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Illinois State University Athletics

Football Mike Williams

Redbirds Ready For Final Road Test of 2010 at WIU

PLAYER TO WATCH

Sophomore wide receiver Tyrone Walker has been putting up some pretty impressive numbers in the passing game for the Redbirds of late. Last week against No. 19 UNI, Walker caught five passes for a career-high 136 yards and tied a career high with two touchdown catches. Those numbers topped his previous highs of 131 yards and two scores set at Indiana State just two weeks earlier. In the last three games for ISU, Walker has caught 13 passes for 298 yards and five touchdowns and went over 1,000 yards receiving in his career.

THE GAME

Illinois State will play it's final road game of the 2010 season Saturday, when the Redbirds (4-4, 3-3 MVFC) travel to Macomb, Ill., to face the No. 24 ranked Western Illinois Leathernecks (5-3, 3-2) at Hanson Field. The Redbirds and Leathernecks are both coming off tough losses and will look to get back to winning ways in another crucial league match up in what is proving to be an unpredictable year in the Valley.

THE SERIES
Western Illinois leads the all-time series against the Redbirds 49-39-3 overall. The Redbirds snapped a two-game losing streak to the Leathernecks last season with a 25-7 win on Family Day at Hancock Stadium on Nov. 14. Despite that win, WIU has won seven of the last nine games against ISU and eight out of the last eleven games in the series at Hanson Field.

THE COACHES
Illinois State: Brock Spack (Purdue, 1983) is in his second season as the head coach of the Illinois State Redbirds (10-9). After starting the 2009 season with a 1-3 record, with losses at Illinois and to nationally-ranked South Dakota State, the Redbirds won five of their last seven games to finish the season with 6-5 record and the team's first winning campaign since 2006.

Head Coach Brock Spack | ISU Coaching Staff

Western Illinois: Mark Hendrickson (Northern Iowa, 1980) is in his second season as the head coach at Western Illinois (10-13). Hendrickson served as the acting head coach for the final eight games of the 2009 season and for the first seven games of the 2008 season, before taking over the program this season.

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, including a school-record 3,500 hours in 2009-10.
  • Redbird student-athletes matched a record with a department-wide 3.13 grade-point average during the fall 2009 semester, while posting a 3.0 mark in six of the last seven semesters.

THIS WEEK'S OPPONENT

  • Western Illinois University is located in Macomb, Ill., and has an enrollment of 13,331 students. The Leathernecks are members of the Missouri Valley Football Conference and play their home games at the Hanson Field (16,368).
  • The Leathernecks return 39 letterwinners and 14 starters from last year's team that finished with a 1-10 record overall and a 0-8 mark in MVFC play.
  • WIU boasts one of the best offenses in the Football Championship Subdivision, ranking second in the country in total offense with 479.50 yards per game. The Leathernecks also rank seventh in the country in scoring (35.88 ppg), 11th in rushing offense (226.0 ypg) and 14th in passing offense (253.50 ypg). All of those marks lead the Missouri Valley Football Conference as well.
  • Quarterback Matt Barr is putting together a stellar senior campaign for the Leathernecks and leads the conference in passing yards (1,986), passing touchdowns (17), yards per game (248.2), passing efficiency (151.4) and total offense (293.0 ypg). Barr also currently ranks seventh in the country in total offense and ninth in passing efficiency.
  • On defense, the Leathernecks are led by senior linebacker Kyle Glazier. Glazier recorded 25 tackles, the third-highest single-game tackles total by a Leatherneck in school history, last week at Missouri State. That performance earned him MVFC Defensive Player of the Week honors and upped his season average to 12.9 tackles per game, which leads the nation in that category.

TIES WITH THIS WEEK'S OPPONENT

  • Western Illinois President Dr. Al Goldfarb arrived in Macomb via Normal. Prior to taking office as WIU's 10th president in July 2002, Goldfarb served as an administrator at Illinois State for 25 years. From 1998-2002, Goldfarb was ISU's provost and academic vice president.
  • Illinois State's Josh Howe and Cliffton Gordon and Western Illinois' Dominick Corsiglia were all teammates at Marian Catholic High School in suburban Chicago.
  • Redbird tight end Brandon Venson and Leatherneck wide receiver Terriun Crump each transferred to their respective schools from the College of DuPage and were teammates there during there during the 2008 season.
  • ISU linebacker Leonard Hubbard and WIU defensive lineman Mike Stieren were teammates at Sacred Heart-Griffin High School in Springfield, Ill.
  • The Leathernecks have one player on their roster from the Bloomington-Normal area in sophomore defensive back Ryan Waldron. Waldron attended Central Catholic High School and was a teammate of Illinois State's Nathan and Adam Rebholz and Chris Highland.
  • Illinois State assistant coach Jim Williams (1998-2000) and WIU running backs coach Thad Ward (2005) both coached at Independence Community College as assistant coaches.
  • Illinois State undergraduate assistant Tom Speer is a native of Macomb, Ill., and his sister, Jill Speer, was an Illinois State athletics media relations graduate assistant from 2007-08.


CATCHING EVERYTHING IN SIGHT
Sophomore wide receiver Tyrone Walker had a career day against No. 19 Northern Iowa (Oct. 23) at the UNI-Dome. The Indianapolis, Ind., native caught five passes for a career high 136 yards and tied a career high with two touchdown receptions against the Panthers. Walker's second touchdown reception was an 80-yard grab from Matt Lancaster, which marks the longest touchdown reception of the season by a Redbird receiver. With 136-yards receiving, Walker recorded his third 100-plus yard receiving performance of the season and the fourth of his career. In the last three games for ISU, Walker has caught 13 passes for 298 yards and five touchdowns and went over 1,000 yards receiving in his career with his 136 yards against UNI.

