Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Head coach Nick Hill's weekly press conference
09/16/2019 | 3:02:00 | Football
CARBONDALE, Ill. — During his weekly press conference on Monday, Southern Illinois head coach Nick Hill discussed the departure of director of athletics Jerry Kill and his optimism for the future under new AD Liz Jarnigan.
The Salukis (2-1) have won two-straight games and are receiving Top 25 votes in both FCS polls this week. They travel to FBS Arkansas State on Saturday. For the first time since 1993 and just the sixth time in school history, the Salukis have two FBS opponents on their schedule in the same season. Southern has already beaten FBS UMass on Sept. 7, but has never beaten two FBS teams in the same year.
On the departure of AD Jerry Kill.
With Coach Kill announcing that he's resigning, number one, I think everybody knows the relationship I have with him. It's a player to coach relationship and I still look at him as my coach and someone who has changed the course of my life. I will always be indebted to him for that and I think that every person he has walked into their life has their own Coach Kill stories about how he has impacted them.
The one thing I think we all know is that Coach Kill does it his way. He has a passion and goes at things 100 miles per hour and gets things done. It's been awesome having him around here. He's pushed me, made me better, as he's always gotten the best out of me, whether it was as a player or young coach. I think you need people in your life that will not always tell you what you want to hear, but push you to be at your best. Coach Kill does that for me.
I think that some people probably have some mixed emotions about him coming back (to football), but to me, I told him when he came in this morning and shut my door that I have always supported him. I had a similar conversation with him in 2007. I was graduating and might have felt differently if I was a junior, but I know he took leaving here and going to Northern Illinois hard. I remember he called and was worried about what the team thought, but I told him the same thing then. You have to do what is best for you and your family. Only you know what makes you truly happy and I think Coach Kill is going to do that.
What coach said to us as a staff today is how he feels. He is a football coach and misses coaching and being around players. We all know the things that he's went through with his health and epilepsy. He's going to do what he wants to do and I think he has the support of his family. I know he has support from me. I will always support coach Kill and be there for him as he's been there for me. As I'm disappointed for no longer having Coach Kill here, I think that anybody would not be honest if they didn't think that there was probably one man to come back in the last couple years that could get this thing going. Just looking around, pushing peoples' buttons and to get excitement going when there's not been as much winning and excitement on that level. People respect Coach Kill around southern Illinois and I think he got excitement going, raised a lot of money, did things for every single program and is leaving here just like he did the last time — as a better place. That is the way that I will remember it.
I wish Coach Kill could retire from being the AD and come be my special assistant, but I know it's not that easy. When you're a football coach, I guarantee if they are ADs now, they wish they were coaching, they miss not just Saturdays, but Mondays right now, being in the staff room right now with coaches.
On his relationship with new AD Liz Jarnigan.
Great relationship. Liz has been outstanding since she got here and has the respect of everybody in the building. She's knowledgable of every department in athletics, from academics, compliance, I think it will be a seamless transition because we saw how well they worked together. There's nothing going on where she has to be caught up to speed. She's in on every decision and knows this place really well. I'm excited for her to get an opportunity to lead a department. She got up and talked to us today and I think everybody was locked in and understands the direction that we're going to keep going.
On if he's upset about Kill leaving.
In life, if we try to figure out other people's paths or what they're thinking or what they should do, or try to get into telling people how they need to live their life, then we're doing it wrong. If someone comes to work every day and does the best they can and they passionately do something, and they want to change the course, that's their decision. We all get to live our own life and we get to make those decisions for us and our family.
If Coach Kill came here and I didn't think he worked hard or this was a retirement gig — this guy busted his butt every single day. A lot of people don't know, he'd have a cancer treatment and be back in the building when he's not supposed to. When you have a recruit, and he's not supposed to be out in the sun, and he's got a towel wrapped around his head coming into Buffalo Wild Wings on his way home just so he can see a recruit, this is a guy who cares about every single thing that goes on. He busted his tail just like he always does. He'll go bust his tail for Coach Fuente. I don't feel one bit of betrayal. Coach Kill has always done it his way and always done it passionately. We all have to just keep moving forward the way he'd want us to do, and that's what we'll do.
On QB Stone Labanowitz's shoulder injury.
Stone had an x-ray this morning. It will be probably 4-6 weeks and we'll know further in a week-and-a-half to two weeks, before they can tell if it will need surgery or not. There's still a possibility for surgery.
