Saturday, February 27
Carbondale, IL
12:00 PM
Southern Illinois University
vs
North Dakota St.
Football hosts North Dakota State on Saturday
02/23/2021 | 2:36:00 | Football
CARBONDALE, Ill. — Southern Illinois hosts No. 1-ranked North Dakota State on Saturday at noon in a game that will be televised on ESPN+.
Nick Hill, Head Coach 2/22/21
Opening Statement:
"We're excited for another week of football. Looking back on the game at North Dakota, still disappointed in the outcome. I believe we have a better football team then that, I think we learned a lot about ourselves and some things we can get corrected going into week two. When you go back and watch the film, turnovers: you just can't win, we have to get that corrected. There's no magic formula to that, you have to make smart decisions with the ball from the quarterback position, and you have to have great ball security, cherish the ball and get up with the football.
We have to find ways to create turnovers ourselves from the defense and I believe those will come. We have some things to clean up, that was [last week] the first time we had really tackled live. We had done that early in our training camp. For a few plays, we were limited in a couple of spots. Romeir and Javon got cleared the week of the game, so they weren't able to get tackled, we just had Justin Strong really through training camp. As far as our scrimmages go, we didn't want to just run Justin into the ground, so we were limited in that. It was good for us to go out there and get all those snaps. We'd rather go out there and learn with a win, but we're going to have to learn from a loss and move on and we have a great team coming in that we have to do that against.
We look forward to the challenge – that's what I told my guys yesterday, as we got right back on the field Sunday afternoon. We got some corrections done, watched film, owned mistakes, and moved on. That's where we are right now, in the middle of game planning for North Dakota State. They got a big win yesterday against Youngstown, they're 2-0, they've won 39 games in a row. All the good things we can say about that program, with eight national championships, so we'll be ready to play. We played them last year, most guys to take the field played in that game. You have to be able to make some plays and you have to do a lot of things right if you want to beat them. We are diving into the game plan and look forward to a good week at practice."
On positives from North Dakota:
"I think we have a good football team and we'll show that throughout the season. When we were in rhythm on offense, I feel that Kare [Lyles] probably graded out during his reps, as good of a game he's played here, 12 of 14 with the touchdown. That first fumble, he can't have. On the second fumble, that's just as much on the play call, they dialed up the perfect pressure at the perfect time with two guys from the week side and we didn't pick him up – he's right-handed, we didn't see him from the corner. Obviously we took him out of the game, he took a shot that most people couldn't hold onto the ball during that time – it was a great play by them. I felt like Kare played at a high level. In Nic [Baker], there's some positives to build on, some positives there too. He did some good things, he has to cherish the football better on those two receptions backed up.
It felt a lot like SEMO last year in 2019 and how we started that game. We got into the second half and really didn't feel like ourselves, you're playing a good team and they make you pay and you're down by three scores and the game gets away from you. So, last year we had to do the same thing, get back in here and refocus to go on the road against UMass, now we are in here to focus against the best team in the country. We are ready for that challenge."
On pressure from North Dakota State:
"North Dakota State doesn't change much for you, they make you adapt to who they are. They are going to play fundamentally sound, but every team is going to bring pressures. They're going to have their pressure packages, their defensive coordinator – some are going to pressure more than others. I would say in the grand scheme of things, probably percentagewise, they never play from behind so they don't pressure as much. They are going to get a lead, run the football, they make you earn it. They usually have the best defensive line in the country so they can get away with four and five-man pressures, where they don't have to bring in seven guys to create negative plays, they just have better players than most teams and they let those front four go to work. Percentagewise, North Dakota State doesn't pressure as much as most teams will and we will, and we will be prepared for whatever they are going to do. North Dakota State is not a team that watches another team in front of them, they have a completely different scheme than North Dakota, so we have to be prepared for what they do."
On being physical against North Dakota State:
"We don't have much choice, you've got to get better, last week was the most we've played since training camp yet. It's not like a normal training camp where you have two-a-days and long practices or even an extended practice. It's been over two weeks since we've had a field that we could legitimately run full-speed routes and cut them loose without thinking we could get them injured. Even with the temperatures, we were not out there for more than an hour.
Jajuan Blankenship – that was the first time we had seen him play and tackle anybody, since he got cleared from his tricep injury until the Thursday before. And the way practices were leading up to the game, we really cut him loose. He started in the game, but obviously he's got to get into playing shape. At this time, in normalcy you would have two scrimmages and a ton of practices under our belt and to get those guys ready. Saturday was good for us to get out there and play. We are sore today, we'll watch ourselves on the defensive side of the ball, and clean up tackling. The best way to clean tackling is practice, so that was our first opportunity to do that.
On excitement of having an MVFC season:
"I'm excited for our guys to get another opportunity to play, that's what it's all about. The season is going to take a lot of twists and turns. Week one, we got beat. Week two is here and we are going to get tested. I was completely clear that we are playing, the rules in the MVFC are that you need 53 available players, and it will take a lot not to have 53 available players. I know four teams in our league did not play [this past week], we had just as much weather as they did and weren't able to practice. We didn't have practice for a week and a half and we're going to play. We're going to play if we have players out because of COVID, we had two starters out last week from COVID and they'll be out again this week. If we have more, then we'll have more players step up and ready to play this week. It's week two, we have to continue doing things right, make sure this season goes the way we want it and not just x's and o's on the field, but that's just the test of the discipline we're going to have.
