get them the ball.
On the upcoming recruiting class.
The finalization of your class will happen at the end of November or (early) December. We’ve had 11 commitments now and just got a couple this week, today actually. We had a good group that committed to us before the season started and are still committed.
”We know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them” (Romans 8:28 NLT). 
