Salukis’ Jerry Kill has turned around program in 7 years

After 11 losing seasons,
Southern Illinois has made four straight post seasons.

By PETE MOLLICA

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

YOUNGSTOWN — When Jerry Kill took over as coach at Southern Illinois seven years ago the Salukis had suffered through nine straight losing seasons.

Kill went 1-10 and 4-8 his first two years and nobody thought he was the one to turn the program around, but since Southern Illinois has had four straight winning seasons and as many appearances in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs.

Saturday the Salukis (5-0) play host to Youngstown State (4-1) in a key Gateway Conference contest at McAndrew Stadium in Carbondale, Ill. Kickoff is set for 3:36 p.m. and the game will be nationally televised by CSTV.

The Salukis have won or shared three of the last four Gateway Conference titles, but have never made it past the second round of the playoffs.

This season Southern Illinois has hardly been tested in five victories and is ranked No. 7 in the SportsNetwork FCS poll. YSU is No. 10.

Five easy wins

Southern Illinois owns victories over Quincy (59-14), Northern Illinois (34-31), Southern Utah (44-10), Arkansas-Pine Bluff (58-3) and Indiana State (72-10).

Against Indiana State the Salukis broke the Gateway Conference record for the most points scored in a contest.

The old record was 70 by Illinois State in 2005.

Southern Illinois comes into Saturday’s game averaging 53.4 points and 483 yards per game.

They are equally efficient on defense, allowing just 13.6 points and 305.2 yards per game.

Kill said one of the reasons for the Salukis success has been the stability within the program. In his six seasons at Southern Illinois only one assistant coach has left the program. He also believes in home-grown talent.

“We’ve been taking in less and less transfers and have been relying more on our own recruiting of high school talent,” Kill said.

“We’ve been blessed with some outstanding talent over the years and our success has enabled us to continually bring in more talent each year,” he added.

Tough games coming

Kill knows that the Salukis are entering the most difficult portion of their schedule with Youngstown State Saturday and Northern Iowa in two weeks.

“We haven’t played anyone the caliber of either of those two teams yet this year and we know that it’s going to take an all-out effort for us to get past either of them.

“Youngstown State is the league’s defending champion and a semifinalist in last year’s playoff,” he said. “They’ve just been getting better and better each week. We’ll have our hands full.”

There is little doubt Kill knows where to turn when he needs to get the team rolling this season. It’s senior quarterback Nick Hill.

Hill leads attack

The 6-foot-3, 210-pound Hill has completed 78-of-110 passes without an interception and thrown for 1,060 yards and 13 touchdowns.

To show the depth of the Salukis receivers, Hill has thrown to 19 different receivers and seven have caught touchdown passes.

Senior Allen Turner (6-0, 210) is the leading receiver with 16 catches and four touchdowns.

The Salukis, who average 247 yards a game rushing, aren’t afraid to run the football either.

Senior John Randle (5-11, 195) leads the way with 356 yards on 61 carries and has five touchdowns, while backup junior Deji Karim (5-9, 205) has 299 yards on 48 tries and six touchdowns.

Defensively the Salukis already have 11 interceptions and five fumble recoveries and a turnover margin of plus-11.

They also have an excellent kicker in freshman Kyle Dougherty who has four field goals, the longest 40 yards, and is 31 of 35 in extra points.

mollica@vindy.com