CARBONDALE (WSIL) -- "It was a big deal, it was a big win, as a coach there's nothing like the feeling of winning," 九游体育 Illinois Head Football Coach Nick Hill said Monday. Hill's Salukis beat the the number one team in the nation, North Dakota State 38-14.
Monday morning, it still dominated the water cooler chatter. Coach Hill virtually met with the media for his weekly press conference as SIU prepares for a road game at Youngstown State on Saturday.
Coach Hill was asked how'd he celebrate the victory. "There's nothing like now that I have a young family, Skylar came up and sat there and watched me do my press conference and Alecia took Charley, our youngest and we got some pizza, we hung out at home and heck, I was in bed by 8:45 PM."
Coach said he checked his phone Saturday night, and he received over 300 text messages offering congratulations.
And we got to see a quarterback we don't know much about, blossom in his first career start.
Nic Baker had quite the performance in Saturday's win and the Missouri Valley Conference named him their offensive player of the week.
Baker completed 17-of-23 passes for 254 yards, The sophomore from Rochester Illinois threw for a touchdown, with no interceptions.
Kare Lyles has two broken ribs and is not available and Baker will get the nod again.
Baker threw two interceptions against North Dakota but Coach Hill said last week in practice, Baker showed he was ready to lead the Salukis on Saturday.
And Coach provided an example I could relate to.
"It was just getting consistent reps with the number one offense. When you play the position or haven't played the position, it'd be like your line of work having to go on primetime and never having any practice or never doing it before and then you'd have to go out on national TV. It's kind of like that, you don't get much practice, you practice but it's with a different group of receivers a different offensive line, so you just get comfortable.
"You know you are starting a game, so you can put yourself in there to get the majority of the reps in practice. In week one, he got thrown in with a minute and forty seconds to go in the first half, down two scores in really your first opportunity to play in college football. I knew he was going to bounce back and learn from his mistakes. That's just who Nic is and it was a week ago today and my office is connected to the staff room and he's in there watching film. He's by himself and I called him and I was like I got a hundred percent confidence in you going out there and playing this week and he's a confident kid, he doesn't lack confidence in himself."
