Salukis lose quarterback DJ Williams in 34-31 loss at West Florida
- Tom Weber
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 9 hours ago
PENSACOLA, Fla. — Southern Illinois lost the turnover battle, the game, and most importantly, they lost their star quarterback, DJ Williams to another knee injury on Thursday
night.
Meanwhile, West Florida made its FCS debut a memorable one, holding on for a 34-31 win over the No. 16-ranked Salukis in front of an overflow crowd of 6,124 at Pen Air Field.
It wasn’t supposed to go this way for SIU’s All-American quarterback, who played through a knee injury in 2025 and was primed for a big season.
“I told DJ when he was lying on the ground to say a prayer,” said SIU head coach Nick Hill. “Sometimes, you can be angry with God and you can be frustrated, but ultimately, you have to trust His timing.”
Williams’ status will be evaluated in the coming days, but he was walking on the sideline without assistance and cheering for his teammates in the second half.
“DJ is one of the best young men I've ever had the opportunity to coach,” Hill continued. “You have an emotional attachment to everybody on your team, but especially with DJ, because I know what he's put into it.”
Backup Jake Curry entered the game with his team trailing, 13-6, and got off to a shaky start, throwing interceptions on his first two possessions at the helm. The second one was a momentum-swinging pick-six, in which West Florida defensive back A'Khoury Lyde broke on a sideline pass and went untouched to the end zone to give West Florida a 20-6 lead.
“Jake didn't practice the last three days,” Hill said. “He got hit on the elbow in practice on Monday. We didn't even know if he was going to be the backup quarterback in this game. He threw in warm-ups for the first time, said he was able to go, and then he gets called into action. That's the game that we play.”
The theme of the first-half offense for Southern, even when Williams was in, was its inability to punch the ball into the end zone. They had to settle for four Seth Adams field goal attempts. He made three of them, including a 50 and 47-yarder, as SIU fell behind at halftime, 20-9.
“If you want to have a successful offense, a high-powered offense, you got to score touchdowns when you get in the red zone,” Hill said. “You gotta take care of the football, and you gotta be good on third down. Tonight, we weren’t.”
The Argonauts (1-0) were out-gained in the contest, 403-335, but they won the turnover battle, 4-3, and their potent running game averaged 5.7 yards per carry. Quarterback Ty’Ray Davis had 88 rushing yards and one touchdown, and while he completed only 7-of-17 passes for 109 yards, two of his completions went for touchdowns.
The Salukis (0-1) trailed, 27-9, early in the third quarter, but to their credit, battled back and had a chance late in the game to take the lead.
Curry settled in and delivered an excellent second half performance, tossing touchdown passes of 18 and eight yards to Kyle Thomas. Curry also dove into the end zone on a gutsy 19-yard touchdown run with 7:39 remaining in the game to cut the deficit to 27-24.
“Jake is tough as nails and he competes,” Hill said. “I think everybody on our sideline has confidence in Curry and believed that we'd go win the game with him.”
On West Florida’s ensuing drive, the Saluki defense forced a 3-and-out, and the stage was perfectly set for Curry to lead Southern on a game-winning drive with 6:33 to go and the ball at the SIU 33. Instead, running back Ed Robinson fumbled on the first play of the drive. The Argos soon extended their lead to 34-24 on a 22-yard TD pass by Davis with 2:31 remaining.
Once again, Curry led a rally, completing a 38-yard pass to Kam White that set up an 8-yard TD strike to Thomas and cut the deficit to 34-31 with just 1:09 left.
Southern’s onside kick attempt was unsuccessful, the defense held, but the offense was pinned deep inside its own territory and had just 51 seconds to work with on its final drive. Curry’s desperation pass on the final play of the game was intercepted.
“I was real confident in everyone around me, but at the end of the day, you take away the two turnovers I had in the first half and it might be a complete different ball game,” Curry said. “There were a couple drives we didn't finish, offensively, and I take full responsibility on all of it.”
Several times during training camp, Hill told the team that adversity was going to strike at some point in the season. No one knew it would happen this early.
“I think the overwhelming message right now, we should be sitting in this feeling, and showing up tomorrow and deciding individually what the response is gonna be,” Hill said. “There's naysayers, doubters, and rightfully so. You find out a lot about yourself as a player, as a coaching staff, when adversity hits.”
Comments