Redbirds Open 2016 Season Against Valparaiso

SETTING THE SCENE
Date: Sept. 3, 2016
Location: Normal, Illinois
Kickoff: 6 p.m. CT
Stadium: Hancock Stadium
Stadium Capacity: 13,391
Series: Valpo leads 2-1
Watch: ESPN3

PLAYER TO WATCH 
Anthony Warrum had a breakout season in 2015 and looks to improve on those numbers in 2016. The Fishers, Indiana, native earned third-team All-America honors last season, after setting a single-season record and leading the MVFC with 15 receiving touchdowns. Warrum also ranked second in the league with 1,290 yards on 58 receptions and recorded over 100 yards receiving in six contests, including the last two games of the season with a career-best nine receptions in the FCS quarterfinal loss to Richmond.

THE GAME
The Illinois State football team has had unprecedented success over the past two seasons, with a FCS National Championship appearance in 2014 and back-to-back shares of the Missouri Valley Football Conference title on its résumé in the past two seasons. However, the Redbirds will look to get off to a good start in 2016 with a win over Valparaiso Saturday, with hopes of advancing to the FCS playoffs for the third-straight season, something the program has not done in its history.

THE SERIES
The Redbirds and the Crusaders will play for the fourth time on Saturday, but have not squared off on the gridiron since the 1948 season. Valparaiso holds a 2-1 advantage in the all-time series that started in 1933, but the Redbirds won the last meeting by a score of 16-14 on Oct. 16.

THE COACHES
Illinois State: Brock Spack (Purdue, 1983) is in his eighth season as the head coach at Illinois State (56-29). Spack has led the Redbirds to back-to-back shares of the MVFC title the past two seasons and FCS playoff appearances three times in the past four seasons.
Valparaiso: Dave Cecchini (Lehigh, 1995) is in his third as head football coach at Valparaiso (5-17). In his first season at the helm in 2014, he led Valpo to a 4-8 record, with the four wins being the most in a single season since 2007.

THE @REDBIRDFB PROGRAM

• 6 FCS playoff appearances (1998, 1999, 2006, 2012, 2014, 2015)
• 5-time FCS quarterfinalists (1999, 2006, 2012, 2014, 2015)
• 2-time FCS semifinalists (1999, 2014)
• The team is 36-7 at home under Spack's guidance
• ISU is 19-1 at Hancock Stadium since 2013
• The team tied a program-record cumulative GPA of 2.94 in the Spring 2015 semester

THIS WEEK'S OPPONENT

• Valparaiso University is located in Valparaiso, Indiana, and has an enrollment of 4,544 students. The Crusaders are members of the Pioneer League and play their home games at Brown Field (5,000).
• The Crusaders finished the 2015 season with a 1-9 record, including a 1-7 record in Pioneer League play. Valparaiso picked up its lone win of the season at Davidson in early October.
• Valparaiso is a combined 5-17 in the past two seasons under the leadership of head coach Dave Cecchini.
• Quarterback Ryan Clarke returns for his junior season, after playing in eight games as a sophomore in 2015. Clarke completed 52.2 percent of his passes and threw for 980 and 10 touchdown
• Clarke's top two receiving targets also return in junior Frank Catrine and sophomore Jean Rene. The duo combined for nearly 900 yards and eight touchdowns in 2015.
• Safety J.J. Nunes will lead the way for the Crusader defense in his final season of eligibility.  In 2015, Nunes ranked second on the team with 76 tackles and added 4.5 tackles for loss to go along with an interception and five pass breakups.

HOME SWEET HOME
The Redbirds have played well at home under the leadership of head coach Brock Spack, including in their home openers the last seven seasons.  ISU is a perfect 7-0 in home openers in the past seven seasons, and the Redbirds hope to extend that streak to eight against Valparaiso on Saturday.  Last year, the 'Birds put an early exclamation point on the season with a 67-14 drubbing of Morgan State in the home opener.  

GOING FOR A THREE-PEAT
When the Redbirds won a share of the Missouri Valley Football Conference championship for the second year in row in 2015, they set a new benchmark for the program.  A chance for a third-straight league championship in 2016 would only build on that record-setting achievement, but so would a third-straight trip to the FCS playoff. Twice in school history (1998-99, 2014-15), ISU has made back-to-back trips to the FCS playoffs but the program has never advanced to the postseason in three-straight years, something the Redbirds have a legitimate chance to do this season.

A FORTIFIED FRONT
The old cliché states that football games are won and lost in the trenches, and if you believe that kind of thing it could be a great year for the Redbird offensive, with all five senior offensive lineman returning to start as a unit for the second season in a row. The group, comprised of Dan Pawlak, Kyle Avaloy, Mark Spelman, Cameron Lee and Ryan Gelber started for the first time together in the 2015 opener at Iowa and did not miss a game as a group in 2015 on the way to a second-straight share of the MVFC title. Having all five starters back up front will surely be a comfort for new starting quarterback Jake Kolbe and stable of running backs led by Jamal Towns, which will have to replace the gaudy numbers put up the past couple of seasons by First-Team All-MVFC selections Tre Roberson and Marshaun Coprich.