GET THE BROOME OUT
Sophomore defensive end Nick Broome swept up a lot of tackles and recorded a bunch of stops in the backfield against No. 19 Northern Iowa (Oct. 23). The Columbus, Ind., native set a new-career best with eight tackles on the day, seven of which were solo stops. Broome also recorded a career high 2.0 tackles-for-loss and was able to sack elusive UNI quarterback Tirrell Rennie for his first sack of the season. With his day, Broome now leads all Redbird defensive linemen with 39 tackles and has 3.5 tackles-for-loss on the season.

FLOWERS BLOOMING AT SAFETY
Senior safety Bo Flowers missed the first game of the season and has steadily increased his playing time after joining the team in August. However, in his last three games the transfer from Illinois has bloomed in the secondary alongside Kelvyn Hemphill. Flowers tallied a career-best six tackles, all of which were solo stops, and also had one tackle-for-loss against No. 19 Northern Iowa (Oct. 23) and has now collected 14 of his 15 tackles on the season over the last three games.

IT'S A LITTLE EARLY FOR TRICKS
Even though Halloween is a little over a week away, the Illinois State football team had a trick up its sleeve for the Northern Iowa Panthers at the UNI-Dome (Oct. 23). With time expiring in the second quarter, ISU was facing a fourth-and-three situation on the UNI 26-yard line. The drive was lengthened thanks to a bit of trickery from the Redbirds. ISU faked a field goal and holder Matt Lancaster flipped the snap over his shoulder to Steven Fetzer to pick up a first down and to continue the drive deep in Northern Iowa territory.

GOING LONG
The Redbirds were looking for a spark late in the game against No. 19 Northern Iowa (Oct. 23) to combat a barrage of scoring by the Panthers. Thanks to sophomores Matt Lancaster and Tyrone Walker, the 'Birds got just that. On the first play of the drive, Lancaster scrambled around and dodged UNI defenders before airing out a perfectly thrown ball that found Walker in stride for an 80-yard touchdown pass. The touchdown pass is the longest of the season for the Redbirds, but not the longest for Walker who hauled in an 81-yard bomb from Matt Brown last season at Southern Illinois.

INTERCEPTIONS PILING UP FOR JONES
Despite a sore hamstring that limited him in practice throughout the week, senior cornerback E.J. Jones continues to be a turnover magnet in the Redbird secondary. Coming off of a game where he forced three turnovers against No. 14 North Dakota State (Oct. 16), Jones intercepted his third pass in two games when he intercepted UNI quarterback Tirrell Rennie's pass in the first quarter. The interception was the sixth of the season, which tied the number of interceptions he had at the end of the 2009 season. The Edwardsville, Ill., native moved into a tie for fourth place in the all-time interception list at ISU with 12 in his career.

MAKING THEIR MARKS ON THE RECORD BOOK
Sophomores Matt Brown and Tyrone Walker are both putting their marks on the ISU record books in just a short time. After Saturday's game, Brown became just the fifth player in school history to throw for over 4,000 yards in his career at ISU. Brown has now thrown for 4,087 yards, just under 300 yards short of Dusty Burk (4,378) for fourth place on the school's all-time passing yardage list. With two touchdown receptions against the Panthers, Walker increased his season total to seven and his career total to
10, which puts him in sole possession of ninth place on the school's career receiving touchdowns list passing Dwayne Smith (9). In addition, Walker's 136-yard receiving against UNI upped his career total to 1,005 and moved to 18th place on the all-time receiving yards list.

WASTING LITTLE TIME FINDING THE END ZONE
On three separate occasions this season, the Redbirds have needed just one play to score a touchdown. Last Saturday against UNI (Oct. 23), Matt Lancaster found Tyrone Walker for an 80-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter on the first play of the drive to up the season total to three. In the season opener against Central Missouri (Sept. 2), Cameron Hunt needed just one carry to score a seven yard touchdown after an interception by Josh Howe and Ashton Leggett bowled in from four yards out on the first play from scrimmage against Missouri State (Sept. 25) after a long kickoff return by Ben Ericksen. The quick-scoring has been a trend for the Redbirds this season, as they have scored in four plays or less 11 times out of a total of 31 scoring drives on the season.

THE MAN IN THE MIDDLE
Eric Brunner has been a force to contend with in the middle of the defensive line for the Redbirds this season, and he proved it again against No. 14 North Dakota State (Oct. 16). Brunner recorded the game's only two sacks, to go along with four tackles, and tied a career high with 2.5 tackles-for-loss against the Bison. The Greendale, Wis., native previously set that career-high of 2.5 tackles-for-loss and recorded the game's only sack in double overtime win over Missouri State (Sept. 25). Brunner finished that game with seven tackles, including two solo stops, and made perhaps the biggest defensive of the game, as he sacked quarterback Cody Kirby for a six-yard loss in double overtime that hindered the Bears final drive. The junior defensive tackle leads all Redbirds with four sacks and 8.5 TFLs in 2010 and ranks sixth on the team with 33 total tackles.

PICKOFF ARTISTS
The Redbirds picked off 14 passes in 2009, after recording just three interceptions during the 2008 season. Whatever the team is doing on defense seems to be working, as ISU already has 11 interceptions through seven games in 2010. The Redbirds have tallied at least two interceptions in five-of-eight games played, including nine in the last six games. E.J. Jones picked off a pair of passes against No. 14 North Dakota State (Oct. 16) and added another against No. 19 UNI (Oct. 23) to up his season total to six, while senior defensive lineman Dave Rivas picked off his first career pass against the Salukis (Oct. 2) to give the Redbird three on the game. Safety Kelvyn Hemphill, cornerback Marcus Harris and linebackers Austin Davis and Josh Howe have also recorded interceptions this season for the Redbirds.

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