Five home dates, two Division I-A opponents and a third straight road game against a Big Ten Conference opponent highlight the 2004 Illinois State football schedule that was released on Tuesday.
The Redbirds are coming off a 6-6 record, their fifth season in the last six years with a .500 winning percentage or better. Illinois State will begin the 2004 campaign at Hancock Stadium on September 2 against St. Xavier. The Cougars, an NAIA program from Chicago, finished last season with a 7-4 record and won a share of the Mid-States Football Association Midwest League Championship.
Im excited about the schedule, Im excited about the 2004 season and Im excited about our football team, head coach Denver Johnson said. Im always excited about opening up at home and were looking forward to facing another team from the Big Ten.
After St. Xavier, the Redbirds will travel to Minneapolis, Minn., for their third Big Ten road game in the last three seasons, and fourth in the last five years, when Illinois State faces Minnesota in the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. The Golden Gophers are coming off of a 10-3 campaign that included a 31-30 victory over Oregon in the Sun Bowl.
This will be the second meeting in the series between Illinois State and Minnesota following a 55-7 Gopher win in 1999.
If we are going to have to play a Division I opponent, I enjoy playing an opponent out of the Big Ten, Johnson said. I think our kids get jacked up about it and our fans take a lot of interest in it. Its always good to measure yourself against that type of competition.
The Redbirds conclude their non-conference slate with a home game against Eastern Illinois and a return game to Florida Atlantic. The Panthers will travel to Hancock Stadium for the first time since the 2000 season, after the 2001 game was cancelled due to the terrorist attacks on September 11. Eastern Illinois is coming off a 4-8 season.
Florida Atlantic is entering its fourth season of existence and is making the move to Division I-A. Last season, the Owls finished with an 11-3 record and advanced to the semifinals of the 2003 NCAA I-AA Playoffs.
The Birds will begin Gateway Football Conference action on October 2 at Indiana State, giving Illinois State its only back-to-back road swing of the season. The Redbirds will host SMS the following weekend.
Its really hard to predict this far out who is going to be good in the conference, because youre not sure what the make-up of those teams are going to be, Johnson said. I think we are an emerging team and Im excited about our bunch. Im optimistic and confident that we are going to be one of the contenders.
Illinois State will close the regular season by facing all four Gateway teams that participated in the NCAA I-AA Playoffs in the final five weeks. After traveling to Western Illinois, the Redbirds will return to Hancock to host Youngstown State for Homecoming 2004. ISU ends the October portion of its schedule at Western Kentucky, before facing co-conference champions Southern Illinois and Northern Iowa to finish the regular season.
The Redbirds also signed four-year contracts with Murray State and Eastern Illinois starting in 2005, while the Gateway Football Conference approved the league games through the 2006 season.
The Murray State and Eastern Illinois series makes a lot of sense logistically, Johnson said. Were an easy trip for them, their an easy trip for us. It makes a lot of sense to fill our non-conference dates with teams from the OVC (Ohio Valley Conference) and we are looking ahead to 2005 and 2006 to fill dates with a Division I-A opponent.
Season ticket information is available at the Redbird Arena Ticket Office (309/438-8000).
