Southern Illinois at Illinois State game preview

CARBONDALE, Ill. — The stakes are high for the regular-season finale between Illinois State and Southern Illinois.

The No. 11-ranked Redbirds (8-3, 5-2) are angling for a Top 8-seed in the FCS Playoffs, which comes with a coveted first-round bye.

The No. 24-ranked Salukis (6-5, 3-4) are fighting just to make the playoffs and need a signature win to show the committee they are deserving. The bracket will be unveiled Sunday at 11 a.m. CT on ESPNU.

Illinois State is riding a four-game winning streak that features three road victories and includes a road sweep of South Dakota and South Dakota State. The Redbird offense exploded for 28 first-quarter points in last week’s win at SDSU.

The Salukis have lost back-to-back heartbreakers to Youngstown State and South Dakota, in which they led each game by 17 points. Last week’s loss to South Dakota went to a school-record five overtimes.

Southern’s offense has scored 400 points this season and is averaging more the 36 points per game — the most since 2007 when Nick Hill quarterbacked the team to the final four of the playoffs.

Defensively, SIU has allowed 101 points the last two weeks and played last Saturday without four key starters — linebacker Chris Presto, safety Cejai Parson, defensive end Donnie Wingate and defensive tackle Peyton Reeves.

Saturday’s game features a matchup of the two longest-tenured head coaches in the Missouri Valley Football Conference — ISU’s Brock Spack (17th season) and SIU’s Nick Hill (10th season).

The Salukis are playing their seventh regular-season road game, the most road games in school history.

Quick Facts

Date: Saturday, November 22, 2025

Kickoff: 12 PM CT

Location: Normal, IL

Facility: Hancock Stadium (13,391)

Radio: WCIL, 101.5 FM

TV: ESPN+

Series: SIU leads, 43-39-3

Spread: ISU -4

Weather: Mostly sunny, High 53, Winds 5-10 MPH

First and Ten

• In the last five seasons, the Redbirds have made one playoff appearance (2024), while the Salukis have made three (2020, 2021, 2023).

• Southern Illinois has dropped to No. 24 in the Stats Perform FCS poll after losing, 48-38, at Youngstown State, and 53-51 to South Dakota in a five-overtime game, .

• SIU’s defense has given up 101 points in the last two games, the largest two-game total since giving up 122 points to South Dakota State and North Dakota State at the end of the 2018 season.

• The Salukis have played at Hancock Stadium only once in the past six seasons. Southern won that 2022 meeting, 19-14. In that game, SIU built a 19-0 lead, but ISU drove to the SIU 13 late in the game, before Richie Hagarty delivered a sack to preserve the victory.

• In last year’s meeting, Illinois State won, 45-10, despite Southern out-gaining the Redbirds, 487-407. SIU came up empty on three trips to the red zone and was penalized 12 times for 109 yards. On top of that, backup quarterback Hunter Simmons, who was filling in for injured starter DJ Williams, broke his leg in the third quarter.

Quoting Illinois State Coach Brock Spack

(On SIU’s 5OT loss) “I’m sure they were disappointed, but I think they moved on very quickly. Nick's a good coach, he's been around a while, he understands how to get a team ready, and they'll be ready to play, but I guess you'd have to ask them. I’m sure at the time it was very disappointing, but I think they'll recover and come up here and be ready to play, that's what our assumption is anyways.

(On DJ Williams) “He has a big arm, he can throw deep balls very well, he's very accurate on deep balls. We played him when he was at Murray. He’s like a lot of quarterbacks we see in our conference, they're bigger guys that can run and throw, and throw on the run, so he's a problem. Coach Hill's very creative in what he does, creative ways to get him in the running game. Southern Illinois is always known for having good athletes, and they have very good receivers that can run, and they can run by you, so we'll have to be really good in the secondary and linebacker. ”

Quoting Southern Illinois Coach Nick Hill

“We had our media day in South Dakota this year and you get to go to dinner with all the head coaches. Coach Spack's an old-school guy. He likes the outdoors. He likes NASCAR and dirt track racing and I like dirt track racing, so we've always had some things in common to talk about. He's a defensive-minded guy, who spent a lot of time at Purdue as the defensive coordinator before he got the Illinois State job. Anytime you have an intrastate rivalry, it’s a rivalry for a reason. We've always had tough teams. You're recruiting a lot of the same kids. The games are always competitive.

