Pronschinske recaps SEMO effort and explains bye-week focus

CARBONDALE, Ill. — Heading into league play, SIU’s defense ranks third in the Missouri Valley Football Conference in points allowed (19.5), and coordinator Lee Pronschinske and staff will use the bye-week for self-scouting and fine-tuning.

In this week’s Coordinator’s Corner, he talked about some of successes the unit had at SEMO, as well as areas for improvement.

Coordinator's Corner with Lee Pronschinske

SD: Six first-half drives at SEMO, only one score, a couple turnovers, couple punts. What was your evaluation of the first half?

LP: Yeah, I thought we did a good job of answering the momentum early. DJ (Williams) house calls, 75-yard run on the first play, and then Chris Presto just a beautiful run-fit, knocks the ball out, right into (Colin) Bohanek's hands. Three plays later, offense scores. We had some chances to get off the field on that touchdown drive. There's some things when we watched the tape, we have to get cleaned up.

SD: Coach Hill referenced complementary football. At UT Martin, the defense picked up the offense when it was in a lull. At SEMO, the offense returned the favor.

LP: Coach Hill nailed it on the head after Saturday’s game. As a collective group, all three phases have to play winning football. There were some moments on Saturday that, defensively, we weren't playing what we would define as winning football, but the offense was more than playing winning football. The offense had an answer, and so it's good because it's a long season, there's going to be some moments where all three phases have to pick each other up. It’s our job as a staff to continue to fine-tune things and clean up mistakes each week, so all three phases are playing at the highest level possible.

SD: Up, 31-7, at halftime, does that change your thinking on how much risk to take?

LP: I don't know if it's as much that as we had to adjust to defending the two-minute offense the last 40 minutes of the game. The ball is getting out of the hand fast and it changes the style of the game, but there were still opportunities. The first third-down in the second half, we need to make a play defensively and start the half with a three-and-out. It's not an excuse. We have to be group that plays 60 minutes, especially going into the Missouri Valley. There's a lot for us on tape that we have to clean up.

SD: SEMO went on long drives in the second half, so you did make them earn those 24 points.

LP: Like we talked about after Purdue, some of those drives are going to happen because there's really good offensive coaches and players, especially coming up in league play. But it's also our job to force field goals in some of these situations and clean up some tackling, and the drives can't result in seven points.

SD: Another good day of pressure from the D-line with 10 pressures, and this time, they had the sacks to show for it.

LP: Like we talked about last week, that group up front's doing a really good job and turning a blind eye to the (sacks) numbers. Four sacks on Saturday and I think you could argue there could have been two more — the one where the (quarterback) is falling over and kind of just flips it over his head and gets a completion for one yard, and then we took one sack away by accepting the holding penalty to make it 3rd-and-18 instead of 4th-and-6. So tip of the hat to that group up front, and did it with two starters not playing in the second half.

SD: Peyton Reeves had a career-high seven tackles and Noah Friedt had five tackles. Thoughts on those two on the interior?

LP: I’ll just double down on it, I think both the Reeves brothers have been playing really good football. That's two guys that set a standard of a culture on this team. It was fun to watch Peyton play on Saturday night. That's two really good performances in a row. I thought he played at a really high level against UT Martin as well. Noah's been an awesome addition coming from St. Thomas, the Pioneer League, kind of used to playing our brand of football, being a Midwest guy. He's all over the place. He's quicker than he looks, and he's won our Be A Man award a couple times, where he's making plays, but not being the one that made the play, because he's just doing his job and being where he's supposed to be, and allowing the defense to play through him. I’m extremely impressed with the two of them.

SD: Jeremiah McClendon has six pass breakups and ranks 10th in the nation in passes defended. Talk about his game.

LP: J is playing at an extremely high level right now. If you asked him at the beginning of the year, he probably didn't like how he started the season with some tackling situations, and that's gotten cleaned up really fast. He's making big-time plays in big-time moments. A couple of those PBUs against Purdue came in clutch situations. He made two on the goal line at SEMO. He’s a veteran leader in that room that does a great job.

SD: Lukus McDaniels is a redshirt freshman who seems to be getting more opportunities each week.

LP: Lukus is a young guy that's doing a great job of growing and developing. He has a lot of talent and we're trying to do everything we can to get it out of him, and he likes that we challenge him often. He started the year a little slow, probably not how he'd want, but you keep working and when the opportunity presents itself, be ready to make a play. I think he did exactly that on Saturday. He had probably the second-best game on the D-line, after Donnie (Wingate), with his production with the two sacks, but Lukus was all over the place.

SD: What does a bye week look like for the defensive coordinator?

LP: A little bit more sleep, a little less coffee, so that'll be good for the heart and the gray hairs that have been popping up. It’s a good moment for us as a staff, as position groups, as individuals in this defense, take a step back from the craziness that game weeks provide, where everything feels go-go-go. In the safety room, we’ll be watching our missed-tackles cut-up through four games. It’s not going to be fun to sit there and watch, but it's something that we need to.

As a staff, taking a hard look at our self-scout through four weeks to make sure that there's no glaring tendencies that pop up, and then it's starting to prepare for Indiana State. It's a really good Missouri Valley program, and have all the respect in the world for Coach (Curt) Mallory. He’s been doing it for a long time and is a great defensive mind.

SD: What are some examples of areas you will self-scout?

LP: Down and distance, formational things, field zones — I think you're crazy if you don't think offensive coaches are looking at it, so all of us defensive coaches better be looking at it. There’s some intricate things that we're going to take a deep-dive into, make sure that we have nothing glaring that's popping up. It goes for personnel groupings, as well. Sometimes, we might be building a tendency in personnel groupings, so leave no stone unturned. We're putting the time, effort and resources to make sure no one can have a tell on us.