Ben Fiegel’s impressive performance at West Florida was no surprise to Lee Pronschinske

CARBONDALE, Ill. — Southern Illinois forced three turnovers at West Florida last week, and Saluki linebacker Ben Fiegel had a hand in all three.

The junior linebacker from Batavia, Illinois led the team with eight tackles, but he also forced one fumble and recovered two more. All three turnovers led to points for SIU — a field goal and two touchdowns.

“There were a lot of clips on the tape of (Fiegel) playing violent, not only tackling, but his ability to disrupt blocks, his pursuit across the field,” said SIU defensive coordinator Lee Pronschinske. “On the forced fumble he made, he did a great job of flowing across the box, put a hat on the ball."

Pronschinske said Fiegel, who added two pass breakups in the game at West Florida, has consistently been among the most productive players in practice.

“We nominate three guys each practice on defense that had their best practice days, and I think Fiegs was nominated five or six times,” Pronschinske said. “He had the most on the defense. It's fun to watch a guy puts together a really good spring, summer, fall camp, and then showcase it in a game.”

Fiegel made just his second-career start at SIU after serving as the team's backup middle linebacker in 2025.

StrongDawgs conversation with Defensive Coordinator Lee Pronschinske

SD: Not the outcome you were expecting on Thursday night, but there were certainly some positives in the defensive performance, especially the three takeaways. You had to be pleased to see something you’ve worked hard at during practice pay off in a game.

LP: We got three, and we had another one that was on the ground that we didn't get. Then we had a tipped ball that was hanging up there for a while that you'd love to see that one get intercepted, too, where we could’ve given the offense the ball back in the high red zone. Those are momentum changers. It’s encouraging when you look at the tape, but there's some that we left out there that you'd really love to have.

SD: Ben Fiegel had that tipped ball you mentioned. He was involved in all three turnovers. Talk about his progression this season after moving from backup middle linebacker to starting Will.

LP: There were a lot of clips on the tape of him playing violent, not only tackling, but his ability to disrupt blocks, his pursuit across the field. On the forced fumble he made, he did a great job of flowing across the box, put a hat on the ball, and then Sam Farmer hustled his butt off to hop on it.

Since we started practice on July 28th, I think you could argue that Fiegel was probably our best practice player on defense. We nominate three guys each practice on defense that had their best practice days, and I think Fiegs was nominated five or six times. He had the most on the defense. It's fun to watch a guy puts together a really good spring, summer, fall camp, and then showcase it in a game.

SD: West Florida ran for 226 yards and averaged 5.7 yards per carry. What were some of the breakdowns you saw?

LP: First, credit to West Florida, not only did they do a really good job with their game plan, their players made some nice plays. Obviously Ty’Ray (Davis), the quarterback, is a heck of a player. Looking forward to following those guys the rest of the season. On our end, we had a lot of opportunities to make the play and just did not take great finishing angles. We had some missed tackles we’d like to get back, but a lot of it was our finishing angles and making sure we kept leverage on the ball. When we have the opportunity to make a play, we got to make sure we make it.

SD: They ran the ball eight-straight times to start the game, and 13 of their first 14 plays were runs. Were you surprised they attacked your defense in that way?

LP: Yeah, it was a little bit of a change up from Coach (Kaleb) Knowles and Coach (Donny) Baker's background of how they operate their offense. That was a good adjustment by them. With it being the first start for their quarterback, that probably played a little bit into it. They did a really good job of putting together a game plan to attack us on defense and in all phases of the game.

SD: The defense got better as the game wore on. In fact, you stopped them on five of the last six drives, and the one score they had came on a short field. Do you credit that to adjustments being made, or was it just better execution?

LP: I don’t like the term getting settled in, because the first possession matters just as much as your last one. I think after those two touchdowns we allowed early, we kind of did settle in, though. There was never any wavering throughout the whole team. They played their butts off and competed the whole way. Something we preach is finding a way to get three-straight series with a stop. You have a pretty high percentage to win football games when you do that.

SD: The defense was only on the field for 57 plays. Endurance-wise, did you feel like your guys handled the heat and humidity well, because it will be another hot game at Samford.

LP: I think we handled it well. Shoot, there'll be games on TV in October in the SEC where guys are gonna cramp, but we didn't really have anyone battle heat exhaustion or anything like that. A lot of credit to Coach Meade (Smith) and his staff, Mike (Lyznicki) and his staff, Coach Hill, and Chris (Gillespie) for the nutrition that goes into getting ready to play. This week's going to be another challenge for us in that aspect of not only being hot, but Coach (John) Grass has a background in playing tempo offense. You watch the game (at North Alabama) on Saturday night and they had moments where they're going fast after a big first down. They're breaking the huddle and getting to the line of scrimmage fast. There's going to be some opportunities for us to showcase our conditioning and mental fortitude.

SD: Looking at Samford, their quarterback put up some impressive passing numbers. Is it fair to say this game will present an entirely different set of challenges?

LP: When you go back and look at Coach Grass at Jacksonville State and all the explosive offenses he had from 2013 to 2021, it’s hard to find a guy that's got better offensive numbers across the board. Their quarterback, (Gabarri) Johnson, does a good job of spreading the ball around, made some really good throws, and then they have some wide receivers who can run. Marquise Henderson from Clemson, he ended up with 150 yards, and  then they have some big, physical backs. I think Coach Grass understands how important it is to establish a run game, and it'll be fun to see how they attack us.

Tom Rebholz was a long-time Division II defensive coordinator prior to SIU.

SD: You added a highly experienced defensive coordinator to your staff this year in linebackers coach Tom Rebholz. Can you give us some insight into how the communication flows between you during games and how much his presence helps you?

LP: The average fan may not realize how important it is for a guy like Coach Reb to be up there and be able to get you the personnel groupings. The sidelines can get chaotic, at times, and it's nice to have a calming voice in your ear. Reb having done it before and understanding what type of information I need to be able to process and make a play call, I’m really looking forward to the first opportunity that we actually get to have his eyes in the box at Samford.

One of the first things me and Coach Reb do after a drive is get on the iPad and talk through our calls and what the offense did. We go over pressures, coverages, front movement and certain personnel groupings we’re seeing. We've done a good job of fine-tuning the vocabulary that I want to hear. There’s a fine line of communication on the headset of talking through what we're seeing, versus too much communication when we can all see what's going on.

SD: What’s been your tone and messaging with the defense since you got back to Carbondale?

LP: We took a step back to self-evaluate, not only as coaches, but as players. It's a long season. Adversity is going to hit and it just hit us right away. Everything we want to achieve is still right in front of us. The fun part is, it's a quick turnaround. We're gonna be on a bus down to Birmingham on Wednesday morning, so you don't have a lot of time to feel sorry for yourself. It's time to get locked back in. We have a group that's gonna be eager to respond. We’ll continue to fine-tune our practice habits, control what we can control, and I think we're gonna have a group that's really excited to get back out there on Thursday night.