On who will start at quarterback on Saturday at Arkansas State.
Karé will start the game and Nic (Baker) has to be ready to go, too. I know that he will be. It was a three-way competition and I talked about how I felt like there were three guys who I thought could win football games for us. Karé will get the opportunity and Nic will get a lot more reps this week and if his number's called, you have to control what you can control. I feel bad for Stone. Like I told him today, he was a little bit down. You have to rehab, you're going to get injured playing this game if you play long enough, and you have to bounce back and have a positive attitude and you'll be stronger for it.
On how the offense changes under Lyles.
The core of our offense isn't going to change. There's going to be some things that better suit Karé that we'll put in the game plan, but our general offense will stay the same. Once Karé got in the game (against UT Martin) and we started to really run the football with some success, that was the plan we took into the rest of the game. I thought on the first touchdown drive, Karé made a tough throw to Landon (Lenoir) that got us going, an explosive play. He took care of the ball, after his first throw, he was pretty efficient in the game. We didn't ask him to do a ton, but he'll get the majority of the reps this week and we'll see what he likes and we're still in the game-planning mode for Arkansas State.
On the job of a quarterback.
We kind of joked around — they brought up the 2006 game against UT Martin in the playoffs. Somebody brought up the stat sheet and I think I threw for like 120 yards and completed eight passes, and the last one was a touchdown pass. They remember the last touchdown pass and they remember that we won, they don't remember I threw a pick-six trying to throw it to the fullback out in the flat. We hand it to Arkee Whitlock like 36 times in the game and have 300 total yards of offense. They remember we won a big playoff game against UT Martin in 2006. That's how it was this past week. The quarterback's job is to win a football game, do what's asked. The bottom line is you have to win football games as a quarterback.
On how best to utilize Javon Williams Jr.
We have to continue to find ways to get Javon involved in the game. He can do so many different things. As the season goes on, I think you'll see him in a variety of different roles and ways to get him the ball. He's a physical runner, he can catch the football and he can throw the football, so you have to put him back there. The easiest way is to snap him the ball and let him run it or throw it.
On establishing the running game.
As this team kind of takes shape, we want to be physical and we want to run the football. If you can run the football and physically impose your will on somebody, that's what you're going to do, and you're going to win a lot of football games doing that. I don't know a coach in the country that wouldn't keep doing that.
The Salukis (2-1) have won two-straight games and are receiving Top 25 votes in both FCS polls this week. They travel to FBS Arkansas State on Saturday. For the first time since 1993 and just the sixth time in school history, the Salukis have two FBS opponents on their schedule in the same season. Southern has already beaten FBS UMass on Sept. 7, but has never beaten two FBS teams in the same year.
On the departure of AD Jerry Kill.
With Coach Kill announcing that he's resigning, number one, I think everybody knows the relationship I have with him. It's a player to coach relationship and I still look at him as my coach and someone who has changed the course of my life. I will always be indebted to him for that and I think that every person he has walked into their life has their own Coach Kill stories about how he has impacted them.
The one thing I think we all know is that Coach Kill does it his way. He has a passion and goes at things 100 miles per hour and gets things done. It's been awesome having him around here. He's pushed me, made me better, as he's always gotten the best out of me, whether it was as a player or young coach. I think you need people in your life that will not always tell you what you want to hear, but push you to be at your best. Coach Kill does that for me.
I think that some people probably have some mixed emotions about him coming back (to football), but to me, I told him when he came in this morning and shut my door that I have always supported him. I had a similar conversation with him in 2007. I was graduating and might have felt differently if I was a junior, but I know he took leaving here and going to Northern Illinois hard. I remember he called and was worried about what the team thought, but I told him the same thing then. You have to do what is best for you and your family. Only you know what makes you truly happy and I think Coach Kill is going to do that.
What coach said to us as a staff today is how he feels. He is a football coach and misses coaching and being around players. We all know the things that he's went through with his health and epilepsy. He's going to do what he wants to do and I think he has the support of his family. I know he has support from me. I will always support coach Kill and be there for him as he's been there for me. As I'm disappointed for no longer having Coach Kill here, I think that anybody would not be honest if they didn't think that there was probably one man to come back in the last couple years that could get this thing going. Just looking around, pushing peoples' buttons and to get excitement going when there's not been as much winning and excitement on that level. People respect Coach Kill around southern Illinois and I think he got excitement going, raised a lot of money, did things for every single program and is leaving here just like he did the last time — as a better place. That is the way that I will remember it.
