Illinois football knows it has a challenge coming into town this weekend – the Purdue Boilermakers.

But despite the intimidation of playing No. 15 Purdue, the Illini are excited to get into Big Ten play, especially at home.

“This is huge. It’s the Big Ten opener against what I think is one of the strongest, if not the strongest, teams in the conference right now,” linebacker Matt Sinclair said. “I think it’s going to be a really good test for us and we’ll see how all the guys respond to it.”

Illinois does have some added confidence under its belt this week. The team finished its non-conference play with a win against Western Michigan last Saturday.

“It’s always easier to prepare after a win,” head coach Ron Turner said. “(Going) into the Big Ten, coming with a win, especially the way we got it, you know, making a lot of mistakes and having to battle back and find a way to win it. Hopefully it will be good for us. I know the guys are excited about the Big Ten and know their biggest challenges lie ahead.”

Purdue hasn’t had any difficulty so far this season. The Boilermakers, who are coming off a bye week, beat Syracuse 51-0 in their home opener. They went on to crush Ball State 59-7 the following week.

In its first two games, Purdue has averaged 585 total offense yards, while limiting its opponent to only 197 yards. The Boilermakers leader, Kyle Orton, ranks second in the Big Ten in passing, averaging 308 yards per game. Illini quarterback Jon Beutjer averages 187 yards per game.

“Purdue is a great football team and we know getting off on the right foot in the Big Ten would be huge,” Beutjer said. “There’s a lot of great teams out there and Purdue is one of them. If we could beat them that would be great.”

Series standing

Illinois and Purdue face off this weekend for the 82nd time with Illinois leading the all-time series 41-36-6. Illinois also leads the series 21-17-2 in games played at Champaign, and won the last meeting in Champaign in 2002, 38-31 in overtime.

Illinois and Purdue play for the “cannon,” the traditional trophy between the two schools. The Illini had the trophy in 2001 and 2002 but had to hand it over last year in their 43-10 loss at Purdue.

Illinois has eight players from Indiana on its roster.

Last time out

In last year’s 43-10 loss to the Boilermakers in West Lafayette, Ind., E.B. Halsey returned a punt 41 yards to score the team’s only touchdown. Special teams blocked two Purdue kicks.

The Boilermakers rushed for five touchdowns for 533 total offensive yards compared to Illinois’ 191 total offensive yards.

Beutjer completed 12-of-23 passing for 107 yards. Chris Pazan made his Illini debut, going 5-of-5 for 46 yards in the fourth quarter.