Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Photo by: Katie O'Brien
Saluki Football hosts annual Spring Game at 2 p.m. on Saturday
04/07/2017 | 4:01:00 | Football
CARBONDALE, Ill. — The Saluki Football team wraps up its spring season on Saturday with the annual Spring Game at 2 p.m. at Saluki Stadium. Head coach Nick Hill met with the media to discuss the team's progress during the spring.
What excites you about the spring game Saturday?
Really, I'm looking forward to practice today. There are some things that we need to see, clean up and some more teaching. This is really our last day of practice with the guys so I'm looking forward to today to get out there and compete one last time and practice. The spring game will be a little less plays than it normally is just because we have some injuries. We have a lot people banged up in a couple key areas, especially in the secondary having to move some people around, so we will go at it in the spring game.
We will put the ball down and let those ones go at it, but when we see enough of out of those guys in the spring game, we will probably pull them out. We will probably go similar to what we have the past couple of weekends as far as number of plays, maybe even a little bit less, but it will definitely be full-go and important. We will put those few young guys that we want to take a last look at in a game situation. We will probably do a little more special teams so Coach Poore gets a few live reps from a few different special teams out on film going into the off-season so we have things we need to work on during camp. Every thing these last few days are critical because once we get done with spring ball Saturday, that's the last time on the field with them until training camp starts, which is a long time. We have to soak up every minute we get with them out on the field with a ball. I think that we have gotten better this spring. I think that we have seen improvement and we just gotta keep getting better and use this last practice.
How have you liked the progress of your defense? Have you found anybody yet you can rely on the get pressure?
I'm excited about that but I don't know if we found the right niches or who is gonna be that guy in the fall, but they got some potential, they're all young. I'm excited about the way we are building that. I've said that in every interview, we'll be young this season. There's going to be a lot of redshirt freshmen and sophomores that are true sophomores in on that group. They've all shown that they are really good players in this league. Moving Kamahl March to defensive end has given us a guy, who is only a little over 215 pounds playing outside linebacker, but his most natural position is to just put his hand in the ground and go. He's had his best 5-6 practices since we've moved him since he's been here. He can kind of be that disrupter and he's having more fun. It's exciting to see him out there. Then some of the younger guys, Chucky Sullivan, guys that haven't played that are here have shown flashes that are encouraging.
How happy have you been with the defense not giving up big plays in scrimmages so far?
That's something we've emphasized — getting more turnovers, making them work the ball down the field. Today's offenses being fast, no huddle, spread it out, there's some yards out there (the offense) should be able to take advantage of. It's about making them earn it the entire way down the field. You can't miss a a tackle and let them off the hook or give them an easy one. We have to be a lot better at that. If we look back after next season and we gave up half of what we gave up last season, we're going to be a good team. Same thing on punt – we ended up last in punting. If we get in the top half of the league, what a difference that will make for our defense, not putting them in tough situations. We feel like we have a good offense, so our defense is tested every single day. We have a quarterback that can throw the ball down the field, so they see a good offense every single day.
How much do the injuries hurt the guys who don't get the reps, and how much does it help the guys that do?
There's a few veterans that won't hurt them as much. Connor Iwema has been around here a long time, has been banged up the last couple weeks, he won't practice the rest of spring. It's his fifth year. Jacob Varble got a lot of snaps early in camp, he has a shoulder and actually got stitches in his foot. He'll be out. Hans Carmien same thing — foot — he'll be fine. Without Jake and Hans, when you want to run the football, those guys would be in there, so in the spring game you probably won't see those sets. For the younger guys, it's made them speed up the process of getting better. When you get those reps, you have to take advantage of them.
How do you decide what format to use for the Spring Game?
We've got to be smart. We're not going to win any games against the Salukis in the Spring Game. We have to get our team to fall camp as healthy as we can be. There's going to be injuries — it's part of the game — we have to go out there and put them in live situations. The biggest thing is coming away healthy into the off-season. (The spring game) might be a little bit shorter, but we feel like we know our roster. We've went at it pretty hard. I'd be hard-pressed to find a team that's gotten more reps in team periods throughout the entire week. We're going to have the film and the reps we needed to see from the spring.
What position battle are you looking for a solid conclusion to at the end of the spring?
I don't know if we'll have a conclusion going into the summer. We're a long way from September 9. That's when we need to know who's going to be out there. At all positions we have legitimate depth of people getting pushed. I think it's the deepest we've been on the offensive line in a long time, same thing with the defensive line with the young guys going back and forth. There's some injuries at safety where Jeremy Chinn hasn't been out there and we moved James Ceasar back. Jeff Vea has been banged up and he's trying to get back because he sees James is going to be a pretty good player. Same thing at corner. You have to be 5-6 deep in the secondary because they're all going to play. Tanner (Hearn) at quarterback — we might put him out there a little bit more than Sam (Straub) with the ones, just to see him operate. You're one play away when you're the backup quarterback, so you better be able to go in there with the first team and get us going.
Talk about the depth at the running back position.
The biggest thing with Daquan (Isom) is he's the heaviest he's ever been. When he played as a freshman, he wasn't even 170 pounds. He's pound-for-pound the strongest guy we have, but now he weighs 190 pounds. (Strength coach) Meade Smith has done an outstanding job with him. He got eight stitches in his thumb, so we'll see how it is, he might play, he might not. Jonathan Mixon can be an every-down back, but he's our bigger back, over 220 pounds and can grind some yards out.
