“I would say that many schools on the I-A level are going to be using the same type of headsets that we will be using now.”” – Jason King, SIU assistant athletic director of facilities Although it wasn’t used in the Montana game, the new headset system will replace the old system during the 2007 regular season.

The change in equipment should allow the SIU coaching staff significant improvement in sideline and booth communication as well as reduce the number of technical errors.

“One of the problems with wireless capabilities and television and so forth (in the booth) was you run into a lot of problems where things get broken up in the headsets,” said assistant athletic director of facilities Jason King. “This system will hopefully improve those interruptions.”

SIU has long been accustomed to using subpar communication systems -Porta Phone, SIU’s old system, was geared toward usage in a high school program.

“We have struggled here (with the old system), I don’t think there is any secret about it,” said SIU head coach Jerry Kill. “Certainly this should help us out. It’s an upgrade.”

Porta Phone, which was used for three seasons, cost SIU somewhere in the $10,000 market and could now serve as a backup set in case of an emergency.

King said the UC system could offer many benefits to the coaching staff including better communication between SIU coaches and players.

“This is just a better product than our old system,” King said. “They are still in very good working order. There is no doubt there is more working technology out there right now, but we feel like this is exactly what we need.”

Kill said SIU called multiple top Division I-AA programs to see what type of headsets they were using. Their solution was to buy a cheap headset from a larger Division I school that was looking for a new product – similar to buying a used car.

SIU Athletic Director Mario Moccia expanded on that idea.

“We called around to all the top Division I-AA programs like Appalachian State, Montana and Youngstown,” Moccia said. “It seemed that the model in I-AA was to get a hand-me-down set, for lack of a better term, from a I-A program.”

SIU did just that – Moccia said he found out that Missouri, where Moccia served as associate athletic director from 1998 to 2006, was going to put its current system up for bid because it was in the market for a new system.

SIU put $10,000 on the system and was declared the highest bidder.

King said the Coachcom UC system would regularly cost anywhere from $40,000 to $50,000 new and currently has a value around $15,000 to $20,000, meaning SIU purchased the system at a major discount.

“As you can imagine, for us to get somebody else’s headsets, we paid a significantly less amount and are still getting the same product, obviously,” King said.

Coaching headsets can get pricey – the system Missouri bought to replace its old system reportedly cost around $100,000.

Moccia said with such high prices, SIU can’t afford a top-line product but can get a system from the bargain bin.

“We are happy as could be because that is a system that we couldn’t afford to purchase,” Moccia said. “It kind of puts us in line with the top I-AA programs now. The coaches are happy.”

That’s not to say the Salukis have picked up an average system, though.

King said SIU’s new system could match almost any teams from I-AA and could rival those of other D-I schools, as well.

“I would say (the system) is what many Division I teams have right now,” King said. “Missouri just basically had the headsets for a while and wanted a different product. It wasn’t that the headsets weren’t working. But I would say that many schools on the I-A level are going to be using the same type of headsets that we will be using now.”