Saluki football Salukis start crucial home stand against ISU Redbirds The Dawgs will be looking for a win against Illinois State
The football Salukis are now at 2-3 almost halfway through their 12-game schedule. Coach Nick Hill ventured (when his team was just 2-2) that a team "is what it's record is."
The caveat may be that SIU has been burdened by playing 80 percent of those games away from Saluki Stadium. In fact, whoever developed SIU's 2019 schedule wasn't quite a Saluki football fan as far as giving them a chance for a winning season.
In total, the 2019 schedule had only five home games and seven away games. But the rest of the schedule (seven more games) favors the Dawgs, with four more home games. SIU plays one of two consecutive home tilts tomorrow when the Illinois State Redbirds bus in.
Last weekend, the Dawgs were outlasted by South Dakota State University 28-10 after actually being ahead 10-9 at the end of two quarters. But the Jackrabbits shut out the Dawgs in the second half.
If you look at selected stats from the game, SIU's defense, at least, looked phenomenal. SIU had 12 tackles for loss against SDSU, but that fine stat by the Dawgs' defense was nullified by two explosive plays by the Jackrabbits in the second half.
Pierre Strong did most of the damage. The SDSU running back nullified those 12 tackles for loss with things like a 64-yard scoring run.
"I thought we played well on most first and second downs," said SIU safety Joe Patterson. "But we had lapses when Strong made those cutback runs."
No doubt, Strong had the most spectacular of several explosive plays. Strong ended up with 229 yards, and on his long run he was barely touched by Saluki defenders. Those that did touch him did so with ineffective arm tries.
"SDSU is in the top 5 in the nation in defense," said SIU coach Nick Hill. "And our offense had no explosive plays. We have to correct that."
That's hard to do when you have lost your starting quarterback, Stone Labanowitz; starting running back D.J. Davis; and starting safety and middle linebacker. Hill makes few excuses, but any team down that many good starters is not at full strength.
"We've done things the hard way," said Hill. "None of our opponents care about our problems."
The problem tomorrow (6 p.m. Oct. 12, Saluki Stadium) revolves around stopping Illinois State's James Robinson, who had 97 yards in the Redbirds' embarrassing 37-3 home field loss to Nation North Dakota State University.
SIU freshman running back Romier Elliott helped SIU's rushing attack with 73 yards. His role must be expanded tomorrow.
If SIU can stop Robinson, the Salukis have a great chance to even their record up. And that, dear fans, is a start.