Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Football preps for Saturday's annual Spring Game
04/06/2018 | 5:25:00 | Football
CARBONDALE, Ill. — The Southern Illinois football team will hold its annual spring game at noon on Saturday at Saluki Stadium. Admission is free and gates open at 8 a.m. for the athletic department's annual garage sale of overstocked athletic apparel. Fans can also select season tickets on-site with many prime locations tagged and available for purchase.
After Friday afternoon's practice, head coach Nick Hill previewed tomorrow's scrimmage.
What's your main focus for tomorrow's Spring Game?
I think it's just the same focus that we've tried to have every single day that we came out here. We set a standard of what we want to be — come out here and get better each and every day. Meeting those expectations, come out here with great effort, great attitudes. We've done that every single practice. We've had a really great camp. It's a little bit of those guys who haven't been in a game situation where they redshirted last year and fall camp they get a few reps in scrimmages, but it's different now. The expectation is for them to put themselves in position going into fall camp of, hey, this guy we can count on. We know that core group of guys we're going to be counting on, but there's still some spots that we're looking at where people have put themselves in good position to help this football team. You want to see those guys perform. Any time you can come out on a Saturday and play this game, it's about coming out and having some fun and competing.
What are some things on offense where you've seen the most progress in spring ball from the first day until now?
Just a mentality of finishing — you see our backs, they can all be physical runners, making one cut and getting downhill and really celebrating the 4- and 5-yard runs. Those are the runs that really keep you on track, especially as a play-caller, going through a scrimmage and not having any tackles for a loss. Sometimes you have to be fine with grinding out a 2-3 yard gain and keeping it on course. Same thing up front — being where we're supposed to be and covering people up, and the next step is having the mentality of finishing people and being physical. I like where we're at and what we're doing. I've been pleased, but we still have a long way to go. There's 40 practices when spring ball starts, then you're down to 25 before you play in a game, so every practice is vital.
How about the defense and where you've seen the most progress during spring ball?
I like what they're doing. It's another year that they're growing in Coach (Kraig) Paulson's system. They were all such young pups, several true freshmen playing and redshirt freshmen. You can just see them maturing. I think we're longer and faster and have that mentality to overwhelm people and turn over the ball. They've done that to us in spring practices a few times. Coach Paulson's an excellent coach and I can see even more confidence in them.
You've continued to emphasize the importance of turnovers. How has that translated in spring ball?
As the head coach, you're either going to be happy the offense doesn't turn it over, or happy the defense is getting a lot of turnovers. That's what spring ball and fall camp is for, you have to compete against each other, and you hope there is some give and take and days when one side is better than the other. Our offense has responded at times, but our defense flies around and creates some havoc and done a good job of turning it over. It's a big test tomorrow to see if we can go the number of plays that a game will be, getting tackled to the ground, and taking care of the football. We did that for the most part the last scrimmage. If you win the turnover battle, 76 percent of the time you're winning the game. That's a big stat.
You have a number of BCS transfers. Have you started to make an evaluation of how much they can help you?
I think they've all put themselves right there in a position to compete and contribute. You bring those guys in to play right away and they've all done a great job of buying in. It's nice that we get them here for spring and they've been through winter conditioning and the weight room. They've all bought into our culture and our program and are out here competing and learning. These first 15 practice were a great learning tool, now they're on film and they can watch it all summer, and I think they'll be even better when fall camp comes and they let this sink in a little bit. Anybody that's been out here sees they all have potential to really help us, each and every one of them.
You have a bunch of redshirt freshmen who look ready to make a big step this year. Who are some guys who look ready to make an impact?
I think Bryce Notree and Raquan Lindsey and Luke Giegling — Travis Pickert has gotten a sack every time that we've been live — Bryson Strong, all those guys on defense. Mike Elbert has been out there running with the ones and probably leads us in takeaways for the entire spring and is just a gym rat. On offense, a couple of the offensive linemen — Lucas Davis and Calvin Francis — D.J. Davis, all those guys, there's like 25 of them who got to redshirt. Then you can see the guys who got to play as true freshmen like Jaylin Wilson and Sam Skinner. Sam missed four games with mono and now he looks like a different person. Jaylin Wilson showed flashes but he could be as good as anybody we got. They got to play a little bit, but you can see their maturity. That's a good group of guys.