PROTECTING THE NEST
Opposing teams coming to Hancock Stadium have not felt very welcome in the past seven seasons, as Redbird teams led by head coach Brock Spack have not been very accommodating in the win column to visitors. ISU is a combined 36-7 at home during Spack's tenure and have won 19 out of its 20 games at Hancock Stadium since the renovation of the facility in 2013. 

O CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN
Being voted a captain by your peers is perhaps one of the best shows of respect a collegiate football player can receive.  At the conclusion of fall camp, the Redbirds selected senior center Mark Spelman, junior safety Alec Kocour and sophomore special teams standout and defensive back Cole Bumpus as their captains for the 2016 season.  They will be joined each game by another senior voted on each week by the coaching staff.
Redbirds Flying HIgh IN National Polls
Despite some key losses due to graduation and a tough Missouri Valley Football Conference schedule on the docket, media, coaches and FCS pundits still believe in the Redbirds and their chance at success in 2016.  Illinois State joined three other MVFC teams ranked in the Top 10 of the FCS Coaches Poll, as the Redbirds were picked No. 8 in the first poll of the 2016 season. ISU was previously ranked No. 9 in the HERO Sports FCS Top 25 Poll and No. 10 in the initial STATS FCS Top 25.

MEDIA AND COACHES SELECT ISU FOURTH IN PRESEASON POLL
Coming off a second-straight share of the Missouri Valley Football Conference title and an appearance in the FCS playoffs for the third time in the past four years, the Illinois State football team was picked to finish fourth in the 2016 Missouri Valley Football Conference preseason poll. A total of five Redbird standouts, three of which are STATS preseason All-Americans, were also selected for the 2016 MVFC Preseason Team. Included in the group were 2015 All-MVFC First-Team selections Anthony Warrum and Mark Spelman, and they were joined by Kyle Avaloy, Brady Tibbits and Alec Kocour.

LOOKING INTO THE CRYSTAL BALL
Senior wide receiver Anthony Warrum certainly doesn't have to rely on a fortune teller to look into a crystal ball to ponder what kind of success he can have in 2016. With another stellar season catching the football, he could win a crystal football of his own to gaze into.  Warrum was selected as one of 40 players from the FCS to be named to the College Football Performance Awards (CFPA) 2016 FCS National Performer of the Year Watch List, with the winner will receiving a 22-inch K-9 optic crystal tower with an eight-inch crystal football on top. The group consists of 21 running backs, 15 quarterbacks and four wide receivers, with Warrum joining the likes of 2015 STATS FCS Offensive Player of the Year Cooper Kupp and fellow Missouri Valley Football Conference star Jake Wieneke of South Dakota State on the list at the wideout spot.

PIONEER LEAGUE LID LIFTER
The Redbirds are a combined 10-6 against current members of the Pioneer League, with the only losing record coming at the hands of Valpariso. ISU has winning records against Butler (1-0), Dayton (1-0), Drake (5-3) and Morehead State (2-1), but has only defeated Valpo in one out of its three games in the all-time series. 

RIVERA IN GOOD HANDS
Illinois State senior outside linebacker Alejandro Rivera was named one of 165 nominees for the 2016 Allstate American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Good Works Team, as announced by Allstate Insurance Company and the AFCA. One of the most coveted off-the-field honors in college football, the team is comprised of a select group of college football players who have made a commitment to service and enriching the lives of others. In addition to his success on the field, Rivera has excelled in the classroom and in the community.  A seven-time member of the Illinois State Athletics AFNI Honor Roll, he earned a 4.0 grade point average (GPA) during the spring of 2016 semester and maintains a 3.25 cumulative GPA in business administration at Illinois State.  A frequent volunteer, Rivera assisted with the Illinois Special Olympics Polar Plunge (2013-14) and was a guest reader at Fairview Elementary and Epiphany Catholic School. 

BACK-TO-BACK CHAMPS
In 2014, the Redbirds broke a 15-year drought without a championship by sharing the Missouri Valley Football Conference title with North Dakota State. The wait was only 12 months for ISU to win its next MVFC title, as the Redbirds secured a share of the conference championship with NDSU after their 46-0 shutout win over South Dakota in the regular-season finale.  The conference title was the third for the Redbirds since joining the league (1999, 2014, 2015) and for the second year in a row, as they finished with a 7-1 record in league play. 

TRIO OF REDBIRDS SELECTED AS PRESEASON ALL-AMERICANS
The 2015 season was full of team successes and a several strong individual performances, with several of those players returning in 2016. Three of those standouts earned a spot on the 2016 STATS FCS Preseason All-America Team. Seniors Mark Spelman, Kyle Avaloy and Anthony Warrum were each named to the annual list, with Spelman picked for the second team and Avaloy and Warrum earning third-team selections. 

DOUBLE DIGITS IN THE WIN COLUMN
For the third time in program history and second time in the past two seasons, the Illinois State football team recorded 10 wins, thanks to its 36-19 second-round playoff win over Western Illinois in the second round of the FCS playoffs last season. The 1999 team's 11-3 record was the first and the 2014 school-record 13-2 campaign are the other two times the Redbirds have posted double-digit wins. In both of those seasons, the Redbirds also advanced to the FCS playoff semifinals, with a national championship appearance in 2014.