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GoldanDBlack express • volume 25, express 4 • 9 BY BRIAN NEUBERT BNeubert@GoldandBlack.com P urdue returns home this weekend needing to build on whatever positives it took from its competitive showing against No. 11 Notre Dame last weekend. More often than not, a home game against a Football Cham- pionship Subdivision (formerly known as I-AA) opponent would seem like an ideal set-up for a team to leave the field feeling good about itself. That may turn out to be the case for the Boilermakers after they meet Southern Illinois at noon Saturday in Ross-Ade Stadi- um, but this opponent is unlikely to be a pushover. No one needs to be remind- ed of last season, when Purdue needed a fourth-quarter defen- sive stand to get past Indiana State, which was not a particu- larly good FCS team. This is a good FCS team. The Salukis come in ranked 13th in the FCS Coaches Poll, rid- ing a 3-0 record by a combined score of 133- 44, including a 38-21 han- dling of FCS- ranked East- ern Illinois. H a s Coach Dale L e n n o n ' s team played a high-major program to this point? No. SIU's wins thus far have come over Taylor, EIU and South - east Missouri. H i s - tory says, though, the Salukis won't be over- w h e l m e d stepping into a Big Ten sta- dium. T h e y ' v e beaten two I-A/FBS programs since 2006: Indiana in '06 and Northern Illinois a season later. The win in Bloomington stands as one of just two over a Big Ten team in the history of the Missouri Valley Conference, the other being North Dakota State's win at Minnesota in 2011. Additionally, SIU has been highly competitive in other games in which it's played up a level. Last season, it lost just 42- 34 at Illinois, scoring 21 of the game's final 24 points to put something of a scare in the Fight - ing Illini. Like many programs at their level, Southern Illinois is an FCS program impacted profoundly by an infusion of FBS talent. Southern Illinois' roster in- cludes 10 transfers from FBS programs, including some of its most important, best players. Most notable is running back Malcolm Agnew, an Oregon State transfer who's dominating for the Salukis this season. Through three games, the 5-foot-9, 207-pound Missouri na- tive has averaged 150 rushing yards per game and scored eight total touchdowns. On his six TD runs, Agnew has averaged 35 yards. "He likes to go more north- south and he has a great burst through the hole," said Todd Hef- ferman, who covers SIU for the Southern Illinoisan. "He's been real confident and he's patient. Once he gets past the initial de- fender he has had a lot of runs where he waited on blockers and made the defenders go past the blockers to get him. He's had runs where he just outran every- body and he's had runs where he had to make some people miss." Hefferman expects Southern Illinois to test Purdue throwing the ball deep, often off play-ac- tion fakes. A prime target will be tight end MyCole Pruitt, who earned FCS All-America acclaim in 2012 and 2013 and is considered an NFL prospect. Three of the 6-3, Game 4 Opponent Preview: Southern Illinois Noon ET • Ross-Ade Stadium • TV: BTN fcs southern illinois unlikely to be a pushover SIU Running back Malcolm Agnew's averaging better than eight yards per carry.