Southern Illinois at Purdue game preview

CARBONDALE, Ill. — For just the 10th time in school history, Southern Illinois will play a Big Ten opponent, as the Salukis travel to Purdue on Saturday.

SIU has pulled off the FCS over Big Ten upset twice before — beating Northwestern in 2022 and topping Indiana in 2006. Current head coach Nick Hill was the team’s starting quarterback for the win over the Hoosiers.

The Salukis opened the season with a 49-3 win over Thomas More and held a 5-0 advantage in turnovers, with two interceptions and three fumble recoveries. SIU quarterback DJ Williams made his first appearance since Week 3 of the 2024 season, played three quarters, and completed 18-of-24 passes for 227 yards and three touchdowns. He also ran for a score. His receiving corps shined, with wideouts catching 16 passes, including six by dynamic slot receiver Vinson Davis III.

In its opener, Purdue beat Ball State, 31-0, keeping the Cardinals from reaching the red zone until late in the fourth quarter. The Boilermakers were one of two Big Ten teams (Wisconsin) and one of 10 teams in the country to produce a shutout to start the season. Quarterback Ryan Browne leads the Big Ten in total offense with 316 yards (311 passing, 5 rushing) in the season opener.

Quick Facts

Date: Saturday, September 6, 2025

Kickoff: 6:35 PM CT

Location: West Lafayette, IN

Facility: Ross-Ade Stadium (61,441)

Radio: WCIL, 101.5 FM

TV: Big Ten Network

Series: SIU is 0-1 vs. Purdue

Spread: Purdue -22.5

First and Ten

• Southern Illinois is ranked No. 14 in this week’s Stats Perform FCS poll and No. 15 in the Coaches poll, their highest ranking since Week 4 of the 2024 season.

• The Salukis are 2-19 against Power Four opponents all-time, including a 2-7 record against Big Ten opponents with wins over Indiana (2006) and Northwestern (2022).

• SIU Is 6-37 all-time against FBS opponents. In addition to the Big Ten wins, SIU has beaten New Mexico State (1983), Northern Illinois (2007, 2023) and UMass (2019).

• Purdue won the only meeting between the schools, 35-13, on Sept. 20, 2014. In that game, SIU tight end MyCole Pruitt had a career-high 10 catches for 136 yards.

• SIU’s 35-28 win over Indiana on Sept. 16, 2006 marked the first time a Gateway Conference team beat a Big Ten opponent. Hill threw four TD passes, and Southern went on to have a 9-4 season and advanced to the round of eight in the I-AA Playoffs.

• SIU’s 31-24 win over Northwestern on Sept. 17, 2022 came after the Salukis had lost their first two games of the season to Incarnate Word and SEMO. It was the start of a five-game winning streak for Southern.

• Only two current SIU players — TE Aidan Quinn and S Cejai Parson — played in SIU’s win over Northwestern in 2022.

Quoting Purdue Coach Barry Odom

“Coach Hill is going into year 10 and I have a lot of respect for him. He was a really good player and then he's been a really good coach. Watching their film from the other night, they've got good players. They're coached really, really well. We're gonna have to make sure in all three phases that we're ready to go play our A-game, because I know they will be. They pulled their starters so early the other night because they got up on their first opponent, but I'm really impressed with their quarterback and his play. He makes throws and runs well and is elusive in breaking tackles and looks to me like he's got really good speed. A couple of running backs they played the other night are big and powerful in the way they finish runs. Defensively, very, very impressed with their front seven, they're attacking downhill, they're playing on the other side of the line of scrimmage. And then the secondary, they played about whatever they wanted to the other night and had success.

They've got talent and again, I think they're very well coached and we need to have a great week of preparation. They're ranked in the top 20 of their division. I've been in some games, no matter what division or conference or location, and you end up understanding that they're a really good team, and I think that's what we're facing right now.”

Donnie Wingate

Quoting SIU Coach Nick Hill

“Coach Odom does a great job. He's a defensive-minded head coach and he has great coordinators. When you look at them schematically, they pressure in a variety of different ways. They do a good job mixing up coverages, mixing up the fronts that they're in and what you're seeing. For us, it's about executing and taking care of the football. I think the quarterback does a really good job. When you see a guy that stays through a big coaching change, and you see that he's voted captain, you see that they brought in transfer quarterbacks, and he was named the starting quarterback, that means that he's made of the right stuff. He didn't leave when other transfer quarterbacks came in. That's all you need to know about what type of competitor he is.

