Prairie State Pigskin
Southern Illinois holds steady at No. 4 in national FCS rankings this week
Southern Illinois head coach Nick Hill’s Salukis are at No. 4 in this week’s national polls. (Photo by SIUSalukis.com)
Another win, another week in the national top five for Southern Illinois.
The Salukis (6-1) held the No. 4 spot in both the STATS Perform FCS media poll and the American Football Coaches Association rankings released Monday after a thrilling 31-28 victory against North Dakota in Carbondale.
The win helped SIU match its win total from the spring, when they went 6-4 and advanced to the second round of the playoffs. It also improved their Missouri Valley Football Conference record to a league-best 4-0, which is a half-game ahead of No. 3 North Dakota State (6-0, 3-0).
SIU coach Nick Hill said he asked his players if they were prepared to play as if they were “desperate” the rest of the season.
“We’re trying to win a conference championship for the first time in 13 years, and that’s the way we need to take the field and act,” Hill said.
The winning points Saturday came with 5 minutes, 21 seconds left in the game when Johnson City native Nico Gualdoni nailed a career-long 46-yard field goal. North Dakota’s chance to send the game to overtime failed when UND kicker Brady Stevens pushed a 47-yard attempt wide right on the game’s final play.
For the third week in a row, SIU had a nail-biting victory. Prior to beat UND, the Salukis won overtime games on the road at Western Illinois and South Dakota State.
SIU is on a bye this week and returns to action Oct. 30 with a game at MVFC foe Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls.
Defending national champ Sam Houston State (5-0) sits atop both polls again this week. Eastern Washington (7-0) is ranked second, followed by NDSU, SIU and Villanova (5-1).
Northern Iowa is ranked 20th in this week’s media poll and 24th by the coaches.
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Missouri Valley Football Conference, SIU Salukis, Southern Illinois University
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Dan Verdun
Blog co-authors Barry Bottino and Dan Verdun bring years of experience covering collegiate athletics. Barry has covered college athletes for more than two decades in his “On Campus” column, which is published weekly by Shaw Media. Dan has written four books about the state’s football programs–“NIU Huskies Football” (released in 2013), “EIU Panthers Football (2014), “ISU Redbirds” (2016) and “SIU Salukis Football” (2017).
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