Salukis meet no. 4 Western Kentucky in top 5 tussle

By Gus Bode

The Gateway has never seen anything like this, let alone in the regular season.

Western Kentucky comes to town Saturday night for the most highly-touted matchup in Gateway Conference history, pitting No. 1 vs. No. 4 in the heart of the conference season – something that has never happened before.

Both the Salukis and Hilltoppers have received first-place votes in both major polls, and Saturday’s game could decide who is the best in I-AA and the eventual Gateway champion.

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“This will definitely be one of the biggest games I’ve played in,” said safety Alexis Moreland, unwilling to commit to Saturday as the most important of his career, but realizing its importance.

Players are not willing to say this is the biggest game ever, but as the publicity surrounding Saturday night’s premiere matchup continues to build, the magnitude of the Western Kentucky game is beginning to sink in.

The players continue to hear fans, the media and people in their own department tell them the importance of this game, and as the questions mount, the hype is beginning to leak into their collective psyches.

“It’s starting to feel that way,” said quarterback Joel Sambursky, when asked if this was his career’s most important game. “Sure, I’ve played in some big games and everything, but this is a huge game and it’s going to be an extremely big challenge for us.

“I don’t know if it’s the biggest, but I think every game gets bigger and bigger as my career progresses.”

Sambursky and the Salukis beat the Hilltoppers last year in Kentucky, and will be the favorite over Western Kentucky for the first time in recent memory.

To avoid the upset, SIU will be coping with a plethora of variables, including a defense it has never seen before, a team that forces a ton of turnovers and one of the fastest teams it has played.

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Western Kentucky plays a complicated version of the 3-4 defense that emphasizes speed as much as SIU’s perpetual nickelback system.

SIU head coach Jerry Kill said it is unlike anything his team has seen this season and said the preparation has been difficult and time-consuming.

Aside from its ability to force turnovers, the greatest asset of Western Kentucky’s defense is its speed. Half of the Hilltoppers linebackers are the size of defensive backs.

“They’re a team that, you’ll see, will match us speed-wise, and there’s not many that can do that, but they can,” Kill said.

That could be a problem for the Salukis, who scored all their touchdowns last week by blowing past Youngstown State defenders.

All five touchdowns were scored on big plays in which the scoring Saluki was barely brushed by a defender. All Sambursky had to do was lay the ball in the hands of a playmaker and watch him run, something that may not happen as much this week.

Sambursky said the basic offense is not changing, but SIU may have a few plays to pick at Western Kentucky weaknesses – if it can find any.

“They don’t have many weaknesses, I can tell you that much,” Sambursky said of the Hilltopper defense.

Defensively, the Salukis will be dealing with one of I-AA’s best offensive lines. The Western Kentucky frontmen have allowed only three sacks this season, and Kill said he is not expecting to get to quarterback Justin Haddix very often.

He just hopes he can disrupt him once in a while.

What could help the SIU defense is the possible absence of Western Kentucky leading rusher Lerron Moore. He is questionable with a hamstring injury – or at least that’s what Western Kentucky said.

Kill is not convinced.

“I don’t buy that. He’ll play,” Kill said. “He’ll play, and I’m sure he’ll play well.”

Even if Moore doesn’t play, Kill said, the SIU defense is still not off the hook.

“If he doesn’t play, the next one they put in will be pretty damn good, too,” Kill said.

Like it did against Northern Iowa, the Saluki defense hopes to benefit from the home crowd. SIU defenders continually pumped up the crowd in an attempt to rattle the opposing quarterback, and fans can expect more of the same Saturday as the Salukis face their toughest trial of the Gateway season.

“That’s why they call it home-field advantage,” Sambursky said. “I hope our fans are out in full force because we’re really going to need them. We’re going to need everything we can to beat these guys.”

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