Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Salukis enter national rankings for first time since 2014
11/18/2019 | 5:19:00 | Football
CARBONDALE, Ill. — Winners of five-straight games, Southern Illinois made its debut in the national rankings on Monday, entering the FCS Coaches Poll at No. 25. It marks the first time the Salukis (7-4, 5-2) have been nationally ranked since 2014. Southern is tied for second place in the Missouri Valley Football Conference standings and hosts No. 1 ranked North Dakota State on Saturday at 2 p.m. SIU has the nation's eighth-longest active winning streak and will face a Bison team that has won 32-consecutive games.
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Also on Monday, SIU running back Javon Williams Jr. added Stats FCS National Freshman of the Week honors. The 6-1, 239-pound, redshirt freshman rushed for a career-high 149 yards and completed both of his passes for 48 more yards at Western Illinois on Saturday. He did it on just 19 carries for a 7.8 average with a long of 35. Williams scored three rushing TDs on rushes of 1, 8 and 2 yards. His 18 touchdowns on the season are the most by a Division I freshman and seventh-best among all FCS players. He also holds the MVFC touchdown record by a freshman.
Head coach Nick Hill met with the media on Monday morning to preview the game with the Bison.
Opening Statement
I'm excited about our guys and their commitment to all phases, on and off the field. It's fun as a coach to see a team come together. Their commitment to every detail in the meeting rooms and practice, it's fun to see them have some success. The thing that makes me most proud is their commitment to keep chasing their best. We get back here on Sunday and it's not a happy-go-lucky, pat yourself on the back — it's watching that film intently and looking to get better. We feel like our best game, we still haven't played. We've played well at times, but it's about execution and we can execute at a higher level.
On North Dakota State.
I don't think you need me to stand up here and tell you how good of a football team is coming to Carbondale, 32 wins in a row, Coach (Matt) Entz has just kept the train rolling. They might be better than they have been in the past. They've had a couple of quarterbacks making a lot of money in the NFL, and I think (Trey Lance) is on his way to do that as well. He's as good as those guys, or will be. They just do so many things really well. We've had to watch them on film — we've played a number of opponents after they have — and you're not going to get tricked or they don't do a lot of special things, they just execute at a really high level. All 22 guys really play with great technique and fundamentals, they're very well coached. They have good schemes, but they really out-execute you for 60 minutes with really good players. It's going to be an execution game. We're going to have to execute at a high level, take care of the football and play well on special teams. We are very excited about the opportunity and I look forward to our week of preparation.
On NDSU freshman quarterback Trey Lance.
The thing he's done so well for a redshirt freshman, he just takes care of the football. Some of his most impressive plays are when he checks the football down. A freshman quarterback usually has big eyes and wants to push the ball down the field. He can do that and has an extremely strong arm, but you see him take what's there, take the back underneath, keep his team out of trouble. It's easy to talk about that, and you see experienced quarterbacks do that, but for his first year, the amount of great decisions he's made really separates him.
On if his team needs to play a perfect game to win.
Our message isn't going to be that we have to go out and play perfect. I want our guys to play the way they have been, with a ton of passion. You're never going to play a perfect game and if you go in thinking that, there's going to be adversity in this game when you feel like it's not going your way and it starts to steamroll. We just have to keep fighting it out one play at a time and it will give ourselves a chance. We're going to have to play really well. Nobody in the last 32 games has beaten them. You have to do all the little things. No one has beaten them in the last 10 years that beat themselves. That's the message to us. There's going to be times when the best play is throwing it out of bounds, let's punt and play good defense. If you're turning the football over and giving them easy opportunities, it's going to be a long day.
On playing big games in November.
The expectations and the standards of the program need to get back to that. Like I told them yesterday in the meeting, when you have that standard every single week, then when you get to big games, nothing changes. It's not like you can turn a new switch and we're going to practice a little better. We're in this position because we made that commitment throughout the year. You want to be put in the arena of big games and big opportunities. I'm excited. This might be the biggest game that's been played here at Saluki Stadium. It's going on its 10th season. Getting exciting football in November in this beautiful stadium, I'm excited that we get the opportunity to do that.
On whether the team is convinced it can win.
I don't think we'll have to do any convincing. There won't be any David versus Goliath. We're a Top 25 team for a reason. We're a good football team and once you get into November you play a lot of good football teams. This happens to be the No. 1 team and we're excited about it.
On the defense.
Playing with a great defense changes a lot of things. I just can't say enough about their resolve, down there twice in the low red zone (at Western Illinois). Really the most exciting thing is a lot of players making plays. It's just their demeanor. You can talk about it, but then going out there and doing it. When there's a turnover, or you rough the punter, you have to go back out there and your job is to do your job at a really high level, no matter what the situation is. You adapt and adjust and those guys are always ready to go back and do whatever it is.
On how Stone Labanowitz has handled being the backup quarterback.
Number one, he's one play away. As you see across the country, you have to be ready to go, dialed in, just as excited to play as a backup quarterback or you're not going to do well if you get that opportunity. Obviously, anybody who started the year, Stone is disappointed he's not out there, but he's been excellent as far as his approach in practice and on the sideline in games. He's on our leadership council and has been doing a great job. Like I tell him every week, you never know when that opportunity is going to come back.
On a possible playoff berth.
Our mission this week is to go win this game. If not, then I don't know why we're playing the game. We deserve to be in postseason play. We have a good football team. At some point, you're going to have to beat the No. 1 team. That's the standard and we get the opportunity this week. We've won five games in a row. When we lost those first two games, I think we've learned from that. We didn't play with our two All-Americans (D.J. Davis and Jeremy Chinn). I think if you would ask any team in the Top 10 — take your top-two All-Americans out and go play — they wouldn't be too happy about that. Our guys have been resilient, those guys have come back and since they've come back, we've been a pretty good team.
