Saluki football head coach Dale Lennon held his first press conference before the season kicks off Saturday at Indiana.

Lennon said the first game week is the most exciting for the program, as the hard work and anticipation finally has a direct target.

He made note of SIU’s 2006 35-28 upset at Indiana.

“What’s been done can be done again,” he said. “It’s something we’re not going to dwell on, but it is something everyone is aware of.”

The Salukis were picked seventh in the Missouri Valley Football Conference preseason poll and are embracing the underdog role. 

“There’s not a whole lot of preseason recognition with any of our guys, and we’re comfortable with that,” Lennon said. “All the preseason predictions and hypes and all-conference teams, that no longer means a thing.”

Southern Illinois has six opponents in the preseason Football Championship Subdivision Coaches’ poll, including teams playing in four of five SIU home games.

The Salukis’ home schedule has their home opener with No. 14 Liberty on Sept. 26. They also play No. 16 Youngstown State on Oct. 24, four-peat national champion No. 1 North Dakota State on Oct. 31 and 2014 national runner-up No. 2 Illinois State on Nov. 14.

“If a person says they’re a football fan — why wouldn’t you wanna come out on a Saturday and see the lineup we have?” he said.

With leaders such as MyCole Pruitt and Malcolm Agnew gone, Lennon said he will not name any true captains for the season, instead going with 10 “alpha-dog” positional leaders throughout the year. He said the 10 leaders did a great job in camp and he does not want to change an unbroken system. 

SIU’s first game is against Indiana at 3 p.m. in Bloomington, Ind., Saturday. It will be televised on ESPNews.

Sean Carley can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @SCarleyDE.