Nevada @ Purdue preview

Purdue will play host to a Mountain West Conference team for the first time in school history on Saturday when the Boilermakers host Nevada. It's the final non-conference tuneup for Purdue which begins Big Ten Conference play the following week with back-to-back road games at Maryland and Illinois.

The Boilermakers, who opened the season with an impressive 45-24 home win over Eastern Kentucky, have had two weeks to prepare for the Wolf Pack, who will be making their second trip to Indiana this season after losing 39-10 at Notre Dame on Sept. 10. Purdue lost at home to Cincinnati 38-20 that same day and has yet to win back-to-back games during the tenure of fourth-year head coach Darrell Hazell. Hazell, now 7-31 during his time in West Lafayette, Ind., said the loss to the Bearcats wasn't a sign of bad things to come this season. "Well, we lost one game. That's not a season," Hazell said. "So we'll come back and go to work. We certainly are not going to act like Chicken Little and act like the sky is falling. We are going to come back to work and address the problems to get them fixed."

TV: Noon ET, ESPNews. LINE: Purdue -5.5

ABOUT NEVADA (2-1): The Wolf Pack bounced back from their South Bend smackdown to defeat visiting Buffalo in convincing fashion (38-14) last week, rolling up 521 yards in total offense and 352 yards rushing in the process. Senior quarterback Tyler Stewart rebounded from a poor performance at Notre Dame to complete 16-of-21 passes for 160 yards and a touchdown while running back James Butler rushed for 174 yards and three touchdowns. Linebacker Alex Bertrando leads the defense with 28 tackles with linebacker Jaden Sawyer adding 13 tackles and a team-best three pass breakups.

ABOUT PURDUE (1-1): Quarterback David Blough threw for 401 yards against Cincinnati -- the ninth quarterback in school history to throw for 400 yards in a game -- but he also was intercepted five times. Wide receivers Domonique Young, who has 16 catches in two games, and DeAngelo Yancey, who caught seven passes for 113 yards and a touchdown against Cincinnati, are both on NFL scouts' radar while running back Markell Jones was Indiana's Mr. Football in 2014. The defense is led by senior tackle Jake Replogle, a Lombardi Award candidate who had six tackles against Cincinnati, and middle linebacker Ja'Whaun Bentley, who ranks fourth in the Big Ten with an average of 8.5 tackles per game.

EXTRA POINTS

1. Purdue is 0-1 vs. Mountain West teams, losing 42-35 to Hawaii in 2005.

2. The Boilermakers lead the nation in fewest penalties per game, averaging 2.0 per contest.

3. Purdue is one of just five teams in FBS to not have allowed a sack so far this season.

PREDICTION: Purdue 31, Nevada 24