Salukis dominate UT Martin, 37-10

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MARTIN, Tenn. — DJ Williams ran for three touchdowns and passed for another to lead Southern Illinois to a dominating, 37-10 win at UT Martin on Saturday.

Williams rushed for 128 yards, the most by an SIU quarterback since Matt DeSomer in 2018. It was the second time in six-career starts at Southern that Williams has topped 100 yards, and he needed only 14 carries to do it, for an average of more than nine yards per attempt. Williams also passed for 217 yards for good measure.

“DJ’s obviously an elite runner,” said SIU head coach Nick Hill. “Sometimes, elite runners can't throw it like he can, which makes defenses have to really defend the whole length of the field.”

The threat of Williams’ running ability left the Skyhawks (0-3) vulnerable to the deep passing game. The Big Three receiving trio of Jay Jones, Fabian McCray and Vinson Davis III delivered the fireworks once again for the Salukis (2-1).

On the first play from scrimmage for SIU, Williams launched a 47-yard completion down the right sideline to Jones to the UTM 13. Two plays later, Williams ran it in from four yards out.

SIU’s second score came on a broken play in which Williams almost decided to run with it, before stopping to lob the ball over a defender to McCray, who raced 56 yards for a score.

“When the plays are there to hit, that's when you need to be explosive,” Hill said. “The one to Jay to start the game got us going, and the one to Fabian just shows how much his off-schedule playmaking ability can really kill a defense.”

Williams described his performance as “okay,” saying he was unhappy with his three turnovers — two interceptions and a late fumble, in which the ball was jarred loose just before he crossed the goal line during the fourth quarter.

“That's not my nature to turn the ball over,” Williams said. “There’s some stuff I have to get cleaned up.”

“He's a little bit ticked off, which is good,” Hill smiled. “When you can learn lessons from mistakes in a winning manner, it makes you feel a little bit better. We understand that we can't do that in critical one-score games.”

Southern’s defense had another strong night, with two fourth-down stops in the first half and a pair of turnovers. Linebacker Colin Bohanek led unit with 12 tackles, and Cejai Parson added eight stops. Safety Vinny Pierre Jr. had an interception, and linebacker Andrew Behm forced a fumble that was recovered by defensive tackle Caden Reeves.

“We felt very confident coming in this week with our game plan,” Bohanek said. “We had a really good mindset that we're not going to give up anything. They want to go for it on fourth down, alright, meet you in the A-gap type mentality.”

Pierre Jr.’s interception was his second in two weeks and came on a trick play, in which wide receiver Bryce Bailey threw a long, deep pass across the field.

“Coach (Lee) Pronschinske called a perfect coverage, a cover two,” Pierre Jr. said. “I saw there was a leak out from the backside, so I just stayed over to it, did my job, and the ball just came my way.”

The Salukis out-gained the Skyhawks, 490-291, with the defense allowing just 88 yards in the second half.

“If we can go on the road against Top 25 opponents, hold them to 10 points and 88 yards in the second half, that's a formula to win a lot of football game,” Hill said. “There's a passion and an energy that they're playing with and good things happen when you do that.”

Davis III had an electric game with a dazzling 33 yard catch-and-run, plus a 44-yard kickoff return. He said the team’s goal is simply to go 1-0 each week, starting tomorrow when prep beings for next Saturday’s game at SEMO.

“We know it's a rival week, a big game,” Davis III said. “We're going to play our best. They're going to play their best, and we're going to see the best team win.”