PLAYER TO WATCH
Freshman wide receiver Tyrone Walker is coming off the best game of his young career at Illinois State. The Indianapolis, Ind., native caught four passes for 112 yards and touchdown in last week's loss at Southern Illinois. His touchdown was an 81-yard strike from Matt Brown in the second quarter and was the second of his career.
THE GAME
After splitting a two-game road trip at North Dakota State and No. 6 Southern Illinois, Illinois State returns to Hancock Stadium Saturday to face off against Indiana State in its 90th Homecoming game. The Redbirds are 43-40-6 all-time in Homecoming games, including a 69-17 win in 2007 over the Sycamores that saw Geno Blow, Cortes Rice and Rafael Rice each rush for over 100 yards in the victory.
THE SERIES
Illinois State leads the all-time series 30-28-2 and have won 10 out of the last 11 meetings against Indiana State. The Redbirds have outscored the Sycamores by a margin of 238-71 in the last four meetings between the two schools and have averaged nearly 60 points per game during the four-game winning streak.
THE COACHES
Illinois State: Brock Spack (Purdue, 1983) is in his first season as the head coach of the Illinois State Redbirds (2-4). Prior to taking over the program at ISU, Spack spent 12 seasons as the defensive coordinator at Purdue, where he guided the Boilermakers to the top-ranked defense in the Big Ten Conference in 2002 and the 13th-best defense in the nation in 2003. He coached in 11 bowl games while at Purdue, including a Rose Bowl appearance in 2001.
Southern Illinois: Trent Miles (Indiana State, 1987) is in his second year as the head coach at his alma mater (0-18). Prior to coming to Indiana State, Miles completed his third season as the Washington running backs coach in 2007, after having spent the previous three years on Tyrone Willingham's staff at Notre Dame as the wide receivers coach.
THE PROGRAM
Illinois State was home to the Missouri Valley Football Conference's Defensive Player of the Year each season from 2002-06. The Redbirds had at least one player selected in the NFL Draft each year from 2005-07. In each of the past four years, ISU student-athletes have contributed more than 2,000 hours of community service to the Bloomington-Normal area. Redbird student-athletes posted a school-record 3.13 cumulative grade-point average (GPA) during the spring 2009 semester.
THIS WEEK'S OPPONENT
•Indiana State University is located in Terre Haute, Ind., and has an enrollment of 10,457. The Sycamores compete in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) and are members of the Missouri
Valley Football Conference.
•The Sycamores return 39 lettermen and 19 starters from last year's team that posted a 0-12 mark overall record and a 0-8 mark in MVFC play.
•Indiana State is led on offense by junior running back Darrius Gates, who is averaging four yards per carry on the season in 50 attempts. Senior defensive back Donye McCleskey paces the Sycamore defense with a total of 58 tackles on the season, 31 of which are solo stops. McCleskey has also added three tackles-for-loss, a sack and an interception in six games this season.
•The Sycamores currently hold the longest losing streak in the nation at 32 games. They have started the season 0-6, including a season-opening loss at home to Quincy in overtime and road losses at Louisville, South Dakota State and Northern Iowa.
•Indiana State is coming off a bye week, after suffering a 62-7 loss to No. 4 ranked Northern Iowa in the UNI Dome on Oct. 3. Quarterback Ryan Roberts started his second game of the season for the Sycamores, completing six passes for 60 yards and adding 21 yards on the ground. Antoine Brown totaled 10 rushes for 10 yards, while Bryant Kent led ISU's receivers with a pair of catches for 35 yards.
TIES WITH THIS WEEK'S OPPONENT
•Edmund Jones, the father of Illinois State junior cornerback E.J. Jones, was a former assistant coach at Indiana State during the 2008 season. The elder Jones master's degree in physical education from Missouri Valley Football Conference member Western Illinois.
•Indiana State head coach Trent Miles played for the Sycamores from 1983-86. During that time, Illinois State posted a 3-1 record against Indiana State with the only loss coming in 1984.
•Illinois State assistant coach Luke Huard was a member of the Washington coaching staff with Indiana State head coach Trent Miles. Huard spent two years on the Huskies' staff working with the quarterbacks in 2007-08, while Miles worked as the running backs coach from 2005-07.
•Illinois State's Nick Broome (Columbus), Jayme Comer (Brownsburg), Drew Kiel (Columbus), Matt Lancaster (West Lafayette), Corey Shandrick (West Lafayette), Tyrone Walker (Indianapolis) and Mike Wood (Greenwood) all hail from the state of Indiana.
