Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Kill Previews Northern Iowa Game
10/08/2001 | 12:00:00 | Football
Oct. 8, 2001
CARBONDALE, Ill. - Excerpts from Coach Kill's Weekly Press Conference
Northern Iowa Preview: "Right now, they are the best football team in our conference pound-for-pound. We just watched the Youngstown State film (against Northern Iowa) and it was kind of scary because they probably could have scored 60 points in that ball game. Last week, against Southwest Missouri it was almost the same thing. They are really playing with a lot of confidence and have a very good football team. It is my feeling, at this point in the season, that they are the team to beat in our conference with the confidence they are playing with.
"They are just solid. Their quarterback is playing well for them, and their offensive line is the best offensive line we have faced at this point in time, and defensively they are just solid. They have good strong kids that do what they are supposed to do, and they are very disciplined and very impressive on film. They have impressed me and have my vote as a very good football team."
"They play better in that dome than they do outside. When they play there, they can beat anybody."
On UNI's offensive line: "We are going to have some work to do against them because they are good up front. I think we took advantage of Illinois State, blitzing and playing zone coverage a lot, but I think with NI we have our work cut out for us."
Other keys to the UNI game: "There are not a lot of people that get to go up to the dome and beat them, but like I told our kids, it can happen. You have to forget where you are playing and just play. That is the biggest thing we have to overcome, playing there on homecoming against a great team. If we can survive the first quarter and the rush, we can survive. If we don't survive the first quarter and the rush, we are going to be in trouble."
On QB Kevin Kobe: "Kevin graded out pretty well. He had nine minuses. I think they responded well to Kevin at Western Illinois, and I think they responded well to him on Saturday. With a quarterback, we need to get him down to about three or fourminuses a game. If you do that, you can win most every game you play in. I think the team felt comfortable with him, did well with him, and we will play it by ear. With as physical as this league is, you never know what is going to happen. You have to have two or three QB's ready to go."
On Bart Scott: "I will be very honest, Bart played a good game and made a lot of good plays on Saturday, but Bart has a lot of room to improve because he really doesn't understand his position. When he was looking at the film today, he was kind of scratching his head and saying 'man, I have to get a lot better yet' because there are a lot of things he needs to do. But, as far as making plays, he has done a great job. Without him on the sidelines, there is no question we are not near as good a football team. He is still learning. He said coach 'I have played free safety, strong safety, defensive line', he has played about everything, so we are trying to settle him in. He really improved from the Western Illinois game to this game, and we will need him to improve at least that much more again to beat Northern Iowa. He has the ability and athleticism to play at the next level, but I think he has to learn to play consistently hard and has to play better to get to that level"
On winning a close game: "I thought I was watching film from Murray State and the colors of the uniforms changed ( in the fourth quarter). We came up with the big plays and made it, and I think that it did a lot for our kids. I would like to win 35-3, but I think getting one like that probably did wonders for them. I don't know if I have every been in a more joyous lockerroom, it was like we had won a national championship."
