Southern Illinois University
Northern Iowa
No. 10 Salukis vs. No. 4 Northern Iowa — SOLD OUT
03/12/2021 | 10:00:00 | Football
Nick Hill, head Saluki Football Coach
Opening Statement:
"We were excited to get a win, it's a tough place to play. I felt like they did a really good job [Youngstown] of creating some problems for us – the back was tough to tackle. They did some good things, them settling down their quarterback and finding an identity – I think they've done that and we'll see them win a couple more games here in the league. That's what we talked about all week, it's game three with a new staff, it's a weird season, they haven't had an off-season, you knew that they were going to continue and get better and find their stride. It was good for our team, learning experiences along the way – that's what great, close games do. We were happy to play good team football in the second half and come away with a win.
I'm looking forward to and have a ton of respect for Northern Iowa. These games were always such great rivalries, looking back at the history of the series. Up until 2009, when coach (Dale) Lennon went up there and got a win, it's been 18 years in a row where the home team didn't win. We've had great battles. Coach (Mark) Farley does a great job each and every year of having such a competitive team. When you look at the defensive staff they have, it starts with Coach Farley with the consistency and playing great defense. When you look at this year, they have a quarterback that can hurt you and make you pay, running around, making plays with a strong arm and can make all the throws --maybe some of the best weapons in the league. They are a really good football team, when you put on the film they're playing hard and have a lot of guys back. It's going to be a challenge, but we're excited to get back home here and we have another top-five team in the country we get to play."
On Current Defense:
"I was proud of them for settling in and having a better second half [against Youngstown]. The things that hurt us, we we're able to get off the field. They were good at third downs and we weren't good at getting off the field. We have to continue to get better, we've played four games with this group and we have to continue to take strides to get better. That's been the message, we have to watch the film, get back out there yesterday, we're working on fundamentals – our tackling could always get better and being in great position to make plays. That's ultimately what our focus needs to be. We're going to play really good football teams, they're going to have very good plans. It's about sticking together and having the resiliency throughout the game to find a way to win at the end and that's what we did."
On Quarterback Nic Baker's Development:
"I thought Nic had a steady game, made some plays obviously. That two-minute drive and making a big play right before half was big to get it in the end zone, and the touchdown pass to Landon (Lenoir), I felt like on the first drive coming out, he had a good throw across the middle to Landon – he was efficient. He was 13-for-17, a couple of those were throwaways. You look at that interception in the first [quarter], we talked about that afterword's."
On Justin Strong's Transition:
"You're always trying to evaluate your roster, are you putting guys in the best position to utilize their talents, where are they going to be best used for the team? We've done that with several guys on our roster: Zeveyon Furcron, Justin, and a couple of other guys here and there. So, he's an explosive kid. Justin, pound for pound might be the best athlete on our team. He's 215 pounds, he's explosive, really strong in the weight room. Meade [Smith] our strength coach would always say he's got pure athleticism like Jeremy [Chinn]. We had to get him more involved, so we moved him over in the spring – or start to spring before it got canceled this time last year. I'm excited, he got a little taste of it last year against SEMO and felt like maybe this past weekend was his best game. He's big, he's a load, he's fast, he's strong, catches the ball well, so Justin has a bright future around here."
On UNI's Challenge to the Offense:
"They're really good. It's a factory of good players year after year it seems like the same guy reappears. All you want to say is they play tough, our work is cut out for us. It's going to be a physical football game. If you want to win in this league – I've said this year after year – the keys to the game don't change, you have to win the line of scrimmage, you have to bring your lunch pail and a hard hat to these games. It's going to be an extremely tough challenge against good players and a good defense. It's multiple, they will give you some looks, they have speed – two of the top corners in the country coming back, the defensive line is veteran."
