at #12 Southern Illinois, Oct 21

[RahRahRabbits]

Three nights away until the showdown in Carbondale. Weather looks to be downright dreadful... 73 degrees, sunny, with light 15 mph breeze out of the NW. It's homecoming for the Salukis in only their 3rd home game of 2023, as well as the 40th anniversary celebration for their 1983 championship team. They're advertising an expectation of a near sellout crowd, though just by a quick look, I'd guess they're still 4-5k short of their full 15,000 capacity. They brought around 8,300 against Austin Peay, and 10,350 against Missouri State. I'd sure hope this game brings more fans than the Bears would... perhaps late-week and walkup sales still drive a large portion of their sales.

Should be a good game. SIU is a tough team, and if they all show up, they certainly have the pieces in place to compete with or even defeat the Jacks, who are opening around 15-point favorites. SIU has converted 13 of 18 4th downs on the year, so they aren't afraid to go for it, and they're good at it too. Though -- they're only 23/77 on 3rd downs, an abysmal 29.9%, compared to SDSU's 36/56 for 64.3%. FG/PAT game is very similar for both, both of us missing a couple PAT's and FG's on the year. Salukis have the #1 MVFC rushing defense, only allowing 69.0/game. Though it should be noted, without looking into it too hard, I believe Illinois State had that #1 position prior to their game against us, and now they're down to #4 after Jacks ran for 374 yards on the ground alone on them. We'll see what happens Saturday!

Rabbits are going into the 2nd game of their 3-week "revenge tour" against 3 teams responsible for very disappointing 2021 losses that knocked them out of a seed, and forced them on the road for the playoffs. If Jacks don't drop even 2 of those games, the heartbreakers against SIU and USD (and UNI, which wasn't as close)... who knows what could have happened down the stretch, where it was pretty clear they just ran out of gas. Now, I know Rogers and the team aren't thinking about this at all, but what else are us fans supposed to do with our time?!

Related audio/video media from links below, or your favorite podcast app near you:
Jackrabbit Illustrated A-Team podcast, featuring Tanner Castora
Jackrabbit Illustrated B-Team podcast, featuring former SIU QB Stone Lebanowitz.
Rogers Weekly Presser, and coaches show

Other articles:
SF Live / Matt Zimmer 'What to know' article.

[RahRahRabbits]

Potential fun fact due to my lack of knowledge on Illinois geography.. Southern Illinois University happens to be south of St. Louis, and closer to Nashville, Memphis, Louisville, and Indianapolis than it is to Chicago. More obvious fact, they are also closer to Florida than we are; hopefully that doesn't surprise anyone as much.

[jakejc795]

Potential fun fact due to my lack of knowledge on Illinois geography.. Southern Illinois University happens to be south of St. Louis, and closer to Nashville, Memphis, Louisville, and Indianapolis than it is to Chicago. More obvious fact, they are also closer to Florida than we are; hopefully that doesn't surprise anyone as much.

Are you saying they're potentially "kinda like Nashville -- with a tan"?

[SlapJack]

Per Jackrabbit Illustrated, SIU plays a 3-3-5 defense. UND, ISU-R, UNI... We've been on a roll against 3-man fronts. I think the familiarity will be a positive against SIU.

However, if I recall correctly, USD, NSDU, YSU, and MSU all run 4-3. We got a tough draw for the conference schedule, but I find it interesting that we are front loaded with 3-4's and backloaded with 4-3's. Has it be helpful to the o-line and the mental game of X's and O's. Thoughts?

[RahRahRabbits]

Per Jackrabbit Illustrated, SIU plays a 3-3-5 defense. UND, ISU-R, UNI... We've been on a roll against 3-man fronts. I think the familiarity will be a positive against SIU.

However, if I recall correctly, USD, NSDU, YSU, and MSU all run 4-3. We got a tough draw for the conference schedule, but I find it interesting that we are front loaded with 3-4's and backloaded with 4-3's. Has it be helpful to the o-line and the mental game of X's and O's. Thoughts?

Jimmy mentioned (I believe in his coaches show) many of these 3-4 defenses are still different enough to not be "lumped together" as simple 3-man fronts. Interesting observation though, SlapJack. I would tend to think the order of defenses faced works in our favor a bit though. Besides, we gotta take any possible scheduling quirk in our favor that we can this year, right?!

[jbjack]

They're advertising an expectation of a near sellout crowd, though just by a quick look, I'd guess they're still 4-5k short of their full 15,000 capacity. They brought around 8,300 against Austin Peay, and 10,350 against Missouri State. I'd sure hope this game brings more fans than the Bears would... perhaps late-week and walkup sales still drive a large portion of their sales.

Still a lot of green dots. Capacity is 15,000 plus another 2,000 on the berm. The record is just over 15,000, for the first game in the stadium. Next highest at 13,000. Most of their top 10 highest attended games are in the 11,000. Will their fans show out to see the number one team in the country? Their history doesn't suggest so but perhaps you are right, they may depend on large walkup sales. It's too bad a highly ranked matchup doesn't attract more attention.

[RahRahRabbits]

SIU website preview article here, as well as three videos from their radio personalities and players - Branson Combs, DJ Johnson, Saluki Radio SDSU Preview.

[jbjack]

Assuming ESPN+ will be a feed of the local production. Hopefully the production value is much better than ISU-r.

[bigticket1]

Still a lot of green dots. Capacity is 15,000 plus another 2,000 on the berm. The record is just over 15,000, for the first game in the stadium. Next highest at 13,000. Most of their top 10 highest attended games are in the 11,000. Will their fans show out to see the number one team in the country? Their history doesn't suggest so but perhaps you are right, they may depend on large walkup sales. It's too bad a highly ranked matchup doesn't attract more attention.

Saw this morning that there were over 5,000 tickets still available.

[jakejc795]

If you take Hill at his word, RB Elliot is out; given Hill's history, I trust him about as far as I can throw him, but we'll see