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CARBONDALE, Ill. — Sitting at a desk in the Saluki Football office, quarterback Sam Straub clicks rewind on the remote control and replays a clip of an interception he threw against SEMO in the second quarter. “Too much air under that throw,” he shakes his head. Straub critiques every decision, every throw he made in the game. He broke his own school record for 300-yard passing games and led what appeared to be a game-winning touchdown drive, but those facts are of little comfort, considering the team lost, 48-44.

Later, his attention turns to South Dakota, SIU’s next opponent. Before the Salukis play the Coyotes next Saturday, he will have committed to memory every front, coverage and tendency of the South Dakota defense.

Straub has loved football from the moment he strapped on his flag football belt as a child growing up in Ames, Iowa. Now a fifth-year senior at Southern Illinois, he displays all the traits of a top quarterback — elite physical tools, competitive fire and a mental mastery of Southern’s high-octane offense. Statistically, he ranks among the greats at SIU. All that’s left to cap off his impressive career is to be the quarterback who returns the Salukis to the playoffs for the first time since 2009. He wants to be that guy. Football means so much to him.

“I know nothing other than football — it’s become a lifestyle for me,” he explained. “I think if my playing career was over and I were doing anything other than coaching, I’d be miserable.”

Born in Chicago, Straub lived a couple blocks from Soldier Field until his family moved to Ames when he was two. Straub loved sports and was good at everything. In fact, baseball was probably his best sport as a youth. A hard-throwing right-hander, he pitched a varsity game while he was still in eighth grade. In basketball he was All-Conference.

Before the start of his junior year of high school, however, Straub had reached a crossroads. Football was his primary focus and he needed to attend summer camps to impress recruiters. Something else had to go, so baseball was sacrificed.

“I know nothing other than football — it’s become a lifestyle for me. I think if my playing career was over and I were doing anything other than coaching, I’d be miserable.” — Sam Straub

The football camps went well, but by the end of the summer of 2012, Straub had no Division I offers, though Iowa State and Northern Iowa expressed interest in the young QB. Surprised and disappointed, he took out his frustrations on opponents during his junior year, passing for 2,632 yards and 25 touchdowns, plus five rushing TDs. Still, there were no DI offers as he headed into his senior year.

His first Division I offer finally came from South Dakota State midway through his senior season.

“I started playing really well after that first offer,” Straub recalled. “It just felt like I had a huge weight lifted off me. I had been waiting for that moment for so long and it had been prolonged a lot longer than I thought it should have been.”

Soon thereafter, Missouri State and SIU both offered. Iowa and Michigan State extended preferred walk-on status. After making three visits and developing a close relationship with the coaching staff at South Dakota State, Straub seemed destined to become a Jackrabbit. Everything changed during his visit to Carbondale.

“I came down here and fell in love with southern Illinois,” Straub recalled, saying it reminded him of Ames.

Not long after Straub committed, SIU hired a new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach — and future head coach — Saluki legend Nick Hill. The same day Hill passed his NCAA recruiting test, he got in his car and drove to Ames to watch Straub play basketball. Hill hung out at Straub’s house after the game until midnight, getting to know the program’s future star quarterback and his parents. 

Straub holds the SIU record for career 300-yard passing games (8). When Straub arrived on campus in the summer of 2014, Eastern Michigan transfer Mark Iannotti had already secured the starting quarterback job, allowing Straub to redshirt. Iannotti had a big junior year, leading to only a token quarterback competition in 2015, although Straub didn’t concede the position.

“I never thought I’d take a back seat to Mark, even as a redshirt freshman,” Straub said. “He and I competed very, very hard. I lost in the fall (of 2015), which was tough, but I understood. It was Mark Iannotti and Paul McIntosh, two seniors. Mark had a great year, one of the best in SIU history. He taught me a lot about toughness, how to carry yourself, decision-making.”

Straub felt primed to be the team’s starter as a sophomore in 2016, even though Josh Straughan, a senior from Division II Stillman College, was brought in to compete for the spot. During training camp, the 6-foot-4, 247-pound Straub displayed a maturing skill set — a powerful arm attached to a chiseled, athletic frame. Some observers thought Straub had the edge, but the coaching staff believed he needed more polish and went with Straughan.

Hill delivered the news to his young quarterback, knowing exactly how Straub would feel, because Hill sat for two years behind Joel Sambursky at quarterback at SIU and experienced being benched and cut during his NFL and Arena League careers. Nothing Hill could say would soften the sting for Straub, however. 

