For Illinois’ Division I-AA schools, the start of the football season next week will open some eyes.
Highly regarded Southern Illinois will play host to Southeast Missouri State on Sept. 2, and Illinois State will take on St. Xavier the same night in Normal.
Western Illinois will have the toughest outing, as it travels to Nebraska on Sept. 4.
Eastern Illinois, the state’s other I-AA team, opens at home Sept. 11 against Indiana State.
Here’s a preview of next week’s openers:
Southern Illinois
Shed no tears for the Salukis.
Southern Illinois (10-2 in 2003) no longer has tailbacks Tom Koutsos or Muhammad Abdulqaadir, who formed the 1-2 punch that gained more than 7,000 rushing yards for recent Saluki teams.
Coach Jerry Kill, however, has added transfers Brandon Jacobs from Auburn and Terry Jackson from Minnesota.
Jacobs, a muscular 255-pounder, averaged a team-high 6.2 yards per carry last year when he played behind Carnell Williams.
Jackson rushed for 1,307 yards for Minnesota in 2002 but had only 55 carries as a part-timer in ’03.
Kill has 17 regulars, 10 on defense, back from last year’s team that started out 10-0, won the Gateway Conference title, played in the NCAA playoffs and averaged 36.4 points per game.
SIU’s roster also contains a couple of running backs, Arkee Whitlock and Antoine Jackson, regarded as good enough to command playing time, even with Jacobs and Terry Jackson around.
Southern will be directed on offense by quarterback Joel Sambursky, who gained more than 800 yards passing and rushing last year. The Salukis should be strong enough to cruise past Southeast Missouri (5-7), even if they are looking ahead to the following week’s showdown at Northern Illinois.
Western Illinois
Leathernecks coach Don Patterson has not hesitated to step up and take on major-college opponents on the road. Western Illinois (9-4) has had success on the field as well as financially in these games.
Western, under Patterson, has a 4-3 record against Division I-A teams.
It beat Northern Illinois 27-21 in 1999 and 29-26 in 2002, Ball State 24-14 in 2000 and Eastern Michigan 34-12 in 2003. The losses were 50-20 to Missouri in 2000, 48-17 to South Florida in 2001 and 35-7 to national champion LSU in 2003. Nebraska (10-3) will present another formidable challenge.
Patterson believes playing top opponents toughens his teams for Gateway Conference and NCAA I-AA playoff action.
Illinois State
St. Xavier (7-4) is an NAIA school of 5,500 students on Chicago’s South Side.
It steps up into I-AA class against All-American middle linebacker Boomer Grigsby and a veteran offensive line that is expected to produce a 1,000-yard rusher for the fifth straight year of Denver Johnson’s term as coach of the Redbirds (6-6).
Grigsby, 241-pound senior from Canton, Ill., is an All-American in two sports–he’s also a national AAU champion in trampoline.
He made 179 tackles last year and was named Gateway defensive player of the year for the second straight season. Yance Vaughan steps in as ISU’s quarterback.
