Saturday, October 14
Murray, KY
2 PM
Southern Illinois University
at
Murray St.
No. 13-ranked Football renews rivalry with Murray State on Saturday
10/09/2023 | 12:00:00 | Football
CARBONDALE, Ill. — Southern Illinois and Murray State will renew their regional football rivalry when the two teams play on Saturday at Roy Stewart Stadium at 2 p.m.
Despite being separated by just a two-hour drive, the programs have only met three times in the last 20 years, with Southern winning all three contests.
The last meeting was a 49-10 Saluki road victory in 2018, in which Southern's defense scored three touchdowns, including an interception return by Airan Reed, and fumble returns by Qua Brown and Michael Elbert.
The No. 13-ranked Salukis (4-1, 1-1) are coming off their first loss of the season after falling at Youngstown State last weekend.
"It's our job to respond," said SIU head coach Nick Hill during his Monday morning press conference. "There's going to be adversity in the season, a turning point or something to look back on that brings a team together. We have to use (Youngstown State) in that way, find a way to create an edge from that and use this bad feeling you've got in your stomach to go get another opportunity on Saturday versus Murray."
Defensively, Southern allowed only 323 yards of total offense to the Penguins — the second-fewest it has given up this season. SIU's defense continues to rank among the best in the FCS — No. 4 against the run (77.2), No. 5 in sacks (3.60 per game) and No. 23 in scoring (22.0 points per game).
"I thought there was a lot of good in the game from a lot of people, especially on the defensive side of the football, that played really well, played hard," Hill said.
Quarterback Nic Baker has 7,773 career passing yards and needs 28 yards to pass Joel Sambursky and become the all-time passing leader at SIU. With 7,894 yards, Sambursky ranks 14th all-time in conference history.
The Racers (2-3, 1-1) have wins this season over Presbyterian and Indiana State.
Despite being separated by just a two-hour drive, the programs have only met three times in the last 20 years, with Southern winning all three contests.
The last meeting was a 49-10 Saluki road victory in 2018, in which Southern's defense scored three touchdowns, including an interception return by Airan Reed, and fumble returns by Qua Brown and Michael Elbert.
The No. 13-ranked Salukis (4-1, 1-1) are coming off their first loss of the season after falling at Youngstown State last weekend.
"It's our job to respond," said SIU head coach Nick Hill during his Monday morning press conference. "There's going to be adversity in the season, a turning point or something to look back on that brings a team together. We have to use (Youngstown State) in that way, find a way to create an edge from that and use this bad feeling you've got in your stomach to go get another opportunity on Saturday versus Murray."
Defensively, Southern allowed only 323 yards of total offense to the Penguins — the second-fewest it has given up this season. SIU's defense continues to rank among the best in the FCS — No. 4 against the run (77.2), No. 5 in sacks (3.60 per game) and No. 23 in scoring (22.0 points per game).
"I thought there was a lot of good in the game from a lot of people, especially on the defensive side of the football, that played really well, played hard," Hill said.
Quarterback Nic Baker has 7,773 career passing yards and needs 28 yards to pass Joel Sambursky and become the all-time passing leader at SIU. With 7,894 yards, Sambursky ranks 14th all-time in conference history.
The Racers (2-3, 1-1) have wins this season over Presbyterian and Indiana State.
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