Saluki Football notebook
12/20/2018 | 10:12:00 | Football
CARBONDALE, Ill. — Salukis head coach Nick Hill met with the media on Wednesday to discuss recruiting, the addition of new coordinators Jason Petrino and Blake Rolan, injury updates and roster notes. Here are excerpts from the press conference.
On which areas still need to be addressed in the February signing period.
We've got to do a good job on the offensive and defensive line. We're going to target two defensive linemen — we have a pretty good idea who those two kids might be. We'll be adding a defensive line coach and we're excited about getting him on the road. We've got a few kids on the offensive line and we've got to close out this class with offensive linemen. Those would be the two areas we'll really concentrate on going down the stretch. Then defensive back — I feel like we could have one of the best defensive secondaries coming back with the guys that we have. We have to get healthy, a couple of them aren't going to be available in spring ball. With Jeremy (Chinn), Madre (Harper) and Torian (Lewis), and then we have a lot of experience with the freshmen who got to play with Qua Brown and Michael Elbert, but we need to add a couple pieces.
On the quarterback position.
I feel good about a couple of the kids we have on the roster right now. Those guys have been here, know our system. Any time you lose two fifth-year seniors, there's a lot of reps that go out the window, but those guys have to be hungry to go take those reps and opportunity. It's a wide-open room and competition makes the best out of us. (Quarterback) is not a position where you can take a kid just to take a kid. It affects your entire team. The quarterback position really makes you go. Whether you're playing Pop Warner football or the NFL, we're all looking for a championship quarterback that can be the face of the franchise and lead your team. If that guy becomes available, we'll always do our evaluations of that. I'm a quarterback guy and I feel good about a couple of the young guys we have.
On his role in the offense with the addition of coordinator Blake Rolan.
Nothing's going to change on offense. I'm excited to add Blake and put the coordinator role on Blake. He'll make me better. My plan is still to be pretty heavily involved in the offense, still call plays. This past season I was involved in every quarterback meeting and I still will be heavily involved with quarterbacks, but giving Blake the quarterback room, I can concentrate on being a better head coach. Whether it's sitting in on different meetings, being more involved in special teams, those type of things will be good. Having a guy who can call plays and has called plays at a high level, he'll help me out on game days and throughout the week on scripting practices. His ideas, too, I'm a guy who's always open to all new ideas that fit into what we're trying to do on offense.
On what system defensive coordinator Jason Petrino will bring.
He bases out of a four-down. It's important for us to see what personnel we have, mixing up the fronts a little bit, to have some odd-front structures. We want to put the best 11 players out there. If that's a 4-3 end or that's a guy who stands up and rushes off the edge, eventually you're getting to the same stuff, no matter who you have out there. I'm excited about getting Coach Petrino going and it's been great having him here the last three weeks and just talking ball with him. I think our players will be fired up to play for him.
On his message to the team.
We were 2-9. We have to be better as a team. There's not any starters. We have to come back here and earn every rep, every down. Bringing more good players in here that do it the right way and are good teammates will push everybody to be better.
Injury update on S Jeremy Chinn.
Jeremy is out of his sling. He's our leader, a great kid. He stuck around for an extra few days so he could be a host for high school kids on campus, gets up and talks to parents. It was good to see him on Saturday night without his sling on. He's a guy if you tell him he's coming back in three months, he'll be back in two months. When he was a true freshman, he got hurt and they told him he was out for the season and he was playing in game four. I look for him to have a great rehab.
Injury update on LB Cody Crider.
Crider will move to offense. He led the state of Kentucky in rushing and is always throwing a plug in my ear to be able to run the football. There was a time where he was thinking whether to come back and give it another run or not. He wants to try to play. I think it will give him some motivation to try to do something different. I've been out recruiting, but I got a picture of him in a duck blind with my dad in waders, so I think his knee is doing alright.
Injury update on TE Jake Varble.
Jake Varble will (leave the football program and) go to dental school in the fall. His dad teaches there. He got a 4.0 this semester and scored high on his entrance test and was accepted. We had a long conversation with him and Coach (Pat) Poore, his position coach, and feel like that's what's best. He's coming off an ACL, for life after football, felt like that's what was best.
On recruiting.
We're always recruiting. We've been in there all morning watching prospects so that when we can get back on the road on Jan. 10, we'll hit it for four weeks until that Feb. 6 signing date to round out this class. For this first group of guys in the early signing period, I think it's important to get program guys. The majority of them have been committed to us from the summertime. We've done in-person evaluations, been in their homes, we've gotten to know their high school coaches, and they really fit what you want…There's a lot of kids who today didn't sign where they wanted to sign and there will be a whole new group of guys that we'll be evaluating every day. A name that comes across this afternoon that maybe we didn't think we had a shot of getting, we get in there and evaluate him that we might be able to get.
Other notes of interest.