After Friday afternoon's practice, head coach Nick Hill previewed tomorrow's scrimmage.
What's your main focus for tomorrow's Spring Game?
I think it's just the same focus that we've tried to have every single day that we came out here. We set a standard of what we want to be — come out here and get better each and every day. Meeting those expectations, come out here with great effort, great attitudes. We've done that every single practice. We've had a really great camp. It's a little bit of those guys who haven't been in a game situation where they redshirted last year and fall camp they get a few reps in scrimmages, but it's different now. The expectation is for them to put themselves in position going into fall camp of, hey, this guy we can count on. We know that core group of guys we're going to be counting on, but there's still some spots that we're looking at where people have put themselves in good position to help this football team. You want to see those guys perform. Any time you can come out on a Saturday and play this game, it's about coming out and having some fun and competing.
What are some things on offense where you've seen the most progress in spring ball from the first day until now?
Just a mentality of finishing — you see our backs, they can all be physical runners, making one cut and getting downhill and really celebrating the 4- and 5-yard runs. Those are the runs that really keep you on track, especially as a play-caller, going through a scrimmage and not having any tackles for a loss. Sometimes you have to be fine with grinding out a 2-3 yard gain and keeping it on course. Same thing up front — being where we're supposed to be and covering people up, and the next step is having the mentality of finishing people and being physical. I like where we're at and what we're doing. I've been pleased, but we still have a long way to go. There's 40 practices when spring ball starts, then you're down to 25 before you play in a game, so every practice is vital.
How about the defense and where you've seen the most progress during spring ball?
I like what they're doing. It's another year that they're growing in Coach (Kraig) Paulson's system. They were all such young pups, several true freshmen playing and redshirt freshmen. You can just see them maturing. I think we're longer and faster and have that mentality to overwhelm people and turn over the ball. They've done that to us in spring practices a few times. Coach Paulson's an excellent coach and I can see even more confidence in them.
You've continued to emphasize the importance of turnovers. How has that translated in spring ball?
As the head coach, you're either going to be happy the offense doesn't turn it over, or happy the defense is getting a lot of turnovers. That's what spring ball and fall camp is for, you have to compete against each other, and you hope there is some give and take and days when one side is better than the other. Our offense has responded at times, but our defense flies around and creates some havoc and done a good job of turning it over. It's a big test tomorrow to see if we can go the number of plays that a game will be, getting tackled to the ground, and taking care of the football. We did that for the most part the last scrimmage. If you win the turnover battle, 76 percent of the time you're winning the game. That's a big stat.
You have a number of BCS transfers. Have you started to make an evaluation of how much they can help you?
I think they've all put themselves right there in a position to compete and contribute. You bring those guys in to play right away and they've all done a great job of buying in. It's nice that we get them here for spring and they've been through winter conditioning and the weight room. They've all bought into our culture and our program and are out here competing and learning. These first 15 practice were a great learning tool, now they're on film and they can watch it all summer, and I think they'll be even better when fall camp comes and they let this sink in a little bit. Anybody that's been out here sees they all have potential to really help us, each and every one of them.
You have a bunch of redshirt freshmen who look ready to make a big step this year. Who are some guys who look ready to make an impact?
I think Bryce Notree and Raquan Lindsey and Luke Giegling — Travis Pickert has gotten a sack every time that we've been live — Bryson Strong, all those guys on defense. Mike Elbert has been out there running with the ones and probably leads us in takeaways for the entire spring and is just a gym rat. On offense, a couple of the offensive linemen — Lucas Davis and Calvin Francis — D.J. Davis, all those guys, there's like 25 of them who got to redshirt. Then you can see the guys who got to play as true freshmen like Jaylin Wilson and Sam Skinner. Sam missed four games with mono and now he looks like a different person. Jaylin Wilson showed flashes but he could be as good as anybody we got. They got to play a little bit, but you can see their maturity. That's a good group of guys.
Players Mentioned
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ILB
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OLB
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DE
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DE
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