Salukis dominate season opener over Mississippi Valley State, 55-3

by John Locke, SIU Carbondale Associate Sports Information Director

CARBONDALE, IL – The Southern Illinois football program rolled to a 55-3 season-opening win over Mississippi Valley State on Saturday night in Saluki Stadium.

SIU Running Back DJ Davis off to the races in last night’s win over Mississippi Valley State, (siusalukis.com photo)

“You never take winning for granted,” SIU football head coach Nick Hill said. “This is why we do it. It doesn’t matter what the score is. You’re only guaranteed 11 games in college football. Anytime you can get a win, it feels great.”

After waiting an extra week to play–Southern’s bye week was Week 1 of the season–the Salukis dominated from the start. SIU won the toss and took the opening drive of the season 75 yards in six plays. Hans Carmien scored the first touchdown, barreling over a Delta Devil defender to get to the goal line. Southern Illinois kept rolling from there. At halftime, SIU held a 41-3 lead, and most starters did not play in the second half.

“We were able to establish the football game in the first half. We ran the football,” Hill said. “Then, we were able to play a ton of players. I think (Hall-of-Fame broadcaster Mike Reis) said 25 players had a tackle. We were able to play everybody who dressed, and that was big. We built some depth.”

Strikingly, the Southern Illinois defense held MVSU (0-2) to negative-eight rushing yards on the game, while Southern’s offense piled up 285 yards on the ground. Southern’s defense held a Division I opponent to negative-eight or fewer rushing yards for the first time since 2000.

Everyone got in on the fun. Nearly 70 players saw action in the game for SIU. Southern’s eight touchdowns were scored by seven different players. Southern had an astounding 16 tackles for loss–and 16 different players contributed to at least one.

Several SIU defenders dive to recover a fumble in last night’s win over Mississippi Valley State (siusalukis.com)

“We’ll look back, and some of those players that were in during the second half will hopefully help us win football games late in the season,” Hill said. “We play in the Missouri Valley, and it’s a tough league. It’s a physical league. Anytime you play college football, there will be injuries. I tell the team all the time, ‘The team that’s coming in doesn’t care about that.’ It’s next man up, or we won’t be that good.”

Southern’s road gets tough quickly. The Salukis head to Southeast Missouri for a regional rivalry next Saturday. Kickoff against the Redhawks is set for 6 p.m. SIU hasn’t won a road game since 2014 and is looking to snap a 12-game road losing streak.

“How are we going to turn around and get better from this?” Hill said. “Our schedule is set up so if we don’t do that, the team we’re playing will beat us. Even though we’re young, the guys understand it takes a great week of preparation and then 60 great minutes, sometimes more, of full concentration on every single rep.”

NOTES

SIU improved to 34-4 in regular season non-conference games since 2002 (excluding FBS opponents) … SIU is 15-1 in its last 16 home openers … Southern is 31-8 (.795) under the lights in Carbondale since 2002 … True freshmen Chucky Sullivan, Sam Thompson, E’Mare Hogan, Dan Heilbron and Jaylin Wilson all played … Six starters were first-time starters (39 players on SIU’s 102-man roster have started at least one career game at SIU) … Dating back to last season, SIU has won three of its last four games, something the program last accomplished in September 2014 … SIU held a Division I opponent without a touchdown for the first time since 2012 (W, 35-0 vs. WIU).