Say what you will about Southern Illinois football coach Jerry Kill’s decision to go for two at the end of Saturday’s 23-22 loss to NIU, but the fourth-year boss stood by his decision after the fact.

After SIU quarterback Joel Sambursky found Brent Little for a 19-yard touchdown pass to make the score 23-22 with 53 seconds left, the Salukis called their final timeout to decide on a play.

They faked a hand off to Brandon Jacobs, with Sambursky rolling to his right. Sambursky had tight end Chris Kupec open in the back right of the end zone, but his throw was slightly underthrown and Kupec couldn’t hold on. Kupec had the ball go in and out of his hands.

“I’d do it again,” Kill said. “There’s probably 10,000 Saluki fans that would tell me I’m crazy, but the point being is it was the right call. There’s no question in my mind about it. I’m not going to look back.”

Huskies safety Ray Smith figured the Salukis would hand the ball off to Jacobs, a 6-foot-4-inch, 260-pound transfer from Auburn.

“I was surprised they called play action when they had that big, old boy in the backfield,” Smith said.

Sambursky faced pressure on the play from Jason Hawkins, but didn’t use that as an excuse in the post-game press conference.

“I’ve made throws where there’s been a lot of pressure and I’ve been able to execute,” Sambursky said. “It was a great play call. It was one of our best, if not our best, play-action call. We just didn’t execute it.”

NIU coach Joe Novak wasn’t sure he would’ve made the same decision.

“I give Jerry a lot of credit,” Novak said. “To go for that two-pointer at the end, I’m not sure I would’ve had the nerve to do that.”

Kill said the condition of his defense played a key role in going for two.

“People say, ‘Why do you do that?’” he said. “Why we did it is in our situation. Our defense played a lot of football plays. The last drive they were on the field, we had guys going out that could hardly get back on the field.

“There was no way we could take this team to overtime. We’ve got a tired bunch of kids. I’m not going to take that chance.”