•Illinois State assistant media relations director Mike Williams worked for two years at Indiana State, after earning both his bachelor's and master's degrees from Illinois State while working in the Redbird Athletics Media Relations Office.
A CASE OF DEJA VU
For the second consecutive week, Illinois State senior wide out Eyad Salem grabbed a career-best and school-record-tying 14 receptions in Illinois State's 43-23 loss at Southern Illinois. The Elgin, Ill. native had 114 yards receiving and caught a touchdown pass from Redbird quarterback Matt Brown. Salem caught 14 passes in Illinois State's 27-24 win at North Dakota State during the previous week. Both efforts tied Laurent Robinson and Dwayne Smith at the top of Illinois State's single game receptions chart and is the second-most in a MFVC football game behind UNI's Eddie Galles (16 vs. SIU in 2003). Salem is the Redbirds' reception leader with 52 grabs this season.
THE KID CAN PLAY
Illinois State true freshman wide receiver Tyrone Walker posted the first 100-yard receiving game of his career against Southern Illinois. Walker was the Redbirds' second leading receiver in both receptions and yards as the Indianapolis, Ind., native caught four balls for 112 yards. Illinois State quarterback Matt Brown connected with Walker for an 81-yard strike in the second quarter, the longest play of either players' career. Walker has 22 receptions for 300 yards and two scores on the season. He's averaging 13.6 yards per catch.
(INSERT NAME HERE) WITH A CATCH
Despite completing a combined 28 passes to Eyad Salem in the last two games, Illinois State redshirt freshman quarterback Matt Brown has been quite judicious when it comes to spreading the ball around. Brown connected with 10 different receivers in Saturday's game at Southern Illinois and it yielded a career-best 321 yards through the air. Brown hit both Redbird running backs, two tight ends and six different wide outs against the Salukis. Brown has completed passes to nine different receivers twice, with a season-low of seven receivers completed to. The Marion, Ill. native is averaging 25.2 completions in his five career starts.
DOUBLE DIGITS
Illinois State had 10 different receivers catch a pass in Saturday's game with the Salukis from redshirt freshman quarterback Matt Brown, the first time the Redbirds have had double-digit receivers since Sept. 10, 2005. Former Redbird signal caller Luke Drone completed 24 passes to 10 different receivers in the 56-19 win over Drake and passed for 344 yards in the contest. Laurent Robinson led the Redbirds with nine catches for 163 yards and three touchdowns in that game.
PICKED OFF
The Redbird secondary has been much improved during the 2009 season, logging an interception in five of Illinois State's six contests. The secondary has intercepted eight passes, more than double last season's total (3). Junior cornerback E.J. Jones leads the team with three interceptions and senior cornerback Chris Garrett has two, including one for a touchdown. Junior safety Kelvyn Hemphill joined the fray with an interception on a desperation pass by Chris Dieker, just before halftime of last week's game at Southern Illinois.
AMONG THE BEST IN THE NATION
Illinois State's passing attack is one of the best in the nation. The Redbirds averaged 266.0 yards passing in the first six games, which ranks as the No. 13 total in the nation. After turning in back-to-back 14 catch performances, Eyad Salem is also near the top of the receptions per game leader board. Salem is second behind Fordham's Terrell Hudgins (10.83), with 8.67 catches per game. Salem's 87.5 receiving yards per game is the 16th-best tally in the nation.
CAN YOU SPARE A DIME?
Illinois State started six cornerbacks against Southern Illinois on Saturday. The Redbirds have used the nickel, a five defensive back formation in several games, but started six for the first time this season against the Salukis. Chris Garrett and Johntel Franklin started at corner for the Redbirds with Casey Kociuba as the nickel back and Otis Merrill as the dime back. Jermaine Malcolm and Kelvyn Hemphill also started as safeties.
ABOUT MR. BROWN
Illinois State quarterback Matt Brown threw for a career-best 321 yards in a personal homecoming game at Southern Illinois last Saturday. The Marion, Ill. native has topped 300 yards in back-to-back games after passing for 320 in the Redbirds road win at North Dakota State (Oct. 3). Brown, a redshirt freshman, has three games with over 300 yards passing in the first five starts of his career. The mark ties Kevin Glenn for the second-most games over 300 yards passing in a single-season. Glenn accomplished the feat twice, first in 1997 and then again in 1998. With five games left in the regular season, its conceivable that Brown could reach Luke Drone's mark of five games over 300 yards, set in 2005.
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