SIU football to begin spring practice

CARBONDALE (WSIL) -- SIU Head Football Coach Nick Hill met with the media Thursday, virtually of course.

Coach Hill told the media he's excited to have football back, and on Friday, SIU will hold their first practice of the spring.

The NCAA allows a two week ramp up period leading up to practice, so the Salukis have done walk throughs, strength and conditioning, held meetings, and team building activities.

Coach reminded us the Cleveland Browns were virtual the entire week leading up to their recent victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers. Over the last two weeks, the Salukis have been productive.

"You can get a lot done especially when you are walking through talking about assignments and getting new players and that is what I have told our guys, the number one thing for you to be a great football player is the mental part of it," Hill said. "You can be as fast as you can be, you can lift a lot of weights, you can be strong, you can have great ball skills but if you don't know what you're doing, you can't play.So I want eleven guys that know what they are doing first, so for the last two weeks we've been refreshing, alignment, assignment and so we've got a lot of work done."

On Thursday, the Missouri Valley Football Conference released a revamped conference schedule for the spring. Indiana State has opted out this spring season, so the Salukis filled the spot by adding the defending national champion North Dakota State Bison. It was a close one in 2019, but SIU came up short 21-7. And like last season this one is also in Carbondale.

"Find yourself going through that schedule, they are all big games. I think 6 of the 8 teams played in the playoffs last year. North Dakota got in over us, we haven't forgotten that so why we were having a watch party on the bubble, we didn't get in, and they did so it's a great opportunity for us to go up and play them. Yeah, we have a lot of blue-blood programs, top ten programs that are on our schedule, we've got 8 games and they are all good programs so as a competitor and as a football coach, football player, can't really ask for much more."

The schedule is listed below and all of the spring games will take place on a Saturday.

The season get's underway February 20, at North Dakota. North Dakota State is in Carbondale the following week to take on SIU.

SIU 2021 Spring Football Schedule

Saturday, Feb. 20: at North Dakota (12 PM)

Saturday, Feb. 27: North Dakota State (12 PM)

Saturday, March 6: at Youngstown State

Saturday, March 13: Northern Iowa (12 PM)

Saturday, March 20: South Dakota State (12 PM)

Saturday, March 27: at Missouri State

Saturday, April 3: at Illinois State (12 PM)

Saturday, April 10: Western Illinois (12 PM)

Saturday, April 17: Open (Saved as Rescheduling Window)