I wish Coach Kill could retire from being the AD and come be my special assistant, but I know it's not that easy. When you're a football coach, I guarantee if they are ADs now, they wish they were coaching, they miss not just Saturdays, but Mondays right now, being in the staff room right now with coaches.
On his relationship with new AD Liz Jarnigan.
Great relationship. Liz has been outstanding since she got here and has the respect of everybody in the building. She's knowledgable of every department in athletics, from academics, compliance, I think it will be a seamless transition because we saw how well they worked together. There's nothing going on where she has to be caught up to speed. She's in on every decision and knows this place really well. I'm excited for her to get an opportunity to lead a department. She got up and talked to us today and I think everybody was locked in and understands the direction that we're going to keep going.
On if he's upset about Kill leaving.
In life, if we try to figure out other people's paths or what they're thinking or what they should do, or try to get into telling people how they need to live their life, then we're doing it wrong. If someone comes to work every day and does the best they can and they passionately do something, and they want to change the course, that's their decision. We all get to live our own life and we get to make those decisions for us and our family.
If Coach Kill came here and I didn't think he worked hard or this was a retirement gig — this guy busted his butt every single day. A lot of people don't know, he'd have a cancer treatment and be back in the building when he's not supposed to. When you have a recruit, and he's not supposed to be out in the sun, and he's got a towel wrapped around his head coming into Buffalo Wild Wings on his way home just so he can see a recruit, this is a guy who cares about every single thing that goes on. He busted his tail just like he always does. He'll go bust his tail for Coach Fuente. I don't feel one bit of betrayal. Coach Kill has always done it his way and always done it passionately. We all have to just keep moving forward the way he'd want us to do, and that's what we'll do.
On QB Stone Labanowitz's shoulder injury.
Stone had an x-ray this morning. It will be probably 4-6 weeks and we'll know further in a week-and-a-half to two weeks, before they can tell if it will need surgery or not. There's still a possibility for surgery.
On who will start at quarterback on Saturday at Arkansas State.
Karé will start the game and Nic (Baker) has to be ready to go, too. I know that he will be. It was a three-way competition and I talked about how I felt like there were three guys who I thought could win football games for us. Karé will get the opportunity and Nic will get a lot more reps this week and if his number's called, you have to control what you can control. I feel bad for Stone. Like I told him today, he was a little bit down. You have to rehab, you're going to get injured playing this game if you play long enough, and you have to bounce back and have a positive attitude and you'll be stronger for it.
On how the offense changes under Lyles.
The core of our offense isn't going to change. There's going to be some things that better suit Karé that we'll put in the game plan, but our general offense will stay the same. Once Karé got in the game (against UT Martin) and we started to really run the football with some success, that was the plan we took into the rest of the game. I thought on the first touchdown drive, Karé made a tough throw to Landon (Lenoir) that got us going, an explosive play. He took care of the ball, after his first throw, he was pretty efficient in the game. We didn't ask him to do a ton, but he'll get the majority of the reps this week and we'll see what he likes and we're still in the game-planning mode for Arkansas State.
On the job of a quarterback.
We kind of joked around — they brought up the 2006 game against UT Martin in the playoffs. Somebody brought up the stat sheet and I think I threw for like 120 yards and completed eight passes, and the last one was a touchdown pass. They remember the last touchdown pass and they remember that we won, they don't remember I threw a pick-six trying to throw it to the fullback out in the flat. We hand it to Arkee Whitlock like 36 times in the game and have 300 total yards of offense. They remember we won a big playoff game against UT Martin in 2006. That's how it was this past week. The quarterback's job is to win a football game, do what's asked. The bottom line is you have to win football games as a quarterback.
On how best to utilize Javon Williams Jr.
We have to continue to find ways to get Javon involved in the game. He can do so many different things. As the season goes on, I think you'll see him in a variety of different roles and ways to get him the ball. He's a physical runner, he can catch the football and he can throw the football, so you have to put him back there. The easiest way is to snap him the ball and let him run it or throw it.
On establishing the running game.
As this team kind of takes shape, we want to be physical and we want to run the football. If you can run the football and physically impose your will on somebody, that's what you're going to do, and you're going to win a lot of football games doing that. I don't know a coach in the country that wouldn't keep doing that.
Players Mentioned
QB
/ Football
RB
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