Tim Leonard Q&A (Part One); AD offers thoughts on 2025 season and future scheduling

CARBONDALE, Ill. — SIU director of athletics Tim Leonard sat down with StrongDawgs for an in-depth interview this week on all things Saluki Football.

In today’s Part One, he offers thoughts on the 2025 season, the team’s playoff resume and the status of future scheduling. He said he has verbal commitments to play guarantee games against Big Ten opponents in 2028 and 2029.

StrongDawgs Q&A with Tim Leonard

SD: Looking back, what are your thoughts on the 2025 season?

TL: We were one or two plays here and there, and we easily could have been 6-2, heck, even 7-1 in conference play. If you really wanted to stretch it, you could even say we could have gone undefeated in conference play. That's a bit of a stretch, because winning at North Dakota State, you got like a 4 percent chance of winning up there. But I thought this team physically matched up well with just about anybody we played in the conference. We beat a team in Illinois State that has proven to be very good, so that was at least a positive end of the season. Frustrating that we didn't get to where we wanted to be, but we were also dang close.

SD: With a 7-5 record and a Top 15 power rating/strength-of-schedule, what was your analysis of the team’s playoff resume?

TL: Our power rating is going to be high every year, just because of the league we're in. Historically, 5-3 (in conference play) almost always gets you in (to the playoffs). Not 100 percent of the time, but a pretty high percentage. In terms of the power rating, we haven't ever really looked at that from a non-conference scheduling perspective, because we have the benefit of not having to worry about it because of the league that we're in.

SD: Do you think the selection committee looked at the Thomas More game and said, “Southern only has six DI wins” or do you think that didn’t matter?

TL: It could have mattered, but it didn't matter this year. They weren't taking seven teams from the Valley, and we weren't leapfrogging South Dakota State. There's nobody we could have played (instead of Thomas More) that would have leapt us over South Dakota State. Our reason we didn't get into the playoffs was because we were 4-4 and really didn't beat anybody in our conference until Illinois State, so we didn't really have that big signature win in the conference.

SD: In South Dakota State's case, however, they did get in at 4-4.

TL: I think there's some unique circumstances, right? They lost all of those games when the quarterback was out and he came back and the committee knew he was coming back. I think that had a lot to do with it, and their reputation. I've got friends on the committee, and there's nothing we really could have done that would have changed that outcome with a 4-4 record in the league.

That Thomas More thing, no, that had very little to do with it. And quite honestly, moving forward, if that's what our concern is about getting into the playoffs, I mean, we have everything in front of us every year. With the league that we play in, 5-3 pretty much gets you in the playoffs, and that needs to be our focus. I'm less concerned about what our non-conference is because we have so much opportunity in the league.

SD: Let's talk more about scheduling. SEMO is on the schedule through 2028. Thoughts on the rivalry series with the Redhawks?

TL: Our plan is just to keep extending that. I like that game. It’s a convenient game. It's usually one of our most well-attended and best revenue games that we have here. I have no desire to get out of that contract. It’s a great rivalry. I think most years that's a good game for us from a power-ranking standpoint.

SD: You have upcoming guarantee games at Illinois next year and Wisconsin in 2027. What's the status of guarantee games for 2028 and beyond?

TL: We've got two more Big Ten teams, the names I probably don't want to put out there in writing right now, because they’re not signed, but they've verbally committed. So I feel good about that and I'm trying to wrap those up. I’d like to have five years out all the time, always scheduled, completely full. I’ve been playing catch-up since I've been here.

SD: After adding Samford, you still have one open date remaining in 2026. What are you working on for that Week Zero game?

TL: It seems like everybody in the Valley is trying to figure out what they're gonna do with that 12th game. If we can get the right FCS opponent to play in Week Zero, but again, the problem is nobody wants to play on the road, or if they do, everybody wants money.

I'm not opposed to the non-DI in Week Zero, simply because I think that gives us a good opportunity to get the kinks worked out, get everybody a lot of playing time. It’s no different than what the FBS does by wanting to bring in an FCS team. I understand everybody's concerned about would that work against us in the playoffs? And again, I would say, yeah, it could if you don't do very well in our league, but under my thinking, we better start doing better in the league play, and then we don't have to worry about any of that.

Then we have to make that decision of do you even want to play a 12th game? Nick feels very strongly about it, and I'll support that. Personally, I am not a big fan of FCS having a 12th game and playing in that Week Zero. I don't know the benefits of it exactly. We should be thinking we're going to try to make the playoffs every year and that extra game is just one more opportunity to get hurt. We’re in a league that's gonna take a minimum of four or five teams every year, so let's just make sure we're one of the top-five teams in the league.

SD: Is it important to have a balance of six home and six road games, or are you okay with a 5-and-7 imbalance?

TL: I would want it to be balanced, if possible. If you're going to go with 12 games from here on out, I think 2-and-2 (in non-conference) is ideally what you want to do.

In Part Two tomorrow, Leonard discusses contract talks with Coach Hill, revenue-sharing with players, and his vision for investing in Saluki Football.