Football to hold scrimmage on Saturday at 10 a.m.

CARBONDALE, Ill. —The Saluki football team will hold its second scrimmage of the spring season on Saturday at 10 a.m. at Saluki Stadium. It is free and open to the public. The team is permitted to have 15 total practices, including scrimmages, during the spring.

Head coach Nick Hill met with the local media earlier in the week.

What do you have in store for the second scrimmage on Saturday?

I think it will be a little different than the first one — probably get after it a little bit more. I always feel like the second scrimmage is the biggest scrimmage of the spring. Everybody makes a big deal out of the spring game, everyone gets 14 practices in, and that's your 15th practice. You want to go out and have a good scrimmage that last practice, but you want to make sure you stay healthy in that spring game, so you hold some people out because you've seen enough out of some of your older guys. This scrimmage coming up is important for a lot of people. It will be a little bit longer. The last one we went about 68 plays, we'll probably get to that 80 mark (on Saturday), put them in a few different situations.

When you looked at the film, how good was the offensive line in Sunday's scrimmage?

Pretty good and I've been really encouraged. In Tuesday's practice we had a period where we threw the ball 25 times in a row, it was an emphasis on playing man-to-man, pressing the wide receivers and making it tough, blitzing. We're prepping for 3rd down when people are going to play man and come after you. We didn't give up any sacks — 25 plays where the defense knew we were going to throw the football. It's not only the offensive line, but the backs in protection are such a big deal, too. They have to know their keys, they have to know their protections. The quarterback, in our offense, sets the protection. A lot of times in college football, the quarterback has no responsibility — the coach will set it. In our offense, the quarterback can get us in and out of good protections. The offensive line has been good so far, but it's like any area, you'd like to see the last five practices, people playing their best football.

What have you seen with Sam Straub's progression from last season to this spring?

I like where he's at. He needs to keep getting better and we're going to push him along the way, as long as he's a Saluki. He's always been able to go out there and throw the football. I like the confidence he has, knowing he's the starter. He pushes himself. In the film room he looks at the little things and is getting better just understanding football. It's his third year in this offense, and it's unbelievable the steps you can make when you play the position and have the same coach and you have the same offense for multiple years in a row. The first year you're just trying to wrap your head around getting to the line, hey - did I hear that right, what was this call? In your second year you feel pretty good about it. When you get in the third, fourth year of playing in the same offense, that's when you can really master things. It's almost like you cut off the play call even before the coach calls it, because you know what he's thinking. Sam is getting to that point. We're really pushing him to look at little things.

How much do you think the last couple games helped him confidence-wise last season?

I think it was huge. If we're sitting here right now and we didn't put Sam in those last three games, we'd probably be at a different point as far as knowing if he's a guy we can win a championship with. We would still be uncertain as far as how's he going to be in a game. I think one of the best decisions we made last year was letting Sam play those last three games. He's probably more hungry now, knowing he played three pretty good teams in our league, who had stuff on the line, and played at a high level. I think that gave him some confidence.

How important is the depth at linebacker to your run defense?

It's huge. As a head coach, you're constantly looking at the roster, how can you make your team deeper, how can you develop the younger guys? At some point in the season, they're going to be the starters, because people get banged up in this sport. There's going to be someone that's sitting right now at third team that's going to start games for us this season. It might be week eight, it might be week one, who knows, but you have to be ready to play in college football. No one is going to sit around feeling sorry for you when there's injuries or things come up. You have to have a deep team if you want to win championships. I feel we do have depth at linebacker. We have three or four at inside and we have a few that play Sam, too. The defensive coordinator is their position coach and they really have learned the game and developed nicely.

How's Matt DeSomer looking at safety?

He's done a really good job. Jeff Vea had an ankle injury right before spring break and Matt got his opportunity to get more reps. That's the biggest thing for him, he needs reps. I was just talking to him in the hallway and told him when he's done playing college football he's going to be a head coach because you've learned it from the quarterback side and now you're learning the safety side on defense. You have to know everything that's going on in front of you when you're a safety. He knows a lot of football and picks things up quickly. He's still got a ways to go and he knows that, but putting him in there in the spring, he has all summer to look at film, learn and correct things.

What does Cameron Walter bring to the running back position?

He kind of exemplifies what you want in a football player. He waited his turn. He wasn't the guy at the start of the season. He went a few games where he didn't get any reps. He just started on special teams. He came to work every day. He's graduating. He's just a workhorse. The short time I've been in the business, those are the guys that play for you and win you games — guys that you can count on them to be there and do things right. That's how Cam is. He's a steady player a steady guy.

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