In 11 attempts, Illinois has never lost to an in state public university.

The Illini’s all-time 11-0 record against such schools includes two wins against Southern Illinois, this weekend’s opponent. However, this SIU team isn’t just any state school football team.

The Salukis enter Champaign ranked second in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) coaches’ poll, marking their 93rd straight week in the top 20, and are coming off a 70-7 victory in their season opener against Quincy. The Salukis also hold a 2-4 record in their last six games against Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) opponents, including a 35-28 victory against Indiana in 2006.

“This is a football team that’s very dangerous; this is a football team that I think in the last two years they’ve won 20 games,” Illinois head coach Ron Zook said. “They’re right up there with Appalachian State. Everyone knows what Appalachian State did in this conference a couple years ago (defeating Michigan) … They’re coming in here with nothing to lose, I’m sure, in their mind, and everything to gain. They’ll throw caution to the wind and play as hard as they can.”

Southern head coach Dale Lennon said Saturday’s matchup provides a “big opportunity” for the Salukis.

“We’re just looking forward to this opportunity to play a very good Big Ten team that I think is much improved from last year, and we just want to see where we stack up,” Lennon said.

Lennon’s squad isn’t the only one with something to gain, though, said Zook.

“We have everything to gain because we’ve started doing this: We’ve kind of made a point. If you look at the last play of the game on Saturday we were playing hard. We’re going to start right there. I don’t care who comes to town; we’re going to play as hard as we can play for 60 minutes,” Zook said.

The Illini may have their work cut out for them as they look to win their first game of the season, especially on the offensive side of the ball against Southern’s 3-4 defensive scheme. However, the Illini offense should already be plenty familiar with what they will see Saturday night.

“One good thing is, going against (defensive coordinator) Vic (Koenning) in practice, you see every defense known to mankind,” said Illinois offensive coordinator Paul Petrino. “So we’ve worked a lot of 3-4 going against him in practice, so I think that’s helped. If we wouldn’t have seen all that much in spring and fall, then we’d probably be a little bit more worried about it.”

Illinois’ experience will be tested against a defense that will try to pressure the quarterback early and often.

“They’re aggressive,” Petrino said. “They’ll blitz us when we’re walking off the bus all the way until we go into the locker room; blitz, blitz, blitz. They’re going to come after us, and it’s just something that we have to work hard at all week and come out and execute against it.”

After giving up three interceptions against Missouri last weekend, Illinois will have a chance to improve against Southern’s respectable secondary, which includes two preseason All-Americans in cornerback Korey Lindsey (first team) and safety Mike McElroy (third team).

“Their team is looking good,” Illini redshirt freshman quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase said. “I know they really have a lot of talent. (Korey Lindsey) is really talented and will definitely have to be a player that we keep an eye on.”

But the responsibility of ball security falls on more than just his young quarterback, said Zook.

“The receivers, they got to go up and fight for it. If nothing else, get an offensive interference call. The one (interception against Missouri) that was a little bit high he had a linebacker in his face. Everybody puts it on the quarterback, but truth be known somebody’s got to block that guy and then maybe that ball’s not high,” Zook said. “Yeah, (Scheelhaase) does have to make that play. But sometimes you have a guy hitting you in the nose … There are 11 guys out there on the field, that’s why they call it a team. Those guys have to do what they’re supposed to do. Nathan’s the one that we get on, but he might have made that play if the one guy that was supposed to block that linebacker coming did it.”