Nick Hill, Head Coach 2/22/21
Opening Statement:
"We're excited for another week of football. Looking back on the game at North Dakota, still disappointed in the outcome. I believe we have a better football team then that, I think we learned a lot about ourselves and some things we can get corrected going into week two. When you go back and watch the film, turnovers: you just can't win, we have to get that corrected. There's no magic formula to that, you have to make smart decisions with the ball from the quarterback position, and you have to have great ball security, cherish the ball and get up with the football.
We have to find ways to create turnovers ourselves from the defense and I believe those will come. We have some things to clean up, that was [last week] the first time we had really tackled live. We had done that early in our training camp. For a few plays, we were limited in a couple of spots. Romeir and Javon got cleared the week of the game, so they weren't able to get tackled, we just had Justin Strong really through training camp. As far as our scrimmages go, we didn't want to just run Justin into the ground, so we were limited in that. It was good for us to go out there and get all those snaps. We'd rather go out there and learn with a win, but we're going to have to learn from a loss and move on and we have a great team coming in that we have to do that against.
We look forward to the challenge – that's what I told my guys yesterday, as we got right back on the field Sunday afternoon. We got some corrections done, watched film, owned mistakes, and moved on. That's where we are right now, in the middle of game planning for North Dakota State. They got a big win yesterday against Youngstown, they're 2-0, they've won 39 games in a row. All the good things we can say about that program, with eight national championships, so we'll be ready to play. We played them last year, most guys to take the field played in that game. You have to be able to make some plays and you have to do a lot of things right if you want to beat them. We are diving into the game plan and look forward to a good week at practice."
On positives from North Dakota:
"I think we have a good football team and we'll show that throughout the season. When we were in rhythm on offense, I feel that Kare [Lyles] probably graded out during his reps, as good of a game he's played here, 12 of 14 with the touchdown. That first fumble, he can't have. On the second fumble, that's just as much on the play call, they dialed up the perfect pressure at the perfect time with two guys from the week side and we didn't pick him up – he's right-handed, we didn't see him from the corner. Obviously we took him out of the game, he took a shot that most people couldn't hold onto the ball during that time – it was a great play by them. I felt like Kare played at a high level. In Nic [Baker], there's some positives to build on, some positives there too. He did some good things, he has to cherish the football better on those two receptions backed up.
It felt a lot like SEMO last year in 2019 and how we started that game. We got into the second half and really didn't feel like ourselves, you're playing a good team and they make you pay and you're down by three scores and the game gets away from you. So, last year we had to do the same thing, get back in here and refocus to go on the road against UMass, now we are in here to focus against the best team in the country. We are ready for that challenge."
On pressure from North Dakota State:
"North Dakota State doesn't change much for you, they make you adapt to who they are. They are going to play fundamentally sound, but every team is going to bring pressures. They're going to have their pressure packages, their defensive coordinator – some are going to pressure more than others. I would say in the grand scheme of things, probably percentagewise, they never play from behind so they don't pressure as much. They are going to get a lead, run the football, they make you earn it. They usually have the best defensive line in the country so they can get away with four and five-man pressures, where they don't have to bring in seven guys to create negative plays, they just have better players than most teams and they let those front four go to work. Percentagewise, North Dakota State doesn't pressure as much as most teams will and we will, and we will be prepared for whatever they are going to do. North Dakota State is not a team that watches another team in front of them, they have a completely different scheme than North Dakota, so we have to be prepared for what they do."
On being physical against North Dakota State:
"We don't have much choice, you've got to get better, last week was the most we've played since training camp yet. It's not like a normal training camp where you have two-a-days and long practices or even an extended practice. It's been over two weeks since we've had a field that we could legitimately run full-speed routes and cut them loose without thinking we could get them injured. Even with the temperatures, we were not out there for more than an hour.
Jajuan Blankenship – that was the first time we had seen him play and tackle anybody, since he got cleared from his tricep injury until the Thursday before. And the way practices were leading up to the game, we really cut him loose. He started in the game, but obviously he's got to get into playing shape. At this time, in normalcy you would have two scrimmages and a ton of practices under our belt and to get those guys ready. Saturday was good for us to get out there and play. We are sore today, we'll watch ourselves on the defensive side of the ball, and clean up tackling. The best way to clean tackling is practice, so that was our first opportunity to do that.
On excitement of having an MVFC season:
"I'm excited for our guys to get another opportunity to play, that's what it's all about. The season is going to take a lot of twists and turns. Week one, we got beat. Week two is here and we are going to get tested. I was completely clear that we are playing, the rules in the MVFC are that you need 53 available players, and it will take a lot not to have 53 available players. I know four teams in our league did not play [this past week], we had just as much weather as they did and weren't able to practice. We didn't have practice for a week and a half and we're going to play. We're going to play if we have players out because of COVID, we had two starters out last week from COVID and they'll be out again this week. If we have more, then we'll have more players step up and ready to play this week. It's week two, we have to continue doing things right, make sure this season goes the way we want it and not just x's and o's on the field, but that's just the test of the discipline we're going to have.
Players Mentioned
DT
/ Football
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