Saluki Football begins Spring Ball practice

March 23, 2015

CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Southern Illinois University football team began Spring Ball practices on a cool, crisp morning at Saluki Stadium on Monday.

The Salukis return five starters on offense and six starters on defense off last year's team that finished 6-6. All four quarterbacks return, including fifth-year senior Mark Iannotti, who started 10 games last season.

The day began with meetings at 6 a.m., followed by a two-hour practice. The offense played at a high tempo, often snapping the next play just seconds after the previous play. The team will practice without pads this week and will hold live scrimmages on April 4 and 11, plus the annual spring game on April 17.

Head coach Dale Lennon announced the team has filled the final open slot on its 2015 schedule with a home game against Liberty on Sept. 26.

The Flames won the Big South Conference in 2014 by beating No. 1-ranked Coastal Carolina in the final week of the regular season. They beat No. 15 James Madison in the first round of the FCS Playoffs, and lost to No. 5 Villanova, 29-22, in the second round. Liberty finished No. 17 in the final national poll.

Lennon met with the media following today's practice.

How anxious were you guys to get back out here after the way the season finished last year?

"Getting back on the field's always the fun part of coaching and playing. I thought the guys really did a good job this morning. They were excited. They got after it and ran around very well. I like the intensity that I saw. That's what's encouraging. I like this football team."

What are the biggest wholesale changes we're going to see with Nick (Hill) at co-offensive coordinator and Coach (David) Elson taking over D-coordinator duties?

"There's definitely some different components we're working on. Part of spring ball is kind of finding your identity and seeing what you do well. Everything that we're doing right now, we're seeing how well we can do that. Hopefully, we can continue to improve upon that and build upon it. If we continue along a positive line like I saw this morning, you'll see a pretty high-tempo type offense. Defensively, we're changing some things out there. We're still a 3-4, but with Coach Elson putting more of his individual philosophy into the package, we'll see how all that comes together."

What does that allow you to do now, going back to being just the head coach and not focusing on the defense?

"Last year being a D-coordinator, I enjoyed it. It was fun getting back into the X's and O's, but you're just stretched so many different directions. Sometimes, you just can't focus as much as you need to on the defensive side. I felt that hurt us down the stretch. For me now just to step back and watch the offense and watch the defense, and to use the experience that I've accumulated over the past 30 years allows me to be a true head coach again. I think that's the best way to operate."

What does this team do to get tougher in the offseason?

"That's been a theme for us. We needed to be tougher. It's a challenge that we've thrown at them. We've pushed them very hard in the weight room. We've pushed them extremely hard in the offseason conditioning. This is by far the hardest we've pushed the team in the offseason. Coming into today they're very well-prepared for this physically. Now we want to see if we can carry it through 15 practices and finish with the same guys we started with."

You have some big shoes to fill losing guys like MyCole (Pruitt) and Malcolm (Agnew) as well as on the defensive side of the ball. How would you assess the situation?

"That's what I told the team. Right now people are going to look at us like we're a bunch of no-names. That's fine. We don't care about that. We actually have quite a bit of experience returning, but we just don't have the big-name players that have been a part of the offense or defense the last couple of years. I think that actually excites a lot of our guys where we've got a chance to make our own name and go after it. There's nobody that's getting all the limelight. It's kind of a leadership by committee which is very positive."

You guys have added Liberty to your schedule. What are your thoughts on picking them up? They're obviously a quality FCS opponent.

"It's good getting that 11th game finalized. One thing that's very difficult at the FCS level is scheduling. It's tough to find the games, especially when teams consider you to be a good team yourself. To play Liberty, they're a good football team. They were playoff-caliber last year. They're on the upswing. That's what we want to see. That's what we see in the Missouri Valley Conference. We just need to prepare our team to compete at that level early on. Our schedule definitely does that with Indiana, SEMO and Liberty."

What position battles are you most looking forward to seeing play out here?

"It's not one position battle specifically, it's just the overall competitiveness that I'm looking for. Every position has its uniqueness. I saw some great things today at the running back position, at the quarterback position, the offensive line. Who's going to be the next guy defensively? There's just enough battles there that it'll be a fun spring to just sit back and watch."

What schools did you go to and what staffs did you meet with this offseason?

"We went all over the place. There's probably five or six different schools we were at like Minnesota and Wisconsin. We just came back from Arkansas State. Nebraska is another school we were at. There's one or two more that we had visited. This was an offseason that we were able to do a lot of professional development. That's something that we weren't able to do last year because we'd just put the staff together. I think it's been productive as far as our travel's been concerned."

Do you feel like you're that much farther ahead having been together for a year?

"Last year we knew it would be a challenge. It was a situation where we brought in coaches from a lot of different systems. So just getting one common philosophy was a little bit of a challenge. Now I think we have that philosophy in place and a good understanding of how our coaches do things. Because of that, I think we're ahead of the game. We're building on a foundation now instead of trying to establish one."

Do you have a theme to spring ball? I know sometimes they have mottos for fall camp.

"Right now if a player makes it through all 15 practices, we're going to give out t-shirts that say `Saluki Strong' so I think that'll be a motto for the spring."

You were mentioning something about chips? Can you talk a little bit about that?

"The challenge that we've put into practice is a system that's called `Loose Change' which is challenging the defense to create turnovers. The one area we were very poor at last year was our turnover margin. We need to be better at that to be competitive. With every pass deflection, every time the ball's on the ground, any time a turnover's created, the defense will get some `chips'. We kind of keep a tally of that as we progress through the practices."

What's the reward for having the most chips?

"Knowing you have the most chips. We need to get the turnover margin where it needs to be. Offensively, you just can't give up chips. Defensively, the more chips you get, the more reward you get."

With the quarterbacks, is that what you're emphasizing with them, being more careful with the football?

"Not necessarily careful, because you don't want them to be tentative. You just want to make sure they know what they're seeing. You want them playing confidently. That's what we need to see as coaches. If we're not playing with a lot of confidence, we need to look at what we're doing."

You lost a lot of cornerbacks, and you moved Ryan Neal there. How much can your experience at safety help that position?

"Our safety position is very deep. Ryan Neal is a special athlete. I think moving him to corner is going to be an easy transition for him. We just need to find out who's going to be our other corner. There's some battles that are going to occur there, too. I like the potential of what we have in the secondary."

Coach Elson said Chase Allen wasn't out here. Will he be out all spring?

"Chase just has a back strain, so we're protecting him. He's a guy that's a veteran for us. Right now, if he can go, we'll play him. If the trainers are saying he needs to loosen up some more, then we'll just be smart."

You're experimenting with the high tempo. Do you think you have the athletes to do that full time?

"That's what we have to figure out. Is this a full time thing? Can we do it as well as we hope we can? The numbers look good. Our depth looks good. It's just a matter of finding out what we do well."