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• 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 plays at Illinois State on Saturday at 2 p.m. CT in a game that will be televised on the MVFC Network and ESPN3.

On Saturday’s opponent, Illinois State.
Illinois State is 4-1 and has a big win over an FBS school. We’re looking forward to another opportunity to finish a game with a win. We’ll keep looking through the details of what’s going to get us over that hump. It’s another tough opponent that creates new problems and new things we have to prepare for. Nothing about the process will change, you have to stay committed. Some new players have to step, obviously we’re a little banged up in different areas, Jeremy (Chinn) will be out the first half with his targeting call and we’ll see where we’re at on some of the other injuries. 

The key to the game is (James Robinson). He might be the best back in our league and we have a lot of good ones in this league. He’s a heckuva back. There’s been a lot of games where they put the ball on his shoulders and that’s who they want to be. Brady (Davis) has a really strong arm, can make all the throws. They just play good, old-fashioned winning football. They’re going to be in a lot of personnels, similar to us, want to run the football, and they always do a good job on defense.  

On the targeting penalty against Jeremy Chinn.
I talked to Bill Carollo, the head of officiating for the Big Ten and our conference. It’s just a tough rule. Jeremy does everything that he possibly could be taught to do. In my opinion, it’s a bad rule to punish a kid to have to sit out a half. The rule says, any forcible contact to the head or neck area. They threw the flags, they reviewed it, they upheld the targeting call. We have to move on from it. It’s Monday, it happened, and Jeremy will be ready to go in the second half. 

On the quarterback position.
(Sam) Straub was out there yesterday and has been cleared to be full-go. He lifted and ran and will be out there full-go tomorrow at practice. We’ll have to see how practice goes. Both guys will have roles in the gameplan for sure. 

We’re not the only team that’s had to play a backup quarterback and some teams find a way to win and get better. You have to coach your whole roster, all 100 guys. You always have to be coaching your depth and developing people. Quarterback is an important piece, obviously. When you’re playing really well at that position, good things are usually happening.

On the extensive number of injuries.
Our strength staff does as good a job as any, as far as training them for soft-tissue injuries. We definitely have a lot of injuries. Some teams will go through seasons and have a lot of injuries, but I don’t think it’s anything that we could prevent as far as the weight room.

On the play of the defense at Youngstown State
They played well. They pressured the quarterback into some bad decisions, got turnovers, took points off the board there at the end of the half. They stayed on the attack and didn’t give up the real big play in the end zone. We talked about the last play (penalty against Joe Patterson), we have to move on from that. That could’ve been three turnovers. 

Our depth is being tested at linebacker. Bryce (Notree) and (Luke) Giegling played every single rep — 91 reps. Bryce Notree was on the field for 101 snaps — he took 10 special teams reps, 91 snaps on defense. Giegling didn’t come off the field, Madre Harper didn’t come off the field and played 12 snaps on special teams. A lot of guys are giving tremendous effort and playing hard. 

On the play of the linebacking corps.
Giegling is a heckuva player and has a bright future. He’s physical and really smart. He had a couple out of those 91 plays, maybe two that he’d like to have back — one pass coverage thing he got kind of mixed up. Notree just plays with a lot of emotion and energy and is physical and does a good job of getting everybody lined up. Airan (Reed) had the best game of his career, just playing with the athleticism and speed that he has. He’s an athletic kid who can cover, a safety-hybrid type guy. He had an interception, had a sack, had a big goal line stand where he had a solo tackle. 

On Joe Patterson, who filled in for Chinn at safety.
I thought he did a good job, came in and made some plays and made that play there at the end. Joe’s a guy who walked on to the team and played wide receiver early in his career. We moved him over (to defense) and he’s found a good spot there at safety.

On Straub’s fourth quarter injury versus South Dakota.
He didn’t have any symptoms or say anything until the next day. You could probably see when it happened, the play he fumbled on. Our doctors are right there and he didn’t have the symptoms of a concussion. The next day he came in for injury check and had some (symptoms) and got into the concussion protocol. 

On the team’s 1-4 start.
I do know we have a group of coaches that are good men, who come in here and prepare their butts off and give everything to those kids, and are doing everything in their power to do the best job. We have a group of players that not once has there been a lack of effort or a lack of discipline. They come in and are giving us their best. It starts and ends with me. I take that responsibility. 1-4 is not where we want to be. We have to finish the season strong and show improvement. We’ve had the lead in every single game at halftime and have to find a way to finish. It’s easy to get up there and say that, but we have to really look into the details. Nobody wants to keep hearing that we’re close. We are close, we have a good football team. Anybody who would watch us, or coaches that prepare (against us), understand we have good players and do good things. Close isn’t good enough and nobody needs a pat on the back. There’s definitely no moral victories.