What excites you about the spring game Saturday?
Really, I'm looking forward to practice today. There are some things that we need to see, clean up and some more teaching. This is really our last day of practice with the guys so I'm looking forward to today to get out there and compete one last time and practice. The spring game will be a little less plays than it normally is just because we have some injuries. We have a lot people banged up in a couple key areas, especially in the secondary having to move some people around, so we will go at it in the spring game.
We will put the ball down and let those ones go at it, but when we see enough of out of those guys in the spring game, we will probably pull them out. We will probably go similar to what we have the past couple of weekends as far as number of plays, maybe even a little bit less, but it will definitely be full-go and important. We will put those few young guys that we want to take a last look at in a game situation. We will probably do a little more special teams so Coach Poore gets a few live reps from a few different special teams out on film going into the off-season so we have things we need to work on during camp. Every thing these last few days are critical because once we get done with spring ball Saturday, that's the last time on the field with them until training camp starts, which is a long time. We have to soak up every minute we get with them out on the field with a ball. I think that we have gotten better this spring. I think that we have seen improvement and we just gotta keep getting better and use this last practice.
How have you liked the progress of your defense? Have you found anybody yet you can rely on the get pressure?
I'm excited about that but I don't know if we found the right niches or who is gonna be that guy in the fall, but they got some potential, they're all young. I'm excited about the way we are building that. I've said that in every interview, we'll be young this season. There's going to be a lot of redshirt freshmen and sophomores that are true sophomores in on that group. They've all shown that they are really good players in this league. Moving Kamahl March to defensive end has given us a guy, who is only a little over 215 pounds playing outside linebacker, but his most natural position is to just put his hand in the ground and go. He's had his best 5-6 practices since we've moved him since he's been here. He can kind of be that disrupter and he's having more fun. It's exciting to see him out there. Then some of the younger guys, Chucky Sullivan, guys that haven't played that are here have shown flashes that are encouraging.
How happy have you been with the defense not giving up big plays in scrimmages so far?
That's something we've emphasized — getting more turnovers, making them work the ball down the field. Today's offenses being fast, no huddle, spread it out, there's some yards out there (the offense) should be able to take advantage of. It's about making them earn it the entire way down the field. You can't miss a a tackle and let them off the hook or give them an easy one. We have to be a lot better at that. If we look back after next season and we gave up half of what we gave up last season, we're going to be a good team. Same thing on punt – we ended up last in punting. If we get in the top half of the league, what a difference that will make for our defense, not putting them in tough situations. We feel like we have a good offense, so our defense is tested every single day. We have a quarterback that can throw the ball down the field, so they see a good offense every single day.
How much do the injuries hurt the guys who don't get the reps, and how much does it help the guys that do?
There's a few veterans that won't hurt them as much. Connor Iwema has been around here a long time, has been banged up the last couple weeks, he won't practice the rest of spring. It's his fifth year. Jacob Varble got a lot of snaps early in camp, he has a shoulder and actually got stitches in his foot. He'll be out. Hans Carmien same thing — foot — he'll be fine. Without Jake and Hans, when you want to run the football, those guys would be in there, so in the spring game you probably won't see those sets. For the younger guys, it's made them speed up the process of getting better. When you get those reps, you have to take advantage of them.
How do you decide what format to use for the Spring Game?
We've got to be smart. We're not going to win any games against the Salukis in the Spring Game. We have to get our team to fall camp as healthy as we can be. There's going to be injuries — it's part of the game — we have to go out there and put them in live situations. The biggest thing is coming away healthy into the off-season. (The spring game) might be a little bit shorter, but we feel like we know our roster. We've went at it pretty hard. I'd be hard-pressed to find a team that's gotten more reps in team periods throughout the entire week. We're going to have the film and the reps we needed to see from the spring.
What position battle are you looking for a solid conclusion to at the end of the spring?
I don't know if we'll have a conclusion going into the summer. We're a long way from September 9. That's when we need to know who's going to be out there. At all positions we have legitimate depth of people getting pushed. I think it's the deepest we've been on the offensive line in a long time, same thing with the defensive line with the young guys going back and forth. There's some injuries at safety where Jeremy Chinn hasn't been out there and we moved James Ceasar back. Jeff Vea has been banged up and he's trying to get back because he sees James is going to be a pretty good player. Same thing at corner. You have to be 5-6 deep in the secondary because they're all going to play. Tanner (Hearn) at quarterback — we might put him out there a little bit more than Sam (Straub) with the ones, just to see him operate. You're one play away when you're the backup quarterback, so you better be able to go in there with the first team and get us going.
Talk about the depth at the running back position.
The biggest thing with Daquan (Isom) is he's the heaviest he's ever been. When he played as a freshman, he wasn't even 170 pounds. He's pound-for-pound the strongest guy we have, but now he weighs 190 pounds. (Strength coach) Meade Smith has done an outstanding job with him. He got eight stitches in his thumb, so we'll see how it is, he might play, he might not. Jonathan Mixon can be an every-down back, but he's our bigger back, over 220 pounds and can grind some yards out.
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