Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Coach Hill Press Conference Transcript
10/03/2016 | 6:33:00 | Football
OPENING STATEMENT
"Feels good to get back to work. I know that anytime that you come back after a loss, the best thing to do is to just get right back at it. We've got another great opponent coming up, and it's going to be another challenge. We are looking forward to the process and I'm excited to get to practice this afternoon. The guys were in here this morning watching the film. I like where we are at. We just have to get to work, have a good week of practice, and respect the opponent coming in."
ON THE DEFENSE IN LAST WEEK'S GAME AT UNI
"There were a lot of positive things that went on in the game. Once the defense settled in, I thought they played pretty good. We put them into bad situations and I think one thing to talk about as a team, just the starting field positions. You look at our first six drives, our best starting field position was minus twenty-five. They started four possessions on our side of the field. Anytime you do that against a good team, they're going to have some success. Really you just look at the first drive of the game. They had a first down on the first play of the game. Then you get two tackles for loss and a stop. We could have really flipped the field, but then you rough the punter and they go down and score. You've got to give them some credit for hitting some really tough throws and catches. Craig James is in great position on several of those plays. There are some positives to take away on offense as well and there's also things we've got to clean up. Like I said, we've got to be ready for an opponent that is the same kind of thing. If you don't play good and do the little things right, the teams in this league will beat you."
ON THE PENALTIES LAST WEEK
"It was big. Some of them were really costly penalties. They were spread out. We had 17 penalties, and I think we had six on special teams, six on offense and five on defense. There's some little stuff to clean up, like tackles getting called for not being up on the line of scrimmage. As far as roughing the kicker, a hold on a kickoff, the block in the back on a kick return, little things that maybe don't even show up in a game, but we'll show our team. On our best return, we get it out to the 35-yard line. Then we have a hold, and it brings it back inside the 20. Little things like that just can't happen. We've got things to clean up, which is good because it's early in the season. Sometimes you have to learn from your mistakes and you have to learn from your losses, and we will."
ON SDSU'S RECEIVERS
"They're big receivers and really impressive on offense. They make tough catches. They're big guys. The tight end, in my opinion, will be a draft pick. He's a really good player, really both of them (Jake Wieneke Dallas Goedert)Â use their bodies really well. They rarely make catches when they're wide open. They have people on them, but they're big-bodied guys. They do a good job getting them the football. We have our work cut out for us. Their quarterback has done a great job of getting them the ball and being accurate. We haven't played them the last two years, but we would watch their games on offense. I can remember multiple times watching them and saying, (QB Taryn Christion) is going to be a special player. Last year, he got to play quite a bit as a true freshman, and you could tell he was going to be a good player. Now he has the team to himself, and he's making plays."
ON WHAT IMPRESSES HIM ABOUT SDSU
"They stick to the plan. That's the way they've been coached. They're never going to get too high or too low. They are going to play hard for four quarters no matter what. They've had some adversity early on in the season, and you just look at how they were. There are no moral victories, but they played their butts off against TCU, and then played well against Drake. Then a home loss against Cal Poly, that's probably disappointing to them, and then they go down 14-7 (vs. WIU). But that says a lot about their team. They said, 'Let's get this thing together,' and they rattled off 45 points in a row and got a blowout victory at home vs. a really good Western Illinois team. That right there says a lot about the type of team that is coming here--mature, well coached, and all those things."
ON SDSU'S WIN VS. NO. 8-RANKED WESTERN ILLINOIS
"They're a really good team. I think you'll see that every week around our conference. It's been like that for a long time, where you look around and say, 'Did you see that score?' It gets to the point where it's not surprising. Any team on any day can beat anybody. They're all good teams. They have really good personnel. I like the way they play football. You can respect the way they've been coached and the way they play hard."
ON SDSU'S DEFENSE HAVING SEVEN INTERCEPTIONS
"Some of it's just making plays. They made a really good play at TCU. The defensive line is going to be at you all game. They're going to have their schemes, and they won't try to be too tricky. We're going to have to be really good in our pass protection and set our protections right. They're solid football players all the way around, and they have good skill players in the back end. A few of them have played a lot of football. They have experience and have been making some plays. Against Drake, they picked off three screen passes. You can pick off a screen pass, but to get three of them in one game. They're capitalizing on mistakes."
ON CHASE ALLEN HAVING ONLY ONE TACKLE AT UNI
"I don't think they were running away from him. It's hard to run away from a middle linebacker, because he can get to either side of the field. They did a good job. Other people were there to make some plays, but ultimately we didn't play well enough. Chase would say the same thing. Ultimately, he has to play better."
ON COMPARISON BETWEEN UNI QB AARON BAILEY AND SDSU QB TARYN CHRISTION
"He's an athlete. Even going back to high school, I think he won the state meet in the 200-meter. I know he was a really good track athlete. He was a highly recruited kid. He picked South Dakota State, and I'm pretty sure he had some 1-A offers. This kid has been successful his entire life. He's a big kid, too, and strong. He's similar to Aaron Bailey, but they're different in their own right. (Christion) has thrown the ball really well. I think he has 15 touchdowns and maybe one pick. He's efficient. He's around 70 percent throwing the football. They're afraid to come out and throw it a lot, and trust him to sit back there and be a straight drop-back passer. But that's what tough, when at any point he could be a runner or a thrower, that makes him a good one."
ON RETURNING HOME
"It's always huge to play at home. We've talked about that and we've done a good job playing at home. Anytime you play at home, it's a more nature week as far as being here and being in your own facility. Last week was definitely a different week for us, traveling to Northern Iowa, Leaving Thursday morning. We were gone for a long time. That's just part of it too. Any time you get at home to be comfortable playing in front of your home fans. We've created an environment here that we look forward to when we play at home. Our fans look forward to playing at home, creating that advantage. It's been awesome so far, we need our fans to show up and be the exact same that it has been the first two weeks. There's going to be a really good football team coming here, and we've got to protect our home field."
