Saluki players feel for injured DJ Williams; have full confidence in backup Jake Curry

PENSACOLA, Fla. — After Saluki quarterback DJ Williams took a hit to his knee early in the second quarter of Thursday’s game at West Florida, he walked gingerly to the sideline before dropping to the turf in pain.

It was a dreadful moment for the fifth-year quarterback, who a year ago produced an All-American season while playing with a damaged knee ligament. It was also painful for Williams’ teammates to see their captain and leader go down.

“I can only imagine what he's going through right now,” said wide receiver Allen Middleton, who caught four passes for 42 yards in his first game back with SIU. “My job as his teammate is just to pick him up and be there when he needs me and keep supporting him with whatever's next for it.”

Williams returned to the sideline to cheer on his teammates in the second half.

Williams changed into street clothes and watched the second half from the sidelines, supporting his teammates. The team returned to Carbondale early Friday morning where Williams will have the knee examined.

During games, the quarterback wears a verse from the Bible, Philippians 4:13, on his wristband.

“l just told DJ to keep the faith, God has the end answer,” said wide receiver Kyle Thomas, who caught his first two career touchdowns during the game. “What we're seeing is just with human eyes.  DJ's a very strong person. He may be able to bounce back. I know that he's gonna keep being strong, and I'm gonna surround him, and I know the team's gonna surround him and keep on boosting him up.”

Backup Jake Curry replaced Williams and rallied the team from an 18-point deficit by throwing two touchdown passes and running for one himself, albeit in a losing effort.

Kyle Thomas caught two touchdown passes from Jake Curry.

“Being close to DJ, it hurts,” Curry admitted. “You see the countless hours he puts into the film room, on the field with the guys, it hurts, but you gotta have that next-man up mentality in football.”

Curry entered the game with his own injury issues. He suffered a bruised throwing elbow on Monday and didn’t test out his arm until pregame warmups.

“Sometimes, you gotta push through the pain and keep going for the guys around you,” he said.

Players said they have confidence in Curry, having seen him perform in practice and as a five-game starter during his freshman season in 2024.

“I have the utmost confidence in Curry,” Thomas said. “I’m really not surprised by what he did today. It was just unfortunate the outcome is what it was.”

Senior linebacker and team captain Chris Presto was vocal about his belief in Curry.

“All 106 guys on our team are behind Jake Curry,” said Presto, who recorded a sack during the game. “We know Jake can lead us. He’s done it before. I have full confidence in Jacob. He's a helluva tough kid.”

Chris Presto sacked West Florida QB Ty'Ray Davis.

Fellow linebacker Ben Fiegel also weighed in on the quarterback situation. The junior linebacker had a career-game with seven tackles, a forced fumble, two fumble recoveries and two pass breakups.

“During the game, you don't want to show the emotions, because as an older guy now, I've seen it in 2024 when DJ went down,” Fiegel explained. “You can't let that affect the rest of the game, and I think Curry did a good job coming in. Props to Curry on that. I think the emotions about DJ are gonna come more after the game.”

Curry said he appreciates his teammates’ support and wishes he could have completed the comeback.

“What you saw out there is not really how any of us imagined it would be,” he said. “There's plays that I want back. I'm sure there's plays other people on the team want back, but that's the point of moving on to the next week and taking it week by week.”