DC Lee Pronschinske reflects on 2025 season, looks ahead to off-season

CARBONDALE, Ill. — Southern Illinois finished a respectable fourth in scoring defense in the Missouri Valley Football Conference, but defensive coordinator Lee Pronschinske said run defense and third-down efficiency are two areas that stand out for improvement.

The 28-year-old Pronschinske laid a solid foundation during his first year as coordinator. He assembled a small, close-knit staff, and established a blueprint for how he wants the defense to play and prepare.

His off-season plans include exit interviews with players and staff, recruiting, and fine-tuning the scheme. Coaches will also work with departing seniors on their transition to the next phase of their lives, he said.

StrongDawgs Conversation with Lee Pronschinske

SD: Was Illinois State the best performance this season by the defense?

LP: It's definitely up there. One that jumps out to me is the UT Martin game, which I think Coach (Jason) Simpson is a great offensive-minded head coach, and they ended up going 6-3 versus the FCS. So that was a good ball club that we held to 10 points. And then the UNI game — I know we gave up 17 points, but all 17 were within some situational football, so that's potentially a shut out. So, I think those are three games the guys played really well.

SD: The big story was, how were you able to rally the troops and get that high-level performance after the heartbreaker versus South Dakota?

LP: There's a lot that goes into that, but as Coach Hill said, this is a resilient group. We have good football players and good men. People may think it's cliche coach-talk when they read our Coordinator Corners talking about a resilient group, but last Saturday at Illinois State was living-proof.

There's a lot of reasons that the group could have stood down, not played their best, been distracted, not cared about the result. It's so much credit to the players how hard they worked all week. They prepared like it was a Super Bowl, like they did every single week. It was just one of those weeks where the results look better on paper compared to other ones, but it was the same preparation and desire to win, and a couple bounces went our way and we played really well.

SD: A big credit needs to go to the defensive staff as well.

LP: I think we touched on it after the Youngstown game. As a staff, we're a resilient group and completely unwavering. Our full-time staff — Coach Mac (McLeran), Coach (Eriq) Moore, Coach (Darius) Davis — we’re extremely close, plus our GA, Coach (Reece) Barrow. There's not a smaller defensive staff in the Missouri Valley. We're the only defensive staff in the Missouri Valley that has four full timers and one GA. Most of the staffs are seven or eight guys. We're excited to go to work with each other every day, and it's special and fun to be a part of.

LBs coach Mac McLeran

SD: I’d like to get your thoughts on several of the seniors. Colin Bohanek came back from a torn bicep and led the team in tackles and was third in total snaps played. Talk about what he meant to the defense.

LP: He was the soul of our defense. He was the steady-Eddie that helped everyone weather the storm. He was entrenched in our defense to whether you played the front four or the back four, you weren't scared to go ask Colin, because he would have an answer. His love for football was higher than his love for glitz and glamour, accolades. He’s truly one of those guys who plays for the love of the game and the love of his teammates.

SD: Defensive end Vontrell Chairse maybe wasn’t on the radar to have a big year, but he ended up leading the team in sacks. Comment on his play.

LP: Yeah, Vontrell, first-off an awesome human. In his three semesters at Southern, he battled some injuries, was never sure if he was all the way healthy or not. There were a couple times during our unit meetings in fall camp that we were turning on clips of relentless pursuit or selfless play, and Vontrell was showing up on it. It was probably like fall camp practice 10, we were walking into the locker room at the same time, and I just looked at Trell, and I was like, “dude, you're gonna make a lot of plays for us this year if you keep up that motor,” and he's like, “that's all I want to do is be part of this unit.” He proved it time after time. I’m extremely proud of him, because he surprised people that doubted him or weren't expecting him to be a big player for us. I think about that sack in the Fargo dome. It’s one of the few times someone brings down Cole Payton. It was a heck of a year by Trell.

SD: We talked a lot about Jay Black (Jeremiah McClendon) during the season. He tied the school record for pass breakups, locked down Daniel Sobkowicz on Saturday. Can he be the next Saluki DB to make it in the League?

LP: Yeah, it's probably the best corner season I've been a part of. Not only was he the highest-graded player on our defense, but he was the highest-graded corner in the Missouri Valley, too. I think I had him 15th in all of Division I football — FBS and FCS. He finally found a home, and I think just truly blossomed. It's a cool story. Saluki fans got to see your story on him a couple weeks ago and just truly how amazing his story is.

