CARBONDALE, Ill. — Southern Illinois was picked to finish fourth out of 11 teams in the preseason Missouri Valley Football Conference poll of league coaches, media and sports information directors. The Salukis led the league with 13 players named to the preseason team, including six first-teamers — WR Avante Cox, G ZeVeyon Furcron, DE Jordan Berner, S Qua Brown, CB James Ceasar and RB Javon Williams Jr.
For the first time since joining the MVFC in 2008, South Dakota State was tabbed as the league pre-season favorite. The Jackrabbits returns 10 offensive starters and 10 defensive starters from their spring 2021 team, which reached the FCS title game and earned a share of the MVFC crown.
The Salukis advanced to the quarterfinals of the FCS playoffs last spring, losing a 31-26 heartbreaker to SDSU, and finished the season ranked No. 8 in the country. SIU also returns 10 offensive and 10 defensive starters. QB Stone Labanowitz, FB Jacob Garrett, DE Anthony Knighton, LB Bryson Strong and P Jack Colquhoun were featured on the preseason second team, while K Nico Gualdoni and LS Dan Heilbron picked up honorable mention preseason honors.
“You can’t be complacent in our league,” said sixth-year SIU head coach Nick Hill. “You start back at the bottom and you have to re-build this team. I love coming to work every day and coaching these guys. We have 16 sixth-year seniors, which will probably be the most I ever coach the rest of my career. Nine of them have been a a part of every single team meeting I’ve ever had. I’m looking forward to getting out there Day 1 and putting this team together.”
SDSU received 24 first-place votes and 454 total points to edge North Dakota State, which earned 435 points and had 18 first-place tallies. North Dakota and Southern Illinois were third and fourth with 357 and 345 total points, respectively. UNI, which received the remaining first-place vote, had 311 points to finish fifth. And defending tri-champ Missouri State was picked sixth with 256 points. Illinois State (196), South Dakota (163), Youngstown State (126), Indiana State (112) and Western Illinois (83) rounded out the voting.
Collectively, the league returns 88 percent (212 of 242 student-athletes) of its starting lineups to this year’s fall rosters (from Spring 2021, and for Indiana State Fall 2019). UNI, notably, is slated to return all 11 starters on both sides of the ball.
Although the 2020-21 season did not yield a national championship, the season may have been one of the most successful in league history as the Conference and its member schools navigated through a season that was shifted from the fall to the spring. Despite cancelled games due to COVID-19 which also led to multiple league teams who became unable to compete or complete the season, five MVFC teams made a playoff field that was limited to only 16 total participants. Three schools shared the league title (Missouri State, North Dakota, and South Dakota State), marking just the second time in league history that the Conference had tri-champions. Those three schools were joined in the playoff field by North Dakota State and Southern Illinois. Four teams advanced to the quarterfinals, and South Dakota State reached its first title game.
The 2021 season will mark the seventh in an agreement with ESPN to distribute all 44 league games on ESPN3 (or ESPN+), while the league has implemented other initiatives to promote its institutions, student-athletes and coaches, including a weekly podcast series (“First and Goal”), and video segments that review (“Two-Minute Drill”) and preview (“The Extra Point”) each week’s contests throughout the season. The MVFC and other FCS leagues have partnered in the production of a weekly “FCS ALL IN” special which will air 15 times on Saturdays throughout the season on a dedicated YouTube channel, beginning Aug. 21.
