Saluki defense coming off its best performance of the season

CARBONDALE, Ill. — Southern Illinois defensive coordinator Lee Pronschinske said the Salukis had their best performance on defense of the young season versus UT Martin last Saturday. In this week’s Coordinator’s Corner, he explains the unit’s execution on several key plays versus the Skyhawks, takes a closer look at the team’s effectiveness against the pass, the play of safety Vinny Pierre Jr. and the dynamic role of linebacker Chris Presto. Finally, he previews this week’s matchup versus SEMO.

Coordinator’s Corner with Lee Pronschinske

SD: Ten points, only two runs over 10 yards and one pass over 15 — best game overall for the defense so far?

LP: Yeah, you can see continuous growth from this group. Week one to week two, obviously was a big jump going from Thomas More to Purdue. Then week two to week three, I think we made another jump. If we could continue to do that throughout the next 12, 14, 15 weeks, however long we're fortunate enough to keep playing, I think this group's got a chance to put together a really good resume of defensive football.

There's some stuff we have to clean up, like the explosive pass play, that was a miscommunication on us in the (safeties room). That's something we can prevent. Across the board, I think the guys are in the right spot, playing hard at the point of attack and continuing to grow.

SD: Two fourth-down stops were big momentum swings in the game. Could you explain the execution on those two plays?

LP: On the 4th-and-4, we brought a pressure. It's a pressure we had repped all week on third downs. We hadn't necessarily practiced that pressure against the look they gave us (motion from 2-by-2 to trips bunch look), but our guys went back to fall camp mode from all the looks we've seen from the offense with Coach Hill, DJ, and just natural instincts kicked in. They went back to their training and they communicated on the fly and were able to execute a check within our defense to allow for us to cover that down. On the 4th-and-1, that's just guys playing hard and executing at the point of attack, just being violent, wanting it more than the person across from them.

SD: UT Martin’s quarterback completed 76 percent of his passes, but most of those went for short yardage. How do you grade the pass defense to date?

LP: I think if you look at the first three games, the quarterbacks walked away with a pretty good completion percentage on us, but without the yardage. It's one of the defensive goals we've talked about as a staff and talked about with the team. Unit-wise that D-line is doing a great job. They really are. And the (sacks) numbers aren't showing that right now, but, man, those guys got their ears pinned back, they're forcing quarterbacks to be uncomfortable. The ball's coming out fast. So a lot of the short yardage that they're getting on those completions, that's all credit to the D-line.

SD: An interesting stat — you’ve had exactly 100 defensive snaps against the pass this season, and on 31 of those, there's been a quarterback pressure, a hit on the quarterback or a sack. That would seem to indicate solid pressure on the QB?

LP: A thousand percent. I actually had a question last week by someone else about what we were going to be able to do to get the D line going and produce some sacks and some QB pressures. And I was like, well, when you look at it, we're averaging about 10 pressures on the quarterback per game. And that's not an inflated Week 1 stat, either. We left the Purdue game with eight or nine QB pressures, hurries, two or three hits, and so those guys are doing a great job.

We talk about playing complimentary football as a group. The D-line is doing a great job of controlling the line of scrimmage, creating clean reads for the linebackers, the linebackers are doing a great job in pass and run, doing a great job of fitting with conviction and allowing for those reads in the back end, whether it's a pass fit or a run fit, to be extremely clean, so our guys are able to play fast.

SD: UT Martin tried to catch you with a gadget play, the throwback that Vinny intercepted. Explain the coverage on that play.

LP: Vinny had missed a tackle on the play before that led to a borderline explosive play, and so they had a little momentum. We were on our heels with a conservative call, anticipating a shot. We weren't necessarily anticipating a trick play in that moment, but thought there was the chance the ball was going to get pushed down the field vertically.

The thing I'm most proud of is Vinny. It would have been easy to be sulking a little bit, a little upset, just trying to do too much on the next play to make up for the missed tackle. But he just lines up, worries about the next snap and goes out there, makes a really good play. He went up and attacked the ball in the air, because that wide receiver did a good job of going up for it, too. He had to earn that thing. So I'm really proud of the way Vinny answered that moment.

S Vinny Pierre Jr. has made interceptions in each of the last two games.

SD: Give us a little more on Vinny, who now has back-to-back games with interceptions, and leads the defense in the number of snaps played with 172.

LP: It's been really fun in the 18 or 19 months that I've gotten to spend with Vinny here as his position coach, just the amount of emotional, mental, physical growth that he has made. He’s really coming into his own as a man, as a football player. People don't see the way he prepares. He's a very high-football IQ player. He's in here watching extra tape. That whole room does a great job in the way they prepare — Cejai (Parson), Jagger (Williams), Vinny, Johnny (Schmitt), bringing the young guys with them, Grant (Thompson), Clayton (Lakatos).

SD: Explain the role of Chris Presto in your defense, a guy who seems to line up all over the field.

LP: Yeah, Presto is a jack of all trades. It’s a hybrid position where he gives us a lot of flexibility to play (against) 12 personnel, 21 personnel, run-heavy formations and be extremely sound in our run fit. In the same breath, when teams try to spread us out in 11 and 10 personnel, 2x2 extended, 3x1 extended, we don’t lose anything in coverage. He's a ‘backer, but he's an extremely talented ‘backer who gives us a lot on the outside. That was a good joke we actually had the other day. He's always joked, been on record saying he's the most athletic linebacker, then he found out he was listed as a safety (by analytics).

SD: You’ll be facing the tallest quarterback in college football this weekend, but also a guy who’s thrown five touchdowns and zero interceptions. What’s your impression of Jax Leatherwood’s game?

LP: Mr. Leatherwood's a very savvy, sound football player who does a great job of getting the ball out of his hand fast. He does a really good job being a beacon for that offense. When he has moments to extend plays with his legs, he's extremely agile for a 6'8, 250-pound guy. He does a good job of fighting for extra yardage, some QB run stuff, extending plays. Like you said, no interceptions, he's played some really good defenses, and he's done a good job taking care of the ball. We all know if you can take care of the Rock, you're going to have good things happen.They also have an extremely talented and deep wide receiver corps and the backfield’s loaded.

SD: This is a rivalry game, which could get pretty emotional, especially on the road. Anything you’ll address with the defense in that regard?

LP: I’m thinking things like, don't let the emotion turn into a late hit or something like that. It goes back to what we talk about every single week, which is our process. The way we prepare on a week-to-week basis, it doesn't change. As soon as we change it, we don't have a process. Now, we're obviously cued into the environment, the student section behind you, but you can’t let it affect you. We have a job to do when we're there, and the emotion, you can't ride it too high, too low. We just have to play our brand of football.