• WATCH NICK HILL PRESS CONFERENCE

CARBONDALE, Ill. — Here are excerpts from Saluki football head coach Nick Hill‘s weekly press conference held Monday afternoon at Saluki Stadium. Southern Illinois hosts Western Illinois on Saturday at 1 p.m. CT in a game that will be televised on ESPN3.

On Western Illinois.
Our process here doesn’t change — win or lose. It’s back to the same process of preparation. We have to have a great week of practice. I’m excited for our guys going on the road and getting a tough win (at Missouri State), but we can’t be thinking about that, we have to be hungry to go get another one. Excited to get back at home, where we haven’t won yet this year. We’ve talked about that — we have to play well at home. 

I really respect the heck out of Coach (Jared) Elliott. He’s a great coach, a great person and a he’s done a great job in his first season. They have a senior-led team. Defensively, it’s probably the best defensive line, maybe the best defensive group we’ve played all year long. (Khalen) Saunders, in my opinion, is probably the best defensive lineman in our league. I haven’t seen one who plays as good as him, maybe in the country. He makes plays all over the place, probably playing on Sundays next year. They’re just led by a senior group that’s played in the playoffs, played a lot of football together. Offensively, a really good quarterback who has played a ton of games and is as experienced as anybody in our league. He’s tough, he’ll run it, he’ll stand in there. He’s no-doubt their leader. 

On the impact of Saturday’s win on the team.
Winning is what you set out for, that winning feeling, that excitement, celebrating together. Coming to work knowing that your preparation is validated. We went and finished the job and we hadn’t done that for six weeks in a row. I liked our work yesterday, our team meeting, our lift, the same as the previous six weeks. Obviously, you feel a little bit better in your gut, when you come to work and you’re watching those things you have to get better from, after a win than a loss. There’s a lot of things we could have corrected on Saturday to play even better on both sides of the ball, special teams, things that we have to continue to coach, emphasize and get better from. We still have three (games) to play and we can have that same feeling on Saturday, but it’s not just given, you have to earn it.

I think that this team would have stayed together regardless, but any time you’re talking about leading 18-to-22 year-old guys and you put in a ton of work, you want to be rewarded at the end. Our process wouldn’t have changed, if I would sat up here and we’d have gotten beat on Saturday, the message to our guys wouldn’t have changed. We’ll continue to lead these guys and our coaches have to model the way. We have to put our nose down and keep working and that won’t change this week, either.

On the offensive line’s play at Missouri State.
Aaron Harris has done a really good job of coming in and playing the last two weeks. I’m really happy for Aaron. He played well at center against Indiana State. We ran the football well that game, then we ran it well again Saturday and he moved to guard. Getting (Jacob) Marnin back and Big Z (Zeyveon Furcron) went from having the worst game of his career (at Illinois State) to having his best two. Those guys have gotten better up front, playing together, just having the physical mindset. Ernest probably leads that group every single week, plays solid football, and Ben Bailey. I thought they did a solid job, especially in pass pro.

On senior guard Josh Podzielinski, who will miss the rest of the season with torn ligaments in his wrist.
He’ll go down as a great Saluki, a leader, what you want when you recruit a kid. He comes here and handles his business off the field, represents the program, the university. He’ll go on, and everything he wants to do, he’ll be successful. I hate it for him because he has the right attitude. He came out and practiced Tuesday with a big club on his hand. The X-rays came back negative, so he was like, alright, I’m going. We thought maybe he’d sit out a couple weeks but then got the MRI results and he’ll have surgery this week.

On former wide receiver Joe Patterson stepping into a starting role at safety.
Joe has done a great job of stepping in and playing. That’s what we talk about — you never know when your number his going to be called, and Joe’s has been called. We saw in training camp and in the spring that he could be a pretty good player and he’s gotten a ton of reps. He hasn’t come out of the game the last couple weeks. He plays hard, he’s a great kid, he came here as a receiver but he had a background of playing DB in high school. I thought he did a good job on Saturday. A couple balls that were caught were really well-contested. He was there and the kid made an unbelievable play on 4th-and-5 on the sideline diving out of bounds and dragging his foot in. Joe was in coverage on that but had him covered up.

On whether safety or cornerback is Jeremy Chinn’s best position.
Saturday was the first day he lined up at corner. He’s such a smart, intelligent player getting everybody lined up. You can probably lead better at the safety position as far as being trustworthy and making sure the calls are right. Now, he creates some problems with his length and size at corner. Going forward, as far as the NFL goes, I think just his versatility, you get called upon throughout your career in the NFL, unless you’re just a lockdown corner getting paid a lot of money, you’re getting asked to do a lot of things. 

On what special preparations the offense makes to handle a player such as Saunders.
We’ve blocked him before, played him last year and the year before that, watch him on film, look at his tendencies, try to do a good job. We’re not going to change what we do, we have to go block him. We have the guys to do that. He’s just a heckuva football player. Every team has players that create different challenges for your team that you have to study, practice well, play with physicality and good technique. He’s proven to be an elite player, a special player in this league. He plays extremely hard. To be a great defensive lineman, you have to have a motor. I tell our guys, that’s the number-one compliment — the kid’s playing hard all the time, chasing plays down.