The SIU football team will finally get a break from the weekly routine of the season.

The Salukis are 5-4 and have lost their last three games, all to ranked opponents. They also played without leading rusher Malcolm Agnew against Indiana State, which resulted in 27 net yards on the ground.

“I think we will deeply benefit from this week off, just getting people healthy, and also finding our identity.” sophomore quarterback Ryan West said during a press conference after the 41-26 Homecoming loss.

Other than Western Illinois, which also has its bye week this week, all other Missouri Valley Football Conference teams had taken at least one off week by Sept. 27.

“Well, the grind, I think, has taken its toll,” head coach Dale Lennon said. “You look at playing nine games straight, especially with the level of the teams that we’ve been playing. Also, it is a later off-week than what most teams have.”

The bye week allows Agnew and other injured Salukis to heal ailments without having to sit out a game.

“The bye week for me couldn’t have come at a better time,” said Agnew, who sat out Saturday with a sprained ankle. “It’s a couple weeks after I hurt my ankle, so it gives me an extra week to recover and not miss a game.”

On a normal weekday, players meet at 2 p.m. to watch film before practice at 3:45. This week, practice runs from 6:00 a.m. to 7:30 a.m.

While practice does not normally start so early, the Salukis are not strangers to early morning football activities. Some players have morning workouts during regular weeks, and spring practices are often early in the morning.

Morning practice also allows players to use the afternoon to catch up on studying and homework.

The time is not the only thing different about practice this week. The composition of practice changes during a bye week.

Veterans and players who have seen a lot of in-game action this season take it easy. Senior outside linebacker Tyler Williamson said he welcomes the break that comes with the bye week.

“It’s a good rest, especially for someone like me,” Williamson said. “I need the bye week to allow my body to catch up a little bit.”

Younger players also benefit from the rest afforded the starters. Guys who spent most of the first nine weeks with the scout team get more repetitions running the Saluki systems during bye weeks.

Williamson said it was good to see those players get reps.

“You spark them back into being a part of the football team,” Williamson said. “They’ve just been running the scout team and kind of secluded a little bit.”

While the rest benefits the starters and the extra reps benefit the younger players, Lennon would have preferred to have the bye week come sooner than week 10.

“At the beginning of the year, I was thinking that if we could make it to this point without having any issues, it’d be a perfect time to have an off week,” Lennon said during the postgame press conference. “But maybe an off week a couple weeks ago might have been what the doctor needed to order.”

Thomas can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter @tdonleyde.