Saluki football Dawgs hope to rebound against UMass
After being humbled by top 20 FCS team SEMO 44-26, Nick Hill's Saluki football team will fly to Amherst, Mass., to take on another struggling football program.
UMass, an FBS team that has gone nowhere for its first few seasons in "big time" ball, are familiar to Saluki football fans. In 2007, SIU nipped UMass 34-27 in Carbondale to win a quarterfinals game in the FCS playoffs. UMass, for some reason, decided to move up to the 80-scholarship FBS soon after and hasn't had much success at that level since. Witness last week's 48-21 thrashing of the Minutemen by Big Ten's Rutgers.
In fact, Herosports.com has said this weekend's SIU at UMass game (2:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 7; online at FloFootball.com) is one of the top candidates for a FCS victory over an FBS team in 2019. That could be. However, the Salukis will have to clean up their act defensively in order for that to happen.
Yes, SEMO was a pretty good team. But mistakes killed the momentum the Salukis had after they jumped to a 7-0 lead in the first quarter a week ago. Javon Williams ran the ball in from the SEMO one-yard line at the 7:28 mark and had two other chances to grab a 14-21 lead. However, in the next two series, SIU threw an interception at the SEMO two yard line, and then had a penalty on a 2 8-yard score from SIU quarterback Stone Labanowitz to Nigel Kilby wipe off another touchdown.
After those two faux pas, momentum shifted like a tidal wave as SEMO scored 30 unanswered points to take a 44-20 fourth-quarter lead. SIU scored one more time on a Romier Elliot 4-yard run with 5:20 left in the fourth to make the final 44-26.
The turnaround in that game shows the tenuous emotional edge Saluki football has been on in the last few years. Last year SIU led at halftime in four games but ended up losing the contests. That's nearly what happened in the SIU-SEMO game, as the Redhawks led by just six points (20-14) after two quarters.
UMass seems to have had the same problem as SIU, as they led Rutgers 21-7 after one quarter. But the Scarlet Knights then outscored UMass 43-0 in the last three periods to run away with the game.
In order to straighten things out, SIU coach Nick Hill must straighten out the defensive line - a position that let down the Dawgs last year a lot. In 2018, teams were able to run at will on his defense.
SEMO had 248 yards last week. Worse yet, SEMO quarterback Dan Santacaterina hit for 248 yards and ran for two touchdowns, basically untouched.
"Their vet QB did not make mistakes," said Hill. "It's disappointing that we had no sacks. We've got to get some pressure on opponents' QB."
SIU's new quarterback was not the problem. Labanowitz threw for 216 yards and had only the one (albeit impactful) interception.
"Stone did not get us beat," said Hill. If not for the interception and penalty, Labanowitz may have had a winning day. Hopefully, the psychology of momentum will get changed by tomorrow's kickoff. It will all start with straightening out the defensive line's run defense and getting pressure on UMass quarterback Randall West.