Steve Irvine’s Five Storylines For Southern Illinois At Samford
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - September 3, 2026
SOUTHERN ILLINOIS VS. SAMFORD
Day, site, kickoff time: Thursday, Pete Hanna Stadium, 6 p.m.
Records: Southern Illinois 0-1 overall, 0-0 MVFC; Samford 0-1 overall, 0-0 SoCon
Can Samford QB Gabarri Johnson build on a strong first game? The Oregon State transfer, who won the quarterback battle at Samford, had plenty of good moments in his first game for the Bulldogs. Johnson was 19-of-33 for 245 yards with a long touchdown pass to Marquise Henderson. It wasn’t a flawless night but he has things to build upon and other things to learn from. “There were a couple times where he should've got the ball out his hand and lived to play the next down,” Samford head coach John Grass said. “I think if the run game would have been better in the game, that would have kinda kept us out of that situation.”
Will the Samford offensive line show growth in Week 2? Grass is still encouraged by his offensive line, even though UNA had six sacks and the Bulldogs couldn’t get the running game started. One of the problems was that UNA’s defensive front appears to be really good. “I don’t think that game is very indicative of how much better our offensive line has gotten,” Grass said. “You gotta say they’ve come a long way. You’re talking about a team that last year led the country in sacks (allowed) and almost broke the record for sacks.” But the offensive line does need to take a step forward this week against a Southern Illinois defense that had four sacks and three fumble recoveries in a 34-31 loss to an explosive West Florida team in the opener. One way to do that is perform better job on their assignments. “The offense goes back to execution,” Grass said. “You got 11 guys doing exactly what those 11 guys are supposed to do. It was not the majority of the whole unit every time. I'd say 80 percent of the battle is targeting the right (defender). Get a hat on hat, as I call it, just making sure we got assignment right. And we had some busts. We had some misses there to where if we just target the right guy that little yard gain or no gain turns into a four or five-yard gain, you know, which is a totally different situation.”
Is Southern Illinois really four touchdowns better than Samford? The oddsmakers think that’s the case with the Salukis coming in as anywhere from a 24.5 to 28.5 point favorite. Southern Illinois plays in the Missouri Valley Football Conference, which is the best FCS conference in the country, so it’s a battle-tested program. The Salukis dropped their opener against a West Florida team making the transition to FCS but they had plenty of good moments in that game. Southern Illinois backup quarterback Jake Curry came off the bench to throw for 153 yards and two touchdowns but was also intercepted three times.
4. Will the short turnaround hurt Samford on Thursday night? Samford is playing five days after the season-opening loss to UNA. That’s a tough task, especially for a team still trying to get accustomed to playing under a new coaching staff. Southern Illinois had a full week between games. Time will tell if this becomes a factor but squeezing game preparation, along with recovery, into a five-day period is not easy.
5. Can Samford safety Jalen Nelson build on a sensational first game? The 6-foot-1, 195-pound senior is in his fifth season in the program. He opened up his final college season with 14 tackles, including 10 solo stops, a tackle for loss and half a sack in the loss to UNA. The total tackles and solo tackles were both a career high. Nelson had 43 tackles and two pass breakups last season.