Spack’s Redbirds shoot for the top as they reload for 2015 season

Jack McCarthy
Illinois State coach Brock Spack sets the bar high for his 2015 Redbirds as they look for another successful season. At right, quarterback Tre Roberson scrambles at last year’s NCAA championship game against North Dakota State. (Chronicle and Illinois State photos)

Illinois State coach Brock Spack sets the bar high for his 2015 Redbirds as they look for another successful season. At right, quarterback Tre Roberson scrambles at last year’s NCAA championship game against North Dakota State. (Chronicle and Illinois State photos)

Illinois State’s football team is unlikely to surprise anyone in 2015.

The Redbirds made an unexpected and unprecedented run to last January’s NCAA Football Championship Series title game in Texas before falling to Missouri Valley Football Conference rival North Dakota State.

They enter the new season with a target on their backs and also know that success is now expected.

“You played for the national championship a year ago, you tied for the league title, you’re not going to sneak up on people,” said Redbirds coach Brock Spack.  “The only expectations we’ll try and manage are ours,” Spack added. “Anything short of a national championship at Illinois State is not good enough and that’s what they know.”

Last season, Illinois State posted a school record 13-2 overall mark and went 7-1 in the Missouri Valley to share the league title with North Dakota State.

The Redbirds rolled from there through the playoffs to the FCS title game in Frisco, Texas before falling to their league rivals as the Bison rallied in the final two minutes to a 29-27 victory.

 

“I like the players’ attitude, they’re focused, they’ve picked up where they left off a year ago,” said Spack, now 46-26 in six ISU seasons, including a 13-0 mark at Hancock Stadium since 2013. “We’re not quite the team we were at the end of last season. There are some pieces of the puzzle we have to put together.”

 

A Rockford native, Spack played at Purdue University and then served as a longtime Boilermaker assistant before taking over at Illinois State in 2009. He’s had five winning seasons out of six to date in Normal.

The Redbirds are ranked second nationally behind the four-time defending champions. Four other Valley teams were also ranked among the recently released STATS FCS Top 25 preseason poll, including Northern Iowa at No. 10.

NDSU is the overwhelming No. 1 with 3,671 points, including 144 first-place votes. ISU earned three first-place votes and 3,423 points.

But a different panel of coaches, media and sports information directors gave North Dakota State only a narrow nod to win the Missouri Valley with 40 first place votes and 389 points. Illinois State was next with 366 points and eight first-place votes.

Last fall, the Redbirds averaged 38.3 points per game and set 16 single-season school records including rushing yards (3,619), rushing touchdowns (41), passing touchdowns (32), total offense yards (6,954) and points scored (574).

The two top guns from that attack return.

Quarterback Tre Roberson passed for 3,221 yards and 30 touchdowns while also rushing for 1,029 yards and 11 TDs. Running back Marshaun Coprich also return after leading FCS in rushing with 2,274 yards.

Illinois State must replace 11 starters and all four specialists but are stocked with redshirt players set to step into bigger roles.

The Redbirds won’t meet co-champion North Dakota State during the regular season for the second straight year due to a quirk of scheduling.

But the schedule does include a challenging opener at the University of Iowa on Sept. 5.

“When you play against Iowa that will be like North Dakota State on steroids,” said Spack. “The crowd will be the same thing. It will be like the national championship game, but bigger. It’ll be a great test for us.”

 

— Spack’s Redbirds shoot for the top as they reload for 2015 season —