Things didn't turn out quite the way Edwardsville's Joe Allaria envisioned at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. With a victory over Illinois on Saturday, though, the situation could be better than he imagined.

"We're definitely going to accept the challenge," Allaria said of facing a Big Ten team. "We expect to go up there, and we think we can win. If we didn't think we could win, we might as well not go up there."

Allaria arrived in Carbondale more than three years ago, hoping to take over at quarterback. Instead, the 6-foot-2, 195-pound senior recently was named team captain and a member of the Missouri Valley Football Conference preseason first team as a wide receiver.

His transition started with a coaching change.

Allaria was recruited by Jerry Kill, who left Carbondale after Allaria's freshman season to take the job at Northern Illinois. Allaria had appeared as a backup QB in 10 games as a freshman but found himself in a competition for the position with Chris Dieker when Dale Lennon took over as coach. Lennon named Dieker the starter one week before the 2008 opener.

"I was disappointed because I had been with Coach Kill for only one semester," Allaria said. "I felt like I had a pretty good shot to be the starter. That's why I came here. I was devastated when that happened. But the main thing was that I wanted to get out there and play."

So, Allaria said, he approached the coaches about switching to wide receiver, even though he had made the Post-Dispatch All-Metro first team as a defensive back.

"It was the most logical place to try me out," he said. "I knew the offense, as opposed to playing safety. I didn't know the defense."

Lennon said Allaria's learning curve was steep, since the staff didn't reach a decision until the week before the opener.

"There's so many little things that go into running a route that a receiver can make a science out of," Lennon said. "When you're first out there, you run the way the line tells you to on paper. What Joe had to do was learn the intricacies of route running and how to block. He basically had to start from square one."

The Salukis continued to use Allaria as a backup QB in 2008, when he was third on the team in receptions with 28. But he blossomed last season, when he led the Salukis in three categories: catches, 52; receiving yards, 697; and receiving touchdowns, four. His teammates selected him as one of four captains this year.

"He still has that quarterback demeanor and carries himself very well," Lennon said. "Talk to any guy on the team, and they'll tell you that they pay attention to what Joe says."

As one of the leaders, Allaria has pounded home the lessons from last year's 31-28 loss to Marshall, the Salukis' BCS opponent, and how they apply to Saturday's game against Illinois in Champaign.

"We know we should have won it," he said. "But we came out in the third quarter and made too many mistakes and gave the game away. We had a bad taste in our mouths all season. ... We can look back on that and say we felt good about where we were, so we should be able to run and play with anybody."

The Salukis are ranked second in the Football Championship Subdivision coaches' poll and have 2-4 record against BCS teams over the past six years. They are the only team in the conference to beat a Big Ten program, upending Indiana 35-28 in 2006. Their conference rival North Dakota State defeated Kansas last week.

"You don't dwell on past success, but you do make reference that what has been done can be done again," Lennon said.

Scheduling a BCS opponent gives teams such as Southern Illinois incentive to raise the bar. The Salukis opened their season and new stadium with a 70-7 win over Quincy, an NAIA school.

"We know we're playing a high-level program, and we need to get our game at a high level early," Lennon said of Illinois.

Given their ranking and reputation, the Salukis often are top dogs. This week, they're underdogs.

"A win would be a great accomplishment," Allaria said. "But it's not the Super Bowl. It's the second game of the season, and we have our whole conference season to get through. A win would help the program a lot and give us confidence, but we have to treat it like any other game. You should prepare like you're playing Illinois every week."