No more tune-ups, the Missouri Valley Conference season is here for the South Dakota  Coyotes.

USD opens it's third MVC go-round with a road game at #15 Southern Illinois, Saturday night.

The Coyotes are 2-2, and coming off of two positive weeks, a win over a Top 25 team (Northern Arizona) two weeks ago, and a nice, restful bye week last weekend.

I asked head coach Joe Glenn about the time off:

This week's Missouri Valley opener is the first ever meeting between USD and Southern Illinois, who somehow managed to avoid each other the last two seasons.

The Salukis are 4-1 and boast a high powered offense with quarterback Mark Iannotti coming off a career-high 272 yards passing last week against Western Illinois.

His favorite target is tight end MyCole Pruitt, who has strung together back-to-back 100 yard games.

On the ground, SIU is led by running back Malcom Agnew, who's averaging nearly 109 yards per game.

Defensively, the Salukis lead the league with 19 quarterback sacks, while linebacker Chase Allen is tops on the team with double digits in tackles in each of the last three games.

Southern Illinois is coached by Dale Lennon, a guy coach Glenn told me he's very familiar with:

Kickoff is 6:00pm Saturday in Carbondale.  The Coyotes are back home next week when they host Northern Iowa, Saturday, October 4th, at the DakotaDome.

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