Salukis add new staff position with addition of DTs coach Jake Kulig

CARBONDALE, Ill. — Saluki Football has added nine-year coaching veteran Jake Kulig to its defensive staff, head coach Nick Hill announced today, giving the program four full-time assistants on the defensive side of the ball.

Kulig joins Southern Illinois, after serving the last two seasons as the D-line coach at Division II Gannon University in Erie, Pa. He will coach defensive tackles at Southern, working alongside second-year assistant Darius Davis, who coaches the team’s ends and is the defense's run-game coordinator.

“Darius is really the lead defensive line coach,” Hill explained. “He recommended Jake, having worked with him at Robert Morris. In hiring Jake, finding the right fit and somebody you trust was really important.”

The Salukis play a 4-3 alignment in coordinator Lee Pronschinske’s defense, necessitating two coaches in the D-line room.

“You're going to have anywhere from 18 to 20 guys in that room,” Hill explained. “So having two coaches for the ends and tackles, it’s just better for the players, in terms of the individualized coaching you can give them.”

Kulig is a 2016 graduate of Division III St. John Fisher, where he played defensive line and helped lead the team to a 34-12 record, including an appearance in the Elite Eight game in 2013. The Rochester, N.Y. native has previous coaching stops at Susquehanna, Mary Hardin-Baylor, Wisconsin Stevens Point, Robert Morris and Albany.

Quoting Jake Kulig

“I heard a lot of good things about Coach Hill and Coach Pron from people who worked with them, as far as who they are as people and how they build their culture and their team. Coach Pron is a younger guy that everybody I've talked to has told me that he's a guy that's on the rise, as far as coaching defense and putting together a unit that's gonna be really good in this conference. This will be my second time working with Coach Davis, and he’s a really good defensive line coach who I know very well. We work together well together and I think we’ll continue to grow the defense.

At the end of the day, we're all teachers. Going into my ninth year of coaching, I've tried to become as super-detailed as possible, making sure guys understand how to put themselves in good positions to be successful. My teaching style is not gonna be running around and rah, rah, rah, but I'm gonna be demanding and coach these guys every single play to make sure they are getting the coaching that they need to be successful.”