BUY TICKETS (Buy 1-Get-1 promo code BOGO expires at midnight on 11/19)
Also on Monday, SIU running back Javon Williams Jr. added Stats FCS National Freshman of the Week honors. The 6-1, 239-pound, redshirt freshman rushed for a career-high 149 yards and completed both of his passes for 48 more yards at Western Illinois on Saturday. He did it on just 19 carries for a 7.8 average with a long of 35. Williams scored three rushing TDs on rushes of 1, 8 and 2 yards. His 18 touchdowns on the season are the most by a Division I freshman and seventh-best among all FCS players. He also holds the MVFC touchdown record by a freshman.
Head coach Nick Hill met with the media on Monday morning to preview the game with the Bison.
Opening Statement
I'm excited about our guys and their commitment to all phases, on and off the field. It's fun as a coach to see a team come together. Their commitment to every detail in the meeting rooms and practice, it's fun to see them have some success. The thing that makes me most proud is their commitment to keep chasing their best. We get back here on Sunday and it's not a happy-go-lucky, pat yourself on the back — it's watching that film intently and looking to get better. We feel like our best game, we still haven't played. We've played well at times, but it's about execution and we can execute at a higher level.
On North Dakota State.
I don't think you need me to stand up here and tell you how good of a football team is coming to Carbondale, 32 wins in a row, Coach (Matt) Entz has just kept the train rolling. They might be better than they have been in the past. They've had a couple of quarterbacks making a lot of money in the NFL, and I think (Trey Lance) is on his way to do that as well. He's as good as those guys, or will be. They just do so many things really well. We've had to watch them on film — we've played a number of opponents after they have — and you're not going to get tricked or they don't do a lot of special things, they just execute at a really high level. All 22 guys really play with great technique and fundamentals, they're very well coached. They have good schemes, but they really out-execute you for 60 minutes with really good players. It's going to be an execution game. We're going to have to execute at a high level, take care of the football and play well on special teams. We are very excited about the opportunity and I look forward to our week of preparation.
On NDSU freshman quarterback Trey Lance.
The thing he's done so well for a redshirt freshman, he just takes care of the football. Some of his most impressive plays are when he checks the football down. A freshman quarterback usually has big eyes and wants to push the ball down the field. He can do that and has an extremely strong arm, but you see him take what's there, take the back underneath, keep his team out of trouble. It's easy to talk about that, and you see experienced quarterbacks do that, but for his first year, the amount of great decisions he's made really separates him.
On if his team needs to play a perfect game to win.
Our message isn't going to be that we have to go out and play perfect. I want our guys to play the way they have been, with a ton of passion. You're never going to play a perfect game and if you go in thinking that, there's going to be adversity in this game when you feel like it's not going your way and it starts to steamroll. We just have to keep fighting it out one play at a time and it will give ourselves a chance. We're going to have to play really well. Nobody in the last 32 games has beaten them. You have to do all the little things. No one has beaten them in the last 10 years that beat themselves. That's the message to us. There's going to be times when the best play is throwing it out of bounds, let's punt and play good defense. If you're turning the football over and giving them easy opportunities, it's going to be a long day.
On playing big games in November.
The expectations and the standards of the program need to get back to that. Like I told them yesterday in the meeting, when you have that standard every single week, then when you get to big games, nothing changes. It's not like you can turn a new switch and we're going to practice a little better. We're in this position because we made that commitment throughout the year. You want to be put in the arena of big games and big opportunities. I'm excited. This might be the biggest game that's been played here at Saluki Stadium. It's going on its 10th season. Getting exciting football in November in this beautiful stadium, I'm excited that we get the opportunity to do that.
On whether the team is convinced it can win.
I don't think we'll have to do any convincing. There won't be any David versus Goliath. We're a Top 25 team for a reason. We're a good football team and once you get into November you play a lot of good football teams. This happens to be the No. 1 team and we're excited about it.
On the defense.
Playing with a great defense changes a lot of things. I just can't say enough about their resolve, down there twice in the low red zone (at Western Illinois). Really the most exciting thing is a lot of players making plays. It's just their demeanor. You can talk about it, but then going out there and doing it. When there's a turnover, or you rough the punter, you have to go back out there and your job is to do your job at a really high level, no matter what the situation is. You adapt and adjust and those guys are always ready to go back and do whatever it is.
On how Stone Labanowitz has handled being the backup quarterback.
Number one, he's one play away. As you see across the country, you have to be ready to go, dialed in, just as excited to play as a backup quarterback or you're not going to do well if you get that opportunity. Obviously, anybody who started the year, Stone is disappointed he's not out there, but he's been excellent as far as his approach in practice and on the sideline in games. He's on our leadership council and has been doing a great job. Like I tell him every week, you never know when that opportunity is going to come back.
On a possible playoff berth.
Our mission this week is to go win this game. If not, then I don't know why we're playing the game. We deserve to be in postseason play. We have a good football team. At some point, you're going to have to beat the No. 1 team. That's the standard and we get the opportunity this week. We've won five games in a row. When we lost those first two games, I think we've learned from that. We didn't play with our two All-Americans (D.J. Davis and Jeremy Chinn). I think if you would ask any team in the Top 10 — take your top-two All-Americans out and go play — they wouldn't be too happy about that. Our guys have been resilient, those guys have come back and since they've come back, we've been a pretty good team.
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