The SIU athletic department believes its football coaches should now be able to communicate without interruption on game days.

Assistant Athletic Director Jason King said the Salukis have ordered new headsets that should alleviate interference that has periodically disrupted communication between coaches on the field and in the press box.

The new headphones offer wireless and hard wire capabilities unlike the old set. Now when interference scrambles air waves, the Salukis can quickly make the transition to wired.

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“Before with the old set it was totally a wireless system so when we had the interference or when they went down, you were pretty much out of luck,” King said.

Three times this year head coach Jerry Kill has griped in post-game press conferences about headphones that only worked sporadically or not at all.

Last Saturday following SIU’s 40-36 victory over Northern Iowa was no different.

“Again we didn’t have a headset off and on during the damn game,” Kill said. “It’s very frustrating.”

The problem began at Northern Illinois and reached its boiling point at home against William Penn, prompting the athletic department to purchase the new set from Porta Phone. King figured the problem would be solved, but a manufacturing mistake seemed to curse the Salukis once again.

“They sent us the wrong equipment,” King said. “Basically because they sent us the wrong chargers, when we started using the system the batteries never got fully charged and the headphones went down for a while.”

The Salukis quickly switched to wire when the batteries began to fade Saturday. But Kill can recall two times against the Panthers when he was forced to use a timeout because the headsets were out.

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Each was a critical point in the game, as is every scenario when communication breaks between coaches in the press box and on the field.

“Each time it feels like it’s the most important part of the ball game,” said offensive coordinator Matt Limegrover.

Kill added:”We have a tremendous amount of frustration because it makes it very difficult to coach during the game. You work all week for a game plan and you can’t utilize it because you can’t communicate with each other.”

The Salukis have gotten good use out of the old wireless headphones from Coachcomm, but this year the set began to have problems with interference.

Information technology took a look at the problem but couldn’t come up with a concrete solution. According to King, the interference could be a result of cell phones or even the rise in homes with HDTV, which has been known to interrupt signals.

King also said the source of the problem could be attributed to the University’s slow climb toward becoming completely wireless. Saluki sports information director Tom Weber said the newly installed wireless internet in the McAndrew Stadium press box was thought to be a possible source.

“Quite honestly, nobody can tell us exactly what the problem is,” King said.

King has spoken with Porta Phone and said the correct batteries are being overnighted to Carbondale. Even with the interference difficulties, Limegrover said he anticipates the Salukis will give wireless another chance next week.

Kill said he has faith that everyone is doing what they can to resolve the issue.

“I’m just an old football coach,” Kill said. “I’m trusting my equipment people and Jason King to handle that. It is frustrating, but hopefully we’ve got the curse taken care of.”