SIUC football coach Jan Quarless is beginning to hate the word depth.

Since his January 1997 arrival at SIUC, Quarless has had to build a program with a team depleted by transfers and injuries. With spring drills set to wrap up Saturday, Quarless and his staff are just as unsure about this season as they were a year ago.

Injuries to several key players have dropped the Salukis’ numbers in camp to around 40 players, as much as 30 less than in past years. The losses have been especially painful at quarterback, where returning senior starter Kent Skornia has missed almost the entire camp with a broken bone in his left foot.

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In 22 years of coaching, I’ve never witnessed this, Quarless said. Like I said 14 months ago, I knew this lack of numbers wasn’t just going to go away in a year.

There is not going to be much difference, and there won’t be in this program in ’97, ’98 and ’99. I think the truth of the matter is we were fortunate in some respects as much as we got after them that we did stay healthy.

The list of injuries continues a string that began last season. Along with Skornia’s injury, his brother, sophomore quarterback Jeff, has missed practice with a knee injury. Linemen senior Brandon Frick and sophomores Tavita Tovio and Jarrod Joiner have badly sprained ankles, and defensive lineman senior John Evans has missed with mononucleosis.

The news is not good for a team that finished 3-8 last season. With few numbers in camp, Quarless has relied on building toughness among his players. That strategy has even included allowing players to take aggression out on their teammates in practice.

I will continue to do that until I think we become a really physical football team and until we take so much pride in our own effort that we will take that challenge right until the whistle blows, Quarless said. I’ve never really known anybody to get hurt in that type of skirmish, and I think what it does is it brings a little bit of the heart.

Sophomore quarterback Brock Lovelace has been the only quarterback in camp, and Quarless did not look forward to having that situation. But the veteran coach sees it as a blessing in disguise in building Lovelace’s confidence.

I think Kent Skornia is the type of guy that will come in July or late June when that cast comes off and work his fanny off to get ready for camp, Quarless said. Consequently, I think we’ve prepared Brock Lovelace for hopefully a position he will hold someday. I don’t think he was hurt one bit, and I think it added tremendously to his growth.

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In the meantime, Quarless will rely on his 20 recruits and several walk-ons to increase numbers when camp begins in August.

I think we’re going to have to do the same thing we did last year keep our fingers crossed and hope the injuries will heal, Quarless said. You’ll add your recruiting class and then get some quality walk-ons, and that’s something we’re striving to do. Hopefully, we’ll add numbers that way until we can get this thing stretched out to 85 or 90 numbers. But it’s going to take some time.

Are we ahead of last year? Sure we are because we’ve been together an entire year. But we’re going to have to hit on all cylinders and continue to improve.