Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Saluki Football Notes for Kansas
03/19/2001 | 12:00:00 | Football
September 17, 2000
Quarterback Sherard Poteete's bid to become . . . SIU's all-time touchdown passing leader was stalled by UNI's Panthers who limited the former juco (Northeast Oklahoma A&M) ace to just 12 receptions in 21 attempts for 164 yards. More meaningful, however, was that the Panthers snapped Poteete's string of games with at least one TD pass at nine. Ironically, the last game Poteete failed to hit paydirt with a receiver was at Northern Iowa a year ago.
Nevertheless, Poteete continued to advance . . . in all three major categories -- TD passes, most yards gained in a career and most career completions -- against the Panthers. (See charts left). He also turned in his longest rush of his 14-game SIU career with a 62-yard dash down to UNI's one-yard line and setting up the Salukis' third touchdown of the game.
SIU's defensive leaders continue to be . . . Teddy Sims, Andre King, Lavar Stepter, Bart Scott and Ron Doyle. So far this season they've been credited with 96 of the Salukis' 180 stops. Sims has 16 unassisted tackles to go along with 13 assists for a total of 29. King has 12 and 7 for 19 while Stepter is 9 and 9 for 18, Scott 10-5 for 15 and Doyle 5-10 for 15.
At the same time SIU's defensive unit is claiming . . . early-season honors, so, too, is Saluki running back Tom Koutsos who had another strong effort against Northern Iowa following a 189-yard performance which was third on his all-time list of five games in triple digits as a Saluki. Koutsos gained 168 yards against Northern Iowa, a team he did not face last year as it was the only game he missed due to an injury. The 168-yard total is his fifth best as a Saluki behind 220 against western Kentucky in last year's season's finale, 194 against SEMO in the 1999 opener, 172 at Eastern Illinois and the 189 game against Southeast Missouri last week.
Perhaps more impressive than net rushing . . . yardage is that for the second game in a row, Koutsos ran for three touchdowns. That moved his career total to 19 and puts him in excellent position to move into SIU's top four as he needs just five more to join Cornell Craig (37), Amos Bullocks (32) and Karlton Carpenter (28) who are the Salukis' all-time leaders. (See charts left).
For the second game in a row, SIU's . . . opponent passed for more yardage than the Salukis, an almost unheard of happening in recent years. The Panthers' Ryan Helming edged SIU's Sherard Poteete 186 to 164 while SEMO's pair of QBs last week threw for 285 yards while SIU's was collecting just 124 through the air.
In almost a complete turn-around, SIU's . . . ground game has outdistanced its opponents by close to a 3-1 margin. Murray State (213), SEMO (-17) and Northern Iowa have accumulated just 195 yards rushing while the Salukis have moved the ball 575 yards on the ground. That's just 10 yards short of being a perfect 3-for-1.
It's been five years and 55 games since . . . an SIU football team has challenged a Division I opponent, a run which will end Saturday night (Sept. 23) in Lawrence, Kan., when the Salukis (1-2) take on the host Jayhawks (1-1). Game time is set for 6:00 p.m.
The SIU-Kansas matchup . . . will be the third meeting between the two schools on a football field, all having been in KU's Memorial Stadium. The first two games were in 1986 and '87 when the Jayhawks claimed back-to-back 35-23 and 16-15 victories.
SIU seemingly was headed toward an upset win . . . over the Jayhawks in the second meeting. Ahead 15-10 and with ball possession and less than 5:00 minutes to go, the Salukis fumbled with KU recovering at the Salukis' 32. Eight plays later -- and facing a third-and-goal situation at the SIU six -- the Jayhawks were beneficiaries of a pass interference call in the end zone against the Salukis which resulted in a first-and-goal at the SIU two. Two dives into the line netted just one yard, but the third -- a quarterback sneak -- produced the game-winning touchdown for the Jayhawks. The QB? Kevin Verdugo, now SIU's quarterback coach. Verdugo also had accounted for KU's first touchdown on a similar play and completed 14 of 26 passes against the Salukis for 128 yards.
Both the Salukis and KU gained their first . . . wins of the 2000 season Saturday, SIU upsetting favored Northern Iowa 34-14 and the Jayhawks claiming a hard-earned 23-20 win over Alabama-Birmingham. The win came in just the second outing of the season for Kansas as the Jayhawks were off last week after having dropped a 31-17 decision to SMU in their season's opener.
Proof is missing, but many were of the . . . opinion that SIU's win over Northern Iowa -- the pre-season pick to finish second in this year's Gateway Conference race -- was the result of the finest defensive display by a Saluki team in many years at home. Defensive passing statistics were impressive. Although pre-season, first-team all-conference choice Ryan Helming completed 21 passes, it required 38 attempts to gain that number . . . and even more revealing was that the 21 connections netted just 186 yards for the Panthers, an average of just 8.9 per catch. Only eight were for more than 10 yards and just one -- a 26-yarder -- for more than 20.
Another obvious key to SIU's win . . . was that the Salukis controlled the clock with a strong running game. SIU had ball possession close to two-thirds of the time . . . 39:13 to Northern Iowa's 20:47. For the season, the Salukis are averaging 32:37 to their opponent's 27:23. Kansas' possession time in its two early-season games is also of interest in that it's almost identical in both games. The Jayhawks were in control of the ball for 26:24 in their loss to SMU and for just four more seconds -- 26:30 -- in topping UAB.
