Quarterbacks impress during Football's second spring scrimmage

Quarterbacks impress during Football's second spring scrimmage

03/31/2019 | 6:17:00 | Football

Photo Gallery Nick Hill Press Conference Nic Baker Press Conference Javon Williams Press Conference Karé Lyles Press Conference

By: By Tom Weber, SIUSalukis.com

CARBONDALE, Ill. — The quarterback competition is heating up at Southern Illinois, as all three passers who played during Sunday's 54-play live scrimmage had strong performances.

In a rare scrimmage in which SIU head coach Nick Hill allowed live contact on the QBs, redshirt freshman Nic Baker was especially impressive, completing 11-of-15 passes for 134 yards and rushing for 26 yards on eight carries. He showed a knack for escaping pressure and either completing passes downfield or running for positive yardage.

"Nic extended the play and good things happen with his feet, either running it, or getting outside the pocket making plays down the field throwing the football," Hill said. "When you look around at pro football and college football, the quarterbacks that are playing at the highest level are able to extend plays."

On the second drive of the scrimmage, the offense started at its own 2 yard line, and Baker completed all four of his passes to move the unit into range for a 36-yard field goal by Griffin Cerra. Baker connected on a 20-yard strike to Jaden Roberts-Thomas, followed by a 28-yarder to Hunter Milligan and 11-yard tosses to Sam Thompson and Milligan.

"Who doesn't like competition?" asked Baker, who played one series last year for Southern in the season finale at North Dakota State. "You should like competition if you're coming to a DI college. I like competition. It makes me better, it makes Austin (Reed), Stone (Labanowitz), Karé (Lyles) — it makes us all better."

Reed, another redshirt freshman, took the next series at quarterback and completed 4-of-7 passes for 40 yards, converting three times on 3rd-and-long with completions of 11, 14 and 21 yards. Former quarterback Javon Williams Jr. put an exclamation point on the drive with a punishing 22-yard run, breaking tackles until he was dragged down at the 1. Two plays later, the redshirt freshman running back scored on a one-yard plunge. Williams Jr. rushed 10 times for 36 yards in the scrimmage and added a pair of catches for 18 yards.

"He has a natural ability of making plays when he has the ball in his hands," Hill said. "Yards after contact are so big for him. He's a natural runner."

Lyles was the first quarterback to play in the scrimmage and returned on the fourth series to complete both of his passes, including a perfect 58-yard touchdown strike down the left sideline to wide receiver Avante Cox, who blew past cornerback Coleton Jeralds. Cox, a Wyoming transfer, led all receivers with four catches for 92 yards.

After starting his college career at Wisconsin and transferring to Scottsdale Community College and then SIU, Lyles is the oldest of the quarterbacks, but has the least experience with Hill's offense. He had the most reps during the first half of today's practice that did not include live tackling.

"I just wanted to show a sense of calmness," Lyles said. "I know that the reps were split up to where we'll have equal opportunities. I just wanted to show that I'm capable of leading this offense."

Lyles said he does not care about anything that transpired last year and has set a goal of going 14-0 in 2019.

"Nothing's impossible here," he said. "I think we have the guys, we have the skillset, we have the leadership on this team to do big things."

Under new coordinator Jason Petrino, Southern's defense was stout against the run today. Despite allowing Williams Jr.'s 22-yard run, the defense stuffed the ground game for 72 yards on 30 carries, for an average of 2.4 yards per rush. The defense also recorded three sacks and seven quarterback hurries. Defensive end Raquan Lindsey sacked Baker on the final two plays of the scrimmage.

"For a brand-new defense, as far as implementing new terminology and a different scheme, I like that in practice 11 we can go out there and scrimmage off the script and execute at a pretty high level," Hill said. "I thought the defense played solid and made the offense earn it."

The team has three more practices left in Spring Ball, plus next Saturday's Spring Game at noon.