I do think that he has the NFL potential and the characteristics he needs. His football IQ is very high. He's got great understanding of what we're doing across the board with coverage and run fits, not just his own responsibility. He's going to have to prove it on special teams first, but I think he can be a weapon for people as a gunner, on kickoff being a cutter, cutting off the ball. I think he's got the right mentality that, realistically for a lot of FCS guys, it's going to be Day 3 or undrafted free agent contract where you got about 10 to 14 days to prove yourself. I think he's got the work ethic and football IQ to make that happen.

D-Line coach Darius Davis

SD: From a psychological standpoint, how important was it for the defense to see the payoff last Saturday and take that into the off season as a springboard for next year?

LP: Yeah, your cliche coach's answer is that when you have a really good process, the result doesn't necessarily matter, because you're just continuing to move forward in the process. But you're also a little blind if you don't think that a good result is going to help. It does create extra buy-in, seeing that the process we have, it does work. We have to be able to answer the bell in some games where obviously we fell short as a team, but as a unit as well.

Moving forward, we have a blueprint. Every blueprint gets tweaked and improved throughout time, but now we have the genesis of it. We got to continue to attack and get better. This group has areas to get better in, but a lot to build off of, too. It's not a group that needs wholesale change, like we're flipping everything on its head. We have a really good foundation and now we need to build off of it.

SD: When all was said and done, the defense finished fourth in the league in points allowed this season. How do you feel about that particular result?

LP: To be fourth in scoring defense in the Missouri Valley, that's not bad. I think the most important stat is obviously wins and losses, but a couple things stick out to me when you do a paper evaluation of our defense. We did a good job against the pass, but we were eighth in run defense, and that's an area we have to get better, obviously. We weren't as good as we need to be on third downs. The Youngstown and North Dakota State games are two that jump out where we were bad on money downs in the second half. When you look at red zone defense, we're in the top 25 in the nation and forced a lot of field goal attempts. We were really good at taking away the football at times. I think the big knock on our defense is third downs and stopping the run, and ultimately, winning football games, because that's what matters.

SD: You've had less than a year on the job as the defensive coordinator. As you align your personnel with your system and your vision, how beneficial is it to have that year under your belt leading into 2026?

LP: I think it's gonna be fun for us as a staff. We’re past the feeling-out stage, the long days in the off-season of watching Cover 4 cutups, working on installs and getting on the same page. Each coach is going to have more time to fully invest and settle in.

I just finished up my second year in the program. Coach Mac’s been here for four now, but Coach Davis is a guy we hired after I became defensive coordinator, and Coach Moore came in the middle of spring ball. Neither of those guys have had a full year of high school recruiting. I've only had one true high school class I brought in, so this is only going to be my second high school class. Each position coach is getting more time to bring in guys that fit our scheme, having a good understanding of the skills and traits they’re gonna need to fit our defense.

CBs coach Eriq Moore

SD: Give me a quick rundown on your to-do list for the rest of the calendar year.

LP: I think the big thing for us is taking care of our own roster here throughout the rest of the year, having good communication with those guys and recruiting our own, because the portal opens on January 2nd. We’ll be having some exit meetings with these guys, making sure we're all on the same page, having those conversations about the season, where we need to improve as a group, as a unit, as a coach, as a staff, as a player, all those conversations.

We’ll put a bow on high school recruiting, have some high school guys on campus, making sure they're ready to go for signing day. Then we'll get some visits going with junior college guys, potentially some Division II guys are allowed to come on campus, too.

It’s a good time to start working on professional development stuff, looking at areas we can improve, building out cut-ups from throughout the season of certain coverages, pressures, situational football.

SD: For the players whose eligibility has ended, talk about Coach Hill’s emphasis on helping them take the next step in their careers.

LP: Yeah, we have a responsibility to help these guys get set up, because the real world's coming. When you're 22 or 23, maybe you think you have a foolproof plan. Having those conversations with players, they’re used to having those realistic conversations with us. In some cases, just getting that reassurance from us, like, that's a good plan, go attack that. Yes, Jay Black, go train for the Draft. I think those conversations may be lost a little bit in today's college athletics.