Spring ball will start Feb. 28….Fourth-year juniors who will graduate and not return are LB Airan Reed, CB James Ceasar, OL Graham Lawrence, RB Chris Perkins, DE Rondarian Bell....DE Jaylin Wilson will also not return in 2019.
On which areas still need to be addressed in the February signing period.
We've got to do a good job on the offensive and defensive line. We're going to target two defensive linemen — we have a pretty good idea who those two kids might be. We'll be adding a defensive line coach and we're excited about getting him on the road. We've got a few kids on the offensive line and we've got to close out this class with offensive linemen. Those would be the two areas we'll really concentrate on going down the stretch. Then defensive back — I feel like we could have one of the best defensive secondaries coming back with the guys that we have. We have to get healthy, a couple of them aren't going to be available in spring ball. With Jeremy (Chinn), Madre (Harper) and Torian (Lewis), and then we have a lot of experience with the freshmen who got to play with Qua Brown and Michael Elbert, but we need to add a couple pieces.
On the quarterback position.
I feel good about a couple of the kids we have on the roster right now. Those guys have been here, know our system. Any time you lose two fifth-year seniors, there's a lot of reps that go out the window, but those guys have to be hungry to go take those reps and opportunity. It's a wide-open room and competition makes the best out of us. (Quarterback) is not a position where you can take a kid just to take a kid. It affects your entire team. The quarterback position really makes you go. Whether you're playing Pop Warner football or the NFL, we're all looking for a championship quarterback that can be the face of the franchise and lead your team. If that guy becomes available, we'll always do our evaluations of that. I'm a quarterback guy and I feel good about a couple of the young guys we have.
On his role in the offense with the addition of coordinator Blake Rolan.
Nothing's going to change on offense. I'm excited to add Blake and put the coordinator role on Blake. He'll make me better. My plan is still to be pretty heavily involved in the offense, still call plays. This past season I was involved in every quarterback meeting and I still will be heavily involved with quarterbacks, but giving Blake the quarterback room, I can concentrate on being a better head coach. Whether it's sitting in on different meetings, being more involved in special teams, those type of things will be good. Having a guy who can call plays and has called plays at a high level, he'll help me out on game days and throughout the week on scripting practices. His ideas, too, I'm a guy who's always open to all new ideas that fit into what we're trying to do on offense.
On what system defensive coordinator Jason Petrino will bring.
He bases out of a four-down. It's important for us to see what personnel we have, mixing up the fronts a little bit, to have some odd-front structures. We want to put the best 11 players out there. If that's a 4-3 end or that's a guy who stands up and rushes off the edge, eventually you're getting to the same stuff, no matter who you have out there. I'm excited about getting Coach Petrino going and it's been great having him here the last three weeks and just talking ball with him. I think our players will be fired up to play for him.
On his message to the team.
We were 2-9. We have to be better as a team. There's not any starters. We have to come back here and earn every rep, every down. Bringing more good players in here that do it the right way and are good teammates will push everybody to be better.
Injury update on S Jeremy Chinn.
Jeremy is out of his sling. He's our leader, a great kid. He stuck around for an extra few days so he could be a host for high school kids on campus, gets up and talks to parents. It was good to see him on Saturday night without his sling on. He's a guy if you tell him he's coming back in three months, he'll be back in two months. When he was a true freshman, he got hurt and they told him he was out for the season and he was playing in game four. I look for him to have a great rehab.
Injury update on LB Cody Crider.
Crider will move to offense. He led the state of Kentucky in rushing and is always throwing a plug in my ear to be able to run the football. There was a time where he was thinking whether to come back and give it another run or not. He wants to try to play. I think it will give him some motivation to try to do something different. I've been out recruiting, but I got a picture of him in a duck blind with my dad in waders, so I think his knee is doing alright.
Injury update on TE Jake Varble.
Jake Varble will (leave the football program and) go to dental school in the fall. His dad teaches there. He got a 4.0 this semester and scored high on his entrance test and was accepted. We had a long conversation with him and Coach (Pat) Poore, his position coach, and feel like that's what's best. He's coming off an ACL, for life after football, felt like that's what was best.
On recruiting.
We're always recruiting. We've been in there all morning watching prospects so that when we can get back on the road on Jan. 10, we'll hit it for four weeks until that Feb. 6 signing date to round out this class. For this first group of guys in the early signing period, I think it's important to get program guys. The majority of them have been committed to us from the summertime. We've done in-person evaluations, been in their homes, we've gotten to know their high school coaches, and they really fit what you want…There's a lot of kids who today didn't sign where they wanted to sign and there will be a whole new group of guys that we'll be evaluating every day. A name that comes across this afternoon that maybe we didn't think we had a shot of getting, we get in there and evaluate him that we might be able to get.
Other notes of interest.
Spring ball will start Feb. 28….Fourth-year juniors who will graduate and not return are LB Airan Reed, CB James Ceasar, OL Graham Lawrence, RB Chris Perkins, DE Rondarian Bell....DE Jaylin Wilson will also not return in 2019.
Players Mentioned
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