(On 5OT loss) I showed the team a short video clip, and it asked, what if you could go back and write down all the tough things that you've overcome in your life? You could look back and say, because you're here today, because you're sitting in this seat, those things didn't break you. You still have a glass and can still fill your cup, you can gain some momentum, and you can go forward from wherever you're at. I think there's been a lot of those type of moments in these last two weeks. This is a great group. They're great kids, and so I trust that we will go out and play the same way that we've shown up to play each and every week, with a belief that this week, we'll go close one out.”

Scouting No. 11/11 Illinois State (8-3, 5-2)

• In last week’s win at South Dakota State, the Redbirds scored 28 unanswered points in the first quarter in a 35-21 win.

• Illinois State has scored at least 30 points in eight of its 11 games.

• The Redbirds are 8-0 in the month of November during the last two seasons.

• QB Tommy Rittenhouse leads the MVFC with 28 touchdown passes on the year and ranks No. 4 in the FCS in that category.

• WR Daniel Sobkowicz is ISU's career leader in touchdown catches (33) and is second in receiving yardage (3,086) and receptions (226).

• RB Wenkers Wright surpassed 2,500 career rushing yards this season.

• Illinois State has six players on offense who have started 20+ career games.

Scouting No. 24/RV Southern Illinois (6-5, 3-4)

• Southern has scored on its opening drive in 10 of its 11 games, including nine touchdowns. Last week, it took only three plays before DJ Williams found Jay Jones for a 63-yard TD strike.

• Williams owns the school record for Points Responsible For with 222, which ranks second in the nation this season. He has 36 touchdowns to his credit (22 passing, 14 rushing).

• DJ Williams has 713 rushing yards on the season and needs four yards to pass Mark Iannotti (716 in 2015) for the school single-season record.

• WR Vinson Davis III has 155 career catches and ranks 5th in school history. He has 1,893 yards and needs 107 to become the sixth player in school history to reach the 2,000-yard plateau.

• CB Jeremiah McClendon leads the conference and ranks seventh in the nation in passes defended per game (1.27).

• LB Shug Walker leads the team in tackles (76) and has 182 for his two-year career at SIU. LB Colin Bohanek also has 76 tackles this season and has 152 for his career.

• DE Vontrell Chairse leads the team with 5.0 sacks.

Salukis By the Numbers

• The Salukis rank No. 12 in the FCS in scoring (36.4), No. 18 in rushing (199.2) and No. 23 in passing (246.8).

• SIU converts 49.2 percent of its third down conversions — 7th-best in the FCS.

• SIU has scored on 93.6 percent of its trips inside the Red Zone, which ranks No. 5 in the nation.

• In 2025, SIU started the season 4-1 for the fourth time under head coach Nick Hill. The Salukis made the FCS Playoffs each of the previous three times (2020, 2021, 2023).

• RT Cam Dye extended his longest-active starting streak to 19 games, and WR Vinson Davis III has the most overall career starts among active players at 31.

• K Paul Geelen is 47-for-47 this season on PATs and has made 73-straight since missing his first kick in the opener at BYU in 2024. His longest career field goal is 53 yard at Purdue. He made a 36-yard field goal at the end of regulation to send the South Dakota game to overtime.

Coaching Longevity

• Of the 129 active FCS head coaches in 2025, only 18 of them have been at the same school for the last 10 or more seasons, including SIU’s Nick Hill, who is in his 10th season at the helm of his alma mater.

• Hill is the second-longest tenured coach in the Missouri Valley Football Conference behind Illinois State’s Brock Spack (17th season).

• SIU tight ends coach Nate Griffin is also in his 10th season with the Salukis, having served throughout Hill’s tenure, first as running backs coach.