Mountaineers’ top speed, athleticism too much for Salukis to catch in playoff

BOONE, N.C. – Unable to carry the momentum from their first playoff win in 22 years, the SIU football team fell to Appalachian State 38-24 Saturday in the quarterfinals of the Division I-AA playoffs.

An SIU defense that kept first round opponent Eastern Illinois from scoring a touchdown was on its heels all game trying to contain quarterback Richie Williams and the high-powered Mountaineer offense. No. 5-ranked ASU scored 24 points to start the game, mounting a lead from which the Salukis would never recover.

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“They do an excellent job in the scheme they are in, and they have an excellent trigger man that is running that scheme,” SIU head coach Jerry Kill said.

Williams averaged about 180 yards per game passing entering the game but was known more for his rushing ability from the quarterback position. Against the Salukis, however, he dominated in both aspects.

“We knew that they were weaker in the back four than in the front seven, and we wanted to take advantage of that,” Williams said.

Williams torched the Saluki defense for 367 passing yards and three touchdowns and in the process broke several school records for passing and total offense. The senior etched his name in the Southern Conference record book as the only player to produce 9,000 all-purpose offensive yards.

Several of Williams’ completions in the game were for major yardage, as all three of his touchdown passes were for 40 yards or more. SIU senior cornerback Brad Brachear said the quickness of the receivers and Williams’ ability to evade the pass rush exposed problems in the Saluki secondary.

“They had a good quarterback who could scramble around quite a bit and buy some time,” Brachear said. “It’s hard to defend receivers for that long. They had a lot of speed, and they just got open.”

Kill said the speed of the Mountaineers also kept the Salukis from finding an offensive rhythm. ASU forced senior SIU quarterback Joel Sambursky into throwing two uncharacteristic interceptions and kept a normally strong Saluki rushing game in check with 117 rushing yards.

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“We haven’t faced anybody in our conference that had the same team speed they had on defense, certainly in the secondary,” Kill said. “They made our execution tough by the way they played.”

SIU running back Arkee Whitlock finished the game with 95 rushing yards, but most of the junior’s yards came from improvisation on broken plays. Whitlock said the offensive line was able to open holes, but the defense collapsed quickly.

“Most of the time you wanted to have patience and let plays develop, but then again, with a team with as much speed, you want to get out of rhythm and hit holes too fast,” Whitlock said.

The SIU offense eventually hit a stride scoring two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, but the effort was too little, too late. Sambursky credited the Mountaineers as being the toughest team he had faced all season, but said their athleticism wasn’t what caused the biggest problems for his team.

“They did some things that hurt us, but when it comes down to it, it’s not their speed – it’s that we didn’t execute when we should have,” Sambursky said. “You can’t make mistakes against a team like that and expect to win.”

Reporter William Ford can be reached at [email protected]