Saluki defense preparing for three different Redbird quarterbacks
CARBONDALE, Ill. — The Southern Illinois defense faces a unique challenge on Saturday, as Illinois State is likely to utilize three different quarterbacks in the game.
Gage Roy (269 snaps), Beckham Pellant (122 snaps) and Chase Kwiatkowski (68 snaps) have shared quarterbacking duties throughout the season for the No. 13-ranked Redbirds (4-2, 0-2).
A transfer from USC, Roy has started the last four games and plays about 60 percent of the snaps. Roy started the year with 113-consecutive passes without throwing an interception. On the season, he’s completed 67 percent of his passes with 10 touchdowns and two picks.
“Gage is an older, seasoned guy that you can tell the game moves a little slower for him,” said SIU defensive coordinator Lee Pronschinske. “He's a very efficient passer and the catalyst for getting the ball to their playmakers in space.”
Pellant started the team’s first-two games in 2026 and has played in 15 games in three seasons for the Redbirds.
“We saw Beckham last year at the end of the game,” Pronschinske said. “He might have the best arm-talent of the group. He has a lively arm, the ball jumps off his hand, and he does a good job of being decisive in his reads and getting it out.”
Kwiatkowksi is the most mobile of the trio. He’s the team’s third-leading rusher with 228 yards on only 25 carries for an impressive 9.1-yard average.
“He’s shown some position flexibility, lining up at wide receiver and running back,” Pronschinske noted. “They've handed him the ball, they've thrown him the ball, and he’s thrown it himself. They find creative ways to get him the ball, which can be a problem for a defense.”
Each quarterback adds a different dimension to the ISU offense, Pronschinske said.
“We’ll have a slightly different call sheet for each one of them,” he said.
Coordinator’s Corner: StrongDawgs conversation with defensive coordinator Lee Pronschinske
SD: Ibrahim Sanogo picked up a strip-sack on Saturday and continues to lead the league in sacks. Explain what he does so well to get pressure, and are teams trying to chip-block him or do anything extra to try to slow him down?
LP: The strip-sack was exactly what we had talked about throughout the week with the D-line room, about opportunities to bend the corner and get a shot on a quarterback who has a little bit longer, lower release. Abe had chance to finish on him, find and attack the football, and he did just that.
Yeah, I think teams are well aware of who Abe is as a player. One thing with Abe that's probably giving people fits is he's aligning in a lot of different places on third downs. So if you start to treat him differently or start sending slides his way, and he's no longer on the line of scrimmage, that can be a problem for your pass protection.
SD: I thought Jake Parrella had an excellent game, especially against the run. What stood out from his performance?
LP: He’s going to play with high energy, high effort and an unstoppable motor. On that third-down stop at South Dakota just before halftime, he sheds the defender and then folds in with relentless effort to make the tackle. You know what you’re going to get with Jake every game, and that’s probably one of the bigger compliments I think you can give a player.
SD: South Dakota hit you with two explosive plays that went for touchdowns — the 56-yard pass in the second quarter and the 44-yard reverse in the fourth. Can you break down what happened on those two plays?
LP: On the pass, they did a good job schematically and it was a big-time pitch and catch, but that's simply a leakage in coverage that we should not have had. We should have had two guys, one deeper and one on top of that route. On the reverse, your goal on a trick play is to stop it from becoming an explosive, because the offense is calling those to score a touchdown. One of their O-linemen did a really good job climbing to the second level and sealed (Chris) Presto, and then Vinny (Pierre Jr.) has to get off that block and be able to saw that thing down for 25 yards and let us live to see another down.
SD: When you face an offense that’s coming off a bye week, has it been your experience that you’re more likely to see some things you haven’t seen on film to that point?
LP: Good offenses and good defenses don't wholesale change what they do during a bye week, but maybe find some new wrinkles to attack you with different pictures running the same schematics. So we're fully anticipating (Illinois State) will have some different looks out of formations or motions to get to their same scheme that they're good at doing. Another advantage of a bye week is you get time to take a breath and run some self-scouts, see where there might be some tendencies and run some tendency-breaking type plays.
SD: You’re likely to face three different quarterbacks during the game on Saturday. Gage Roy, the USC transfer, takes about 60 percent of the snaps. What are his strengths?
LP: Gage is an older, seasoned guy that you can tell the game moves a little slower for him. He's a very efficient passer and the catalyst for getting the ball to their playmakers in space. They have a good offensive line that's going to create displacement. The backs run the ball extremely hard. They have talented wide receivers and tight ends. They are just an experienced and talented unit, overall.
SD: What about Beckham Pellant and Chase Kwiatkowski, who handle the rest of the snaps?
LP: We saw Beckham last year at the end of the game. He might have the best arm-talent of the group. He has a lively arm, the ball jumps off his hand, and he does a good job of being decisive in his reads and getting it out. Chase brings a different element, a bit of a Swiss army knife for them. He's their third-leading rusher on significantly less carries than both the running backs. He’s shown some position flexibility, lining up at wide receiver and running back. They've handed him the ball, they've thrown him the ball, and he’s thrown it himself. They find creative ways to get him the ball, which can be a problem for a defense.
SD: Describe the challenge of preparing for three quarterbacks.
LP: It's definitely something you have to be aware of. It’s understanding intricate personnel groupings and schematically how they utilize each quarterback. Each one of those guys are a little different, so we'll have a slightly different call sheet for each one of them.
SD: What’s the protocol for how you communicate who’s under center?
LP: That's one of the nice things about the coach-to-player helmet comm. We'll alert them in the mic to who's out there at quarterback. They actually have a couple personnel groupings where they'll have two quarterbacks out there for trick-play purposes, so that's something we have to be aware of. Our guys will be aware of who's in the game by what calls we're making as well.
SD: What makes slot receiver Dylan Lorde such a difficult matchup?
LP: First off, I think he's had 53 or 54 targets on the year already and the next closest guy is in the teens, so he gets the ball thrown to him. Any time you have a dynamic slot like Dylan, he can cause problems because they can move him around. It’s kind of like the Jeremiah Smith-thing, where it's hard to say we're going to do this or do that versus him because he's off the ball and moving around, creating different matchups. One thing that really jumps out on tape is competitive catches where a DB's in his face to make a play on the ball and he finds himself making more contested catches than not.
SD: What has been your over-arching message to the defense heading into Week 8?
LP: The messaging for us defensively is, we still have five games left, and everything we want to be known for as a defense and as a program is still in front of us. When people turn on the tape or watch us on TV, what's gonna jump out? We want to continue to attack everything with a genuine love and passion for the game, because the season's too short, the games go by too fast not to enjoy the little moments and continuously try to find ways to get better. It’s taking a little breath, reminding ourselves of the standard, our principles and the pillars of our defense.
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