You're going up there as the underdog, but when the ball gets kicked off and between the white lines, the schematics are the same. It’s still 11-on-11 football and the process to get to a win is the same. It's a bigger venue, the biggest venue that we'll play in, but once the ball is kicked off and you get going, you have to settle in and play football, and I think everybody quickly does that.”

Scouting the Boilermakers

• Purdue plays a FCS program for just the third time in the past 10 years.

• It took Purdue two plays (36-second drive) to score the first touchdown of the season, the program's fastest opening score to start a season since 1981.

• The Boilers limited Ball State to only 203 yards of total offense, which included just 87 passing yards. The defense also racked up seven tackles-for-loss and four sacks.

• RB Devin Mockobee, who’s on the Doak Walker award watch list, recorded his 20th career touchdown vs. BSU.

• Landon Johnson, a former linebacker for the Boilermakers (2000-03), will serve as the honorary captain for Saturday night's game. Johnson played in 101 games over his 7-year NFL career (Cincinnati Bengals, Carolina Panthers, Detroit Lions).

Vinson Davis III

Scouting the Salukis

• SIU scored touchdowns on four of its six drives in the first half vs. Thomas More, including a 1-yard TD run by Lem Wash on the final play of the half.

• Four players scored their first-career TDs for the Salukis — Wash, WR Fabian McCray, LB David Obadein and RB Quade Chatmon

• The pick-six by Obadein was the 58th in school history and the first since LB Dune Smith took one to the house vs. Austin Peay in 2023.

• WR Jay Jones had a career-high 4 catches for 66 yards

• Six-different running backs had carries for SIU, led by Lashaun Lester’s eighth carries for 39 yards.

• RB Jimmy Athans had the longest run from scrimmage with a 23-yard carry in the fourth quarter.

• DE Donnie Wingate and DT Amir Dwight recorded sacks for SIU.

• Dwight, who had 2.0 TFL and a forced fumble, was SIU’s top-graded defensive player.

• RT Cameron Dye was the team’s top-graded offensive lineman.

Lashaun Lester

Salukis By the Numbers

• In Week 1, two players made their first-career starts for SIU on offense: LT Coleon Smith and WR Fabian McCray

• Four players made their first-career starts for SIU on defense: DE Jake Parrella, DE Donnie Wingate, CB Gavin Shepard and S Vinny Pierre Jr.

• RT Cam Dye extended his longest active starting streak to nine games, and WR Vinson Davis III has the most overall career starts at 23.

• SIU used 35 players on defense vs. Thomas More, with no player taking more than 39 of the 63 defensive snaps.

• SIU used 32 players on offense, with no player taking more than 49 of the 61 offensive snaps. SIU’s starting offensive line played 49 snaps.

• In total 75 of the 105 players on the roster saw action in Week 1

• K Paul Geelen was 6-for-6 on PATs in Week 1 and has made 32-straight PATs since missing his first kick in the opener at BYU in 2024. He also has a streak of five-straight made field goals dating back to Week 8 of 2024.

• The Salukis will play seven regular-season road games in 2025, the most road games in school history.

• SIU has a five-week gap between its home opener and the next home game on Oct. 4 vs. Indiana State. The five-week gap matches the longest in school history, set in 1993.

SIU Active Career Leaders

• Passing Yards: DJ Williams (798)

• Rushing Yards: Lashaun Lester (758)

• Catches: Vinson Davis III (107)

• Touchdowns: Vinson Davis III (6)

• Tackles: Shug Walker (87), Colin Bohanek (81)

• Sacks: Shug Walker (3.0)

Coaching Longevity

• Of the 129 active FCS head coaches in 2025, only 18 of them have been at the same school for the last 10 or more seasons, including SIU’s Nick Hill, who begins his 10th season at the helm of his alma mater.

• Hill is the second-longest tenured coach in the Missouri Valley Football Conference behind Illinois State’s Brock Spack (17th season).

• SIU tight ends coach Nate Griffin also begins his 10th season with the Salukis, having served throughout Hill’s tenure, first as running backs coach.