Vandals brace for stingy SIU defense in playoff opener

Tonight, Southern Illinois at Idaho, 7 p.m. TV: ESPN2

By MARK NELKE

Sports editor

The Idaho Vandals, in the football playoffs at the Kibbie Dome …

“Really, this is what I envisioned when I took this job, is having home (playoff) games in the Kibbie Dome,” second-year Idaho coach Jason Eck said earlier this week, in his weekly meeting with area media.

Idaho (8-3) plays at home in the FCS playoffs for the first time since 1993 tonight, when Southern Illinois (8-4) visits the fourth-seeded Vandals at 7 p.m.

The other seven FCS second-round games today are on ESPN+. The Vandals game was elevated to “linear” television (ESPN2) earlier this week.

“South Dakota State (where Eck was an assistant for six seasons before taking the Idaho job), their attendance usually dwindles (in the playoffs) because it gets so cold, so it’s just the diehards,” Eck said. “Having that Dome will hopefully keep the bandwagon full. And hopefully being on ESPN2 won’t be a detriment to the crowd.”

Yes, “Big Sky After Dark” returns to the Kibbie Dome for the second time this season. And Eck is hopeful the Vandals start faster than the first time, where they fell behind Montana 20-0 before rallying to lose 23-21.

Southern Illinois finished tied for seventh in the loaded Missouri Valley Conference, which saw six of its teams selected for the playoffs. The Salukis beat Southland Conference champion Nicholls 35-0 last week in Carbondale, Ill., in the first round of the 24-team playoffs, and are in the playoffs for the third time in four seasons.

Idaho is in the playoffs for the second straight season. Before that, the Vandals last made the playoffs in 1995, their final season in FCS before spending the next 22 seasons at the FBS level.

Nick Hill is in his eighth season as coach of Southern Illinois, and Eck has competed against him before, during his days at South Dakota State.

Southern Illinois quarterback Nic Baker has passed for 2,543 yards and 17 touchdowns with six interceptions this season. Izaiah Hartrup has 48 catches for 689 yards and six TDs Ro Elliott has just 470 rushing yards, but 111 came against Nicholls. 

“Really impressed by their defense, and Nick always does a good job scheming up the offense,” Eck said. “Thinking back to his early teams, now they’re really, really good on defense. A lot of teams have copied the North Dakota State model — if you run the ball, control the clock, play good defense, you're going to be tough to beat. … and they’ve done a good job of that.”

Safety P.J. Jules has 104 total tackles, and 12.5 tackles for loss, and was the team’s lone first-team all-conference selection. He is a finalist for the Buck Buchanan Award for the top defensive player in FCS.

Southern Illinois has not allowed a touchdown in its last eight quarters, and did not allow a TD in four games. In 1983, the Salukis won the national championship in what was then called NCAA Division I-AA (now FCS).

Idaho quarterback Gevani McCoy, last year’s Jerry Rice Award winner as the top freshman in FCS, missed the Vandals’ last game, a rout of Idaho State two weeks ago, as a “precaution.”

“We expect ‘Vani to be back; he practiced full on Saturday,” Eck said Monday.

Idaho sophomore Anthony Woods is sixth in FCS in rushing touchdowns (14), and is 13 yards away from becoming the Vandals’ 14th 1,000-yard rusher in school history.

Hayden Hatten, Idaho’s career leader in receiving touchdowns (33), is fifth all-time in career touchdowns, and third in career receiving yards.

Idaho averages 428.5 yards per game, compared to 344.2 for Southern Illinois. The teams are pretty even defensively, the Vandals allowing 292.5 yards per game, the Salukis 281.4.

Idaho ranks ninth in FCS in scoring offense (34.4 points per game), and Southern Illinois ranks sixth in scoring defense (15.83 points per game).

“Really good football team that we’re going out to play,” Hill said. “I’ve got a ton of respect for coach Eck, really like the way he goes about his business. He’s a great offensive mind, has done a great job as a head coach out there.

“They got really good skill players … schematically they do a nice job of finding matchups and exploiting teams,” Hill added. “When you play a coach Eck team you have to be ready for some wrinkles.”

Until last week, Southern Illinois had beaten only one FCS playoff team (Austin Peay; which lost to Chattanooga last week). The Salukis lost to top-seeded and defending FCS champion South Dakota State (17-10), third-seeded South Dakota (14-7), North Dakota State (34-10) and Youngstown State (31-3).

All four of those teams are still alive in the playoffs, with North Dakota State and Youngstown State winning in the first round last week. North Dakota, which lost to Sacramento State last week, was the only one of the six playoff teams from the Missouri Valley Conference to not advance.

“Last week, all the (teams from) one-bid leagues got eliminated,” Eck said. “So now it really is that the four best conferences are represented in the FCS playoffs. And the two best are in this game.”

The Big Sky “only” got four teams into the playoffs, and three of them were top-eight seeds. In addition to Idaho, No. 2 seed Montana (10-1) plays host to Delaware (9-3) tonight at 6 PST; No. 6 Montana State (8-3), last year’s national runner-up, is home vs. North Dakota State (9-3) today at noon; and Sac State (8-4) tries to win on the road for the second straight week, visiting No. 3 South Dakota (9-2) today at 11 a.m.

The Idaho-Southern Illinois winner plays the winner of the game pitting Richmond (9-3) at fifth seed University at Albany (N.Y.) (9-3), who play today at 9 a.m.