Hard work will pay off for Saluki defense, Coach Pron says

CARBONDALE, Ill. — In speaking to the defense this week, Lee Pronschinske was philosophical about how to handle the emotions of a five-overtime loss to South Dakota. He told players a story about a sculptor who was crafting an eagle.

The moral to the story? While the reward for all their hard work may not be evident in last Saturday’s final score, the effort will pay off in the future, Pronschinske believes. Whether that happens this Saturday at Illinois State, or years from now when their football careers are over, the football experience delivers invaluable life lessons.

StrongDawgs conversation with Lee Pronschinske

SD: How hard is it for players to bounce back from a loss like Saturday’s, and what message have you delivered to help them handle it?

LP: Yeah, it definitely hurts. The pain, the anger, sadness, whatever adjectives you want to use to describe how we feel, it’s because we care so much, and we put so much time, effort, energy, love and commitment into this game.

I think it provided a good moment to step back and understand that in life, no matter how hard you work, you might not necessarily get the outcome you want. The reward may be different than what you expected.

I told them an old fable about a sculptor, who was sculpting an eagle, day and night, to sell to the emperor. A storm comes in and breaks it, and the sculptor leaves it, doesn't clean it up. The people in the village take the scraps and build a bridge over a river in the city, and then for the rest of time, the bridge is named after the sculptor. Sometimes in life, the reward for the hard work you put in, to get a certain result, isn't always what you think it should be, but that hard work is ultimately going to pay off.

As men of faith, you know life isn’t always going to go the way you want, but when it comes to sports, we'll be better because of adversity. The payoff might come with this next opportunity on Saturday or in the next couple of years when they're off into the real world. The real world is a lot harder than a five-overtime loss. There's going to be moments that challenge you as a man a lot more than trying to get a stop on a two-point conversion.

SD: Take me through your thought process heading into overtime.

LP: If you'd been on the headset with us, the conversation was, what's our bread and butter and what's going to put our best players in the position to be successful? If we go back out and play that game tomorrow, I'm going to take my chances with Jay Black (Jeremiah McClendon) covering (Larenzo) Fenner and making (Aidan) Bouman make good throws. When you're in those situations, it’s about calling what your players execute really well. I don't think we'd change any of the calls, maybe the 3rd-and-7 call in the first overtime that got them to the 4th-and-2, that got it manageable, maybe would have had a different call on that.

SD: Fifty-three points, 19 of them in overtime, did not seem to reflect how well the defense executed at times. What were some positives you saw?

LP: I thought we did a really good job in the middle-eight (last four minutes of first half/first four minutes of second half), which had been an Achilles heel for us as a team and as a unit. At the end of the first half, we got a stop, and then we got back out there on the sudden change (interception) and got another stop. Then we come out to start the second half and Jay Black gets the takeaway on a 3rd-and-XL situation to put the ball down there on the +8. If the game ends in our favor, you're praising that three-drive sequence.

SD: South Dakota didn’t have a turnover in its previous six games and yet, there were a lot of opportunities for takeaways that just didn’t go your way.

LP: We had the ball out four times, and couldn't really get (a fumble recovery). The ball's bouncing around and, in those tight situations, doesn't always bounce your way.

The one that really hurt was the recovery we made with three-and-half minutes left in the game, but the play was whistled dead. It was textbook, teach-tape by Vinny (Pierre Jr.) — tackle, goes through the man, puts his helmet on the ball, ball pops right out and we recover. That's a shoulda, coulda, woulda, and you can't live in that world, but I was really proud of the way the guys were attacking the ball.

SD: You did a solid job on L.J. Phillips, but were you surprised to see Carson Fletcher have a career day?

LP: We knew we were going to see L.J., (Carson) Fletcher and (Reid) Watkins. They do a really good job of tailoring their scheme to fit those backs and all three guys have similar running styles, so it doesn't matter who's in there. L.J.’s carried the rock a lot down the stretch, and your body's going to start to feel it, and that’s probably why 33 and 5 got some more carries.

SD: Not having Chris Presto and Cejai Parson, and then quickly losing Peyton Reeves and Donnie Wingate — how much was your depth tested Saturday?

LP: It’s a twofold answer, because the guys that are stepping up are really excited and have earned and craved that opportunity to go out there and make plays. The other side of it is, you'd be doing a disservice if you said you're not missing guys like Presto, Cejai, P. Reeves, Donnie Wingate. Those are four main plugs on your defense. Everyone understands the culture on our unit that it doesn't matter who's out there, we have to continue to play at an extremely high level and be the next man up.

SD: Illinois State is 8-3, has won four-straight games, including three on the road. What are your top concerns in defending the Redbirds?

LP: (Tommy) Rittenhouse is obviously playing at an extremely high level. I know it sounds cliche to say, because we've been saying that about a lot of quarterbacks in the league, but he’s thrown 28 touchdown passes against just four picks, and he's run for five more. He’s more athletic than people think and has shown the ability to run and be elusive. He hurt us a little bit last year on some QB run game.

Wenkers Wright ran for 1,200 yards last year, and last week he didn't even get a carry. The back from Cincinnati, Victor Dawson, runs extremely hard. The two tight ends have been playing in the league for a long time and then, Dan Sobkowicz, he's played like 2,600 snaps in the Missouri Valley. He’s Illinois State’s all-time leading receiver, and it says a lot about him that he’s stayed, because he probably had chances to leave. Their young wide receiver, Luke Mainlander, is the next version of him, too. He was a really good player when Dan missed back-to-back games, so yeah, just a lot of talent.