“It was heartbreaking, a huge shock,” Straub recalled. “I was not prepared for that. I remember calling my mom before walking into the meeting and saying, ‘hey, I’m about to go talk to (Coach Hill) and I’m expecting to win this.’ I had no doubt in my mind and a lot of people around me felt that way, too.”

Straub admits he considered transferring, until he received a hand-written letter from Hill shortly before the team’s opener against Florida Atlantic. It’s a letter he still keeps in his dresser drawer.

“He talked about how he was proud of how I handled myself through the whole process of not winning the job,” Straub recalled. “He wrote, ‘everything happens for a reason and I know that when your time comes, you’ll be ready to go — the same way it happened to me.’ That meant a lot to me.”

The Salukis started conference play 0-5 that season, and Hill switched to Straub for the home game versus South Dakota on Nov. 5, 2016. He had a superb debut, passing for 339 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions and was also the team’s leading rusher with 68 yards and a TD.

“That South Dakota game will probably forever be one of my greatest memories as a football player,” he said. “There’s no greater feeling than walking into the locker room after a win and being absorbed by the team. That feeling was indescribable.”

On Senior Day two weeks later, Straub turned in one of the best performances in school history in a 44-34 win over No. 23 ranked Western Illinois. He passed for a school-record 450 yards with four touchdowns, rallying SIU from a 17-point second-half deficit for the victory. 

“I remember thinking it was extremely important for us to win for our seniors because I was extremely close with that class of guys,” Straub said. “It was truly one of the most incredible comebacks I’ve ever seen.”

Straub holds the school record for single-game passing yards (450). There was no quarterback controversy at SIU in 2017. Seven weeks into the season, Straub led the MVFC with 20 touchdown passes and had the team in the playoff hunt with a 4-3 record. Then disaster struck. On the second series at South Dakota, Straub took a hit and felt a sharp pain in his right wrist. On the sideline it hurt just to pick up his headset. He played one more series but couldn’t grip the ball and pulled himself from the game. 

The wrist was broken and his season was over. The team’s performance suffered without him, ending the year with four-straight losses. The week before the season finale, Straub was in St. Louis being fitted for a cast on his surgically repaired wrist. He remembers sitting alone in the parking lot afterward and crying — not about his own misfortune, but about the team’s.

“We were so close to getting over the hump,” he said. “Seeing seniors like Ryan Neal and Hans Carmien be so devastated after the next few weeks of losing, and not being able to help, that hurt worse than the injury.” 

Three games into the 2018 season, Straub is healthy and back to playing at a high level, with a pair of 300-yard passing games and seven TD throws. He’s still his own harshest critic, but his gunslinger attitude eventually takes over.

“There’s been times in my career watching film where I feel like I want to throw up because of some of the mistakes,” he said. “If I had only done this differently, we could have won the game. Being a quarterback is about being able to fix things immediately and flushing mistakes as quick as possible, because it’s all about the next play.”

More than four years after they sat around the family table in Ames, Hill and Straub have forged a close relationship — so close that the quarterback is invited to sit in on offensive staff meetings when the gameplan is being installed.

“I give him a lot of say with the gameplan and I want to know what he likes,” Hill explained. “I might really like a 3rd-and-6 call and he might not feel comfortable with that play and so you change it. I trust Sam, because I know he does a great job of preparing himself. He’s really like another coach.”

Straub said his parents, Scott and Stacy, have been unwavering in their support and guidance throughout his life. He also said former offensive coordinator John Van Dam and current strength coach Meade Smith were invaluable to his development. The most important relationship in his Saluki career, though, remains Hill, who has mentored him from the day he stepped foot on campus.

“I give him a lot of say with the gameplan and I want to know what he likes. I might really like a 3rd-and-6 call and he might not feel comfortable with that play and so you change it. I trust Sam, because I know he does a great job of preparing himself. He’s really like another coach.” — Nick Hill

“Coach Hill knows how a quarterback should portray themselves, what decisions they should make, how to carry yourself off the field, you can’t be late to anything,” Straub said. “You’re put on a pedestal as a quarterback and he’s kept me aware of how the decisions I make affect everyone else.”

Straub continued, “We’ve been through a lot together. With me losing the two jobs, I’ve matured quite a bit in the five years I’ve been here. He’s been there every step of the way. I appreciate how he’s always had my back and stuck his neck out for me multiple times and continues to do that. We have a great relationship and I appreciate him sticking through the good and the bad.”

Straub knows a playoff berth is within reach for SIU this year with him at the helm, and he’s comfortable with that pressure. Right now, he is laser-focused on the task at hand — studying the tendencies of the Coyotes.

“I realized everything can go away in the snap of your fingers,” he said. “You don’t realize your next play could be your last play until it is your last play. It put a sense of urgency in my step.”