CARBONDALE – Though it had locked up the best regular season record in school history nearly 24 hours prior, it took until Sunday afternoon for the SIU football team to breathe a collective sigh of relief.

The Salukis (10-1) earned the No. 4 overall seed in the Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs Sunday, ensuring the team would have home field advantage for at least the first two of four potential playoff games. The first comes Saturday at 1:30 p.m. when the team hosts Eastern Illinois.

SIU was the only one of four seeded teams to have a blemish on its record, and the only one that needed an at-large bid to guarantee its presence in the 16-team playoff bracket.

Advertisement

The bid gave coach Jerry Kill his fifth-consecutive trip to the playoffs, something he said was a relief in itself.

“We’re just glad we’re in the 16-team thing,” Kill said. “Who we play and what we do, we weren’t going to control that anyway. Now we know, and now we go to work.”

The team is joined in the bracket by Gateway Football Conference opponent and No. 1 overall seed Northern Iowa (11-0), the only team to get the best of the Salukis this season in a 30-24 defeat that featured senior wide receiver coming six-yards short of the potentially game-winning touchdown.

If both teams win their first two home games, the Salukis and the Panthers would meet up for a second time in two months at the hostile UNI Dome, a potential rematch that excited several SIU players Sunday.

“Everybody that played that game feels like we kind of let that one slip away,” senior wide receiver Justin Allen said. “I’d love to get a chance to go back up there and beat them.”

Senior tackle Darren Marquez said he was also looking forward to taking care of unfinished business in Iowa, but had a more immediate goal on the front burner.

“Now I’m thinking about Eastern. That’s our first opponent,” Marquez said.

Advertisement*

Marquez started last time the Salukis faced Eastern Illinois, a 21-6 upset victory in Charleston in the first round of the 2005 playoffs.

The Panthers’ (8-3, 7-1 Ohio Valley Conference) only losses this season came against Purdue, OVC champion Eastern Kentucky and Gateway opponent Illinois State, a team SIU defeated 34-24 Nov. 10.

Kill is 2-2 at SIU in first round playoff games, but has won the game the last two seasons, both on the road against Eastern Illinois and last season at home against Tennessee-Martin.

Senior quarterback Nick Hill said playing at home gives SIU the decisive advantage in the contest, but admitted nothing is certain in the deep playoff bracket.

“With 16 teams, the best 16 teams in the country, everybody’s good,” Hill said.

Kill said after Sunday’s announcements the burden is off the selection committee and back on the coaches as they prepare for Saturday’s game.

He said the keys will be feeding off the momentum of the season and getting some players, especially in the defensive secondary, healthy for the game.

“We got a long night tonight and a long day tomorrow,” Kill said. “Get a good game plan together and get them ready to play.”

Sean McGahan can be reached at 536-3311 ext. 269 or [email protected].