Carbondale, Illinois — For the third time in as many road games this season, the South Dakota State University football team faces a ranked opponent.
This Saturday, the Jackrabbits travel to Carbondale, Illinois, for a matchup against a Southern Illinois squad ranked fifth in both the Stats Perform FCS media poll and the first American Football Coaches Association poll of the season. SIU is 4-1 overall and 3-1 in the Missouri Valley Football Conference.
Kickoff is set for noon at Saluki Stadium on the SIU campus. The game is scheduled to be televised on ESPN+ as the MVFC Game of the Week.
SDSU, meanwhile, reached the halfway mark of the league season with a 3-1 record both overall and in the MVFC. The Jackrabbits moved up two spots to sixth in this week’s Stats Perform media poll and checks in at No. 7 in the AFCA rankings.
The Jackrabbits split their first two road games, winning 24-20 at then-No. 3 Northern Iowa on Feb. 19, before dropping a 28-17 decision at then-No. 14 North Dakota Feb. 27. North Dakota also handed SIU its lone loss of the season thus far, a 44-21 setback in their Feb. 20 season opener in Grand Forks.
Saturday’s game marks the 11th meeting on the gridiron between SDSU and Southern Illinois, a series that dates back to when the Jackrabbits joined the Missouri Valley Football Conference at the start of the 2008 season. By winning the last four meetings and seven of the last eight, the Jackrabbits hold a 7-3 series edge.
SIU won each of the first two meetings between the two squads, with its last win in the series a 27-24 Hobo Day victory on Oct. 5, 2013, at Coughlin-Alumni Stadium.
In the most recent matchup, Oct. 5, 2019, the Jackrabbits scored three second-half touchdowns for a 28-10 Hobo Day victory. Pierre Strong, Jr., gave SDSU a 15-10 lead by scoring on a 64-yard touchdown run midway through the third period. Jaxon Janke added touchdown receptions of 12 and 4 yards from J’Bore Gibbs in the fourth quarter.
SDSU rushed for 297 yards in the game, including 229 by Strong, who posted 188 yards with three touchdowns in the teams’ 2018 matchup in Carbondale.
