SIU at ILS: Notes & Links

Saturday, October 15

Normal, Ill.

6:00 PM

Southern Illinois University

Illinois St.

10/11/2016 | 4:02:00 | Football

Southern Illinois (2-3, 0-2 MVFC) at Illinois State (2-4, 0-3 MVFC)
Date & Time	Oct. 15, 2016 \| 6 p.m. CT
Location	Normal, Ill. \| Hancock Stadium (13,397, FieldTurf) \| Weather
Run With Us	Watch at Tres Hombres, the Home Away from Home for Saluki Athletics
Video Stream	ESPN3 with Kurt Pegler (play-by-play) and Chris Highland (analysis)
Live Stats	Provided by Illinois State
Radio	Saluki Sports Network with Mike Reis (play-by-play), Gene Green (analysis) and Connor James (analysis)
Audio Stream	Saluki All-Access (Free all season)
Southern Illinois	Game Notes \| Stats \| Media Guide
Illinois State	Game Notes \| Stats \| Media Guide
MVFC	Weekly Notes \| Stats
All-Time Series	Overall: SIU leads, 40-35-3 \| In Normal: ILS leads, 19-17-2 \| Streak: ILS W2 \| Last: ILS 42, SIU 21 (2015)
Social Media	@SIU_Football \| @SIUSalukis \| Saluki Football

QUICK HITS

Southern Illinois hits the road to play at Illinois State on Saturday, October 15, at 6 p.m. CT in Hancock Stadium.
The SIU-Illinois State rivalry is the second-longest running rivalry for the Salukis. SIU has played 78 games against the Redbirds since 1929. SEMO (83 games) is the only opponent SIU has played more often.
Billy Reed is four receptions away from 100 in his career. He had a school-record 14 receptions last year vs. Illinois State. He would become the 13th player in program history with 100 career receptions.
Saturday's game will be the fifth and final night game of the 2016 season.
The game pits the MVFC's No. 1 passing defense (Illinois State allows only 168 yards per game through the air) vs. the MVFC's No. 2-ranked passing offense (SIU averages 329 yards per game passing).

SALUKIS VISIT REDBIRDS

Southern Illinois heads to Normal, Ill., for a 6 p.m. game at Illinois State on Saturday, October 15.
SIU is kicking off at 6 p.m. local time for the fifth time in six games this season. This is the final night kickoff of the 2016 season.
Southern leads the all-time series with the Redbirds, 40-35-3. Illinois State leads the series in games played in Normal, 19-17-2.
Illinois State has won the last two games in the series. SIU had won six of the previous seven.
The SIU-ILS series (78 games) is the second-longest series for the Salukis. SEMO (83 games) is the only program SIU has faced more often than the Redbirds.
The SIU-ILS rivalry goes all the way back to 1929, a 6-0 win for Southern.

A RECORD PACE

Southern Illinois quarterback Josh Straughan is on a record pace about halfway through the 2016 season.
Straughan has 1,608 yards in five games, becoming the first SIU quarterback to reach at least 1,600 yards that quickly.
Straughan has thrown for more than 300 yards in back-to-back weeks, becoming the first SIU quarterback to do that since Sherard Poteete in 1999.
Straughan is averaging 321 yards per game through the air. At that pace, he would break the MVFC single-season passing record. Despite his record-setting pace, he is actually in second place in the MVFC to South Dakota State quarterback Taryn Christion in both passing yards and passing yards per game.
SIU has only had a QB throw for 2,000 yards in a season nine times, including Mark Iannotti each of the last two years.
Last season's quarterback, Mark Iannotti, broke SIU's single-season passing record with 3,195 yards. The previous record holder was current head coach Nick Hill, who had 3,175 yards in 2007.
Iannotti and Hill are the only two 3,000-yard single-season passers in school history. Straughan only needs to average 232 yards per game for the rest of the season to reach 3,000 yards.
Straughan has thrown for more than 250 yards in all five games. SIU's single-season record for 250-yard games is eight, set by Mark Iannotti last season.
Straughan ranks sixth nationally in passing yards per game and fourth nationally in total offense per game.

SPREAD THE LOVE

SIU's 22 touchdowns have been spread around to 11 different players in 2016.
Receivers Connor Iwema and Darrell James already have 100-yard receiving games this year.
Billy Reed has more than 1,000 receiving yards and had four 100-yard games last year.
Running back Daquan Isom has never had a 100-yard receiving day, but he had a 99-yard game (at Indiana) and 98-yard game (vs. Youngstown State) last year.
Isom leads the running backs with three 100-yard games on the ground, including one earlier this season vs. Murray State.
Chris Perkins and Cameron Walter have also had 100-yard games on the ground.
RB Jonathan Mixon leads the team with four touchdowns and has never lost yardage on any of his 40 career carries.
WR Jimmy Jones has never had a 100-yard rushing or receiving day, but he's tied with Daquan Isom for the most career touchdowns on the team with 10. Both Isom and Jones are sophomores.
True freshman D.J. Davis returned the opening kick of the Murray State game 98 yards for a touchdown. Davis ranks second nationally in kick return average.

SIU OFFENSE AMONG NATION'S BEST

Last year, SIU's offense led the MVFC in total offense, scoring offense, and passing offense. This year, the Salukis lead the MVFC in total offense and rank second in the league in both scoring (34.0 ppg) and passing (329.6 ypg) offense.
SIU ranks sixth nationally in passing offense, averaging 334.0 yards per game through the air.
SIU is among nine teams nationally who have scored points in 100 percent of their red zone appearances.
Southern ranks ninth nationally with 478 yards per game of total offense.
Josh Straughan ranks in the top-10 nationally in passing offense and total offense. Last year's starting quarterback, Mark Iannotti, led the nation in total offense in 2015.
Since the start of the 2015 season, SIU has scored at least 28 points in 13 of 16 games and at least 21 points in all 16 games.
Southern's lowest point total since Nick Hill took the offensive reigns in 2015 was 21 points. That first happened last year vs. Illinois State even though Southern's offense put up more than 500 yards against the Redbirds.
Since the start of the 2015 season, SIU has put up at least 200 yards of total offense in 27 of 32 halves of play. SIU has at least 200 yards in eight of 10 halves in 2016.

SALUKI DEFENSIVE NOTES

SIU leads the MVFC and ranks 11th nationally in tackles for loss per game (8.0).
Southern Illinois is on pace for 88 tackles for loss, which would be the most for SIU since the 2007 team that reached the national semifinals.
Opponents are converting only 29 percent of their third downs against the Salukis. SIU's defense ranks 12th nationally in that category.
Deondre Barnett ranks third nationally in forced fumbles per game, with three strip sacks in the first four games.
Khari Waithe-Alexander ranks ninth in the MVFC in sacks per game, with three sacks. Waithe-Alexander also has an interception.

SPECIAL TEAMS, SPECIAL PLAYS

SIU ranks second nationally in kick return average at 27.9 yards per return.
True freshman D.J. Davis returned the opening kickoff vs. Murray State 98 yards for a touchdown, the second-longest kickoff return touchdown in program history.
Davis is one of three freshmen in the nation to have a kickoff return touchdown this season, joining Eastern Washington's Antoine Custer, Jr., and Valparaiso's Bailey Gissenger.
Individually, Davis ranks sixth nationally and leads the MVFC in kick return average.
Even without Davis's 98-yard return, the Salukis are still averaging 24.2 yards on their other 19 returns. That 24.2 yard-per-return mark would rank 16th nationally.