SIU's Meyer gets a new start in a familiar conference

[dbackjon]

Phil Meyer is back in Illinois, just in a different shade of red.

Meyer, Southern Illinois University's new offensive line coach, played three years of college ball at Illinois State, and coached the Redbirds' offense in 1994. A year before that, he was the assistant head coach in Carbondale under Bob Smith.

This fall, he's in charge of replacing two all-conference linemen and getting some guys playing new positions to work together. All-conference guard Aaron Lockwood and all-conference center Mike Farrell both departed after last season. Guards Shawn Smith and John Purdy were moved to tackle this spring, with starting tackle Mike Nitti moving between the two spots.

"The players are just getting used to my terminology, so there was some transition there, but after 11 practices so far, it's been going pretty smooth," Meyer said Monday. "We're not real deep with veteran players. We have six or seven guys, veteran guys, who I think are pretty salty guys that are going to be able to get it done for us."

The Salukis finished fifth in rushing offense and sixth in total offense in the Missouri Valley Football Conference last season.

Meyer resigned from Minnesota after the 2008 season, which saw the Golden Gophers finish last in the Big Ten Conference in rushing. Minnesota allowed 30 sacks in 13 games last season, and 13 in 2007. Meyer was head coach at Wisconsin-Oshkosh from 2000-07, and had stints Iowa State, Western Illinois, Northern Arizona, Southeast Missouri State and Illinois.

His résumé, complete with stints at New Berlin Eisenhower (Wis.) High School, Division III and Division I schools, was one of the reason he ended up back at SIU.
http://www.southernillinoisan.com/artic ... 872881.txt

[skinny_uncle]

News about assistant coaches rarely makes this forum. You must read a lot, dbackjon.

[dbackjon]

News about assistant coaches rarely makes this forum. You must read a lot, dbackjon.

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