PLAYER TO WATCH
Sophomore quarterback Matt Brown is coming off one of the best games of his 2010 season. The Marion, Ill., native threw for 319 yards and tied a career-high with three touchdown passes against No. 24 Western Illinois last weekend. Brown's 319 yard performance was his second of the season with over 300 yards passing he now has six 300-plus yard passing games in his young career at Illinois State. On the seaosn, Brown has thrown for 2,037 yards and 17 touchdowns and has completed 62 percent of his pass attempts.
THE GAME
Illinois State returns home for its final homestand of the 2010 season, beginning with Saturday's match-up against Youngstown State. The Redbirds (4-5, 3-4 MVFC) are looking for a win to get back to the .500 mark on the season after suffering a tough loss on the road at No. 24 Western Illinois last weekend, while the Penguins (3-6, 1-5 MVFC) are looking to snap a five game losing streak heading into the game. The game will be the final conference game for the Redbirds in 2010, before wrapping up the season against non-conference foe and in-state rival Eastern Illinois
THE SERIES
The Redbirds and the Penguins will face off for the 20th time when they meet on the turf at Hancock Stadium Saturday. YSU holds a one-game lead in the all-time series at 10-9, after a 30-18 victory over ISU last season at Stambaugh Stadium. The Redbirds have won two out the last three meetings overall and are 5-4 against the Penguins at home.
THE COACHES
Illinois State: Brock Spack (Purdue, 1983) is in his second season as the head coach of the Illinois State Redbirds (10-10). 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
Youngstown State: Eric Wolford (Kansas State, 1994) is in his first season as the head coach at Youngstown State (3-6). Wolford, a Youngstown, Ohio, native, spent the 2009 season as the running-game coordinator and offensive line coach at South Carolina working under legendary head coach Steve Spurrier.
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
- Youngstown State University is located in Youngstown, Ohio, and has an enrollment of 15,194 students. The Penguins are members of the Missouri Valley Football Conference and play their home games at the Stambaugh Stadium (20,630).
- The Penguins return 34 letterwinners and 14 starters from last year's team that finished with a 6-5 record overall and a 4-4 mark in MVFC play.
- YSU has struggled of late, losing its last five games overall in MVFC play. Last week, the Penguins suffered a late loss at home on Homecoming to No. 19 UNI, when UNI quarterback Tirrell Rennie scored the game-winning 19-yard touchdown with 2:08 left in the fourth quarter to give the Panthers a 34-30 victory.
- The Penguins are 17th nationally in rushing offense at 209 yards per game. Even though they rank highly on the FCS level, they are still fourth in the MVFC in that category behind Northern Iowa, Missouri State and Western Illinois.
- Sophomore tailback Jamaine Cook has had a standout season on offense for the Penguins. Cook has rushed for 986 yards on 177 carries and scored eight touchdowns to lead the YSU ground game. He has rushed for more than 100 yards in four of the last six games, including a 127-yard performance last week against No. 19 UNI. Cook ranks second in the MVFC with his 986 rushing yards and ranks third overall in rushing yards per game (109.6).
- The YSU defense is a balanced one, with four players posting over 50 tackles each. John Sasson leads the way with 74 total stops, with Donald D'Alesio right behind with 64 tackles. David Rach leads the team with five tackles-for-loss to go along with 51 tackles and Deonta Tate is fourth with 50 tackles and four TFLs.
TIES WITH THIS WEEK'S OPPONENT
- Illinois State Director of Athletics Dr. Sheahon Zenger and Youngstown State head coach Eric Wolford spent time at Kansas State together early in their careers and are graduates of the university. Zenger served as an assistant coach under legendary head coach Bill Snyder, when Wolford was a member of Snyder's first KSU recruiting class. Wolford went on to become a four-year starter as an offensive guard for the Wildcats, and his teams laid the groundwork for the program's emergence on the national stage.
- The Redbird roster boasts a pair of Ohio natives in Pete Cary (Cincinnati/Turpin) and Otis Merrill (Cleveland/Glenville/Wisconsin). Not suprisingly, the Penguins' roster includes 52 players from from the state of Ohio.
- San Antonio, Texas, will be well represented in today's game at Hancock Stadium. Illinois State's Kelvyn Hemphill (O'Connor) and Jermaine Malcolm (Holmes) hail from San Antonio, as does Youngstown State strong safety Nick Gooden.
- Youngstown State Assistant Media Relations Director Jamie Hall worked as a graduate assistant in the Illinois State Athletics Media Relations Office in the mid-1990s. Hall received his master's degree from ISU in 1996.
WHAT CAN BROWN DO FOR YOU?
Sophomore quarterback Matt Brown played in the 20th game of his career Saturday against Western Illinois, but his body of work in that short time is among some of the best in Illinois State history. With his 319 yards passing against the Leathernecks, Brown moved into fourth place on the ISU career passing yards list with 4,406 yards, moving past Dusty Burk (4,378) to become just the fourth fifth quarterback in school history to throw for over 4,000 career yards.
BETTER LATE THAN NEVER
Sophomore transfer running back b has been a consistent performer for the Redbirds all season, but one thing was glaring when looking at the stat sheet: he hadn't found the end zone yet. That goose egg was accounted for in Saturday's game at No. 24 Western Illinois, as Smith scored his first two touchdown of the season for the Redbirds. Smith's first touchdown of the game came in the first quarter and he had posted 104 carries on the season before running to paydirt.
A LITTLE HOME COOKING
After a pair of tough road games against ranked teams in No. 19 Northern Iowa and No. 24 Western Illinois, the Redbirds will return home for their final two games of the regular season. If history has anything to say about it, the pair of games should be successful ones for ISU. Under head coach Brock Spack, the Redbirds have posted a 7-2 record at Hancock Stadium, including a 3-1 record at home in 2010. The Redbirds are averaging 37.5 points per game on their home turf this season and have recorded wins over Central Missouri, Missouri State and No. 14 North Dakota State.
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 four games the transfer from Illinois has bloomed in the secondary alongside Kelvyn Hemphill. Flowers tallied a career-best seven tackles, six of which were solo stops, against No. 24 Western Illinois (Oct. 30). That followed a six-tackle performance, where all of the stops were solo efforts, against No. 19 Northern Iowa (Oct. 23). The Maywood, Ill., native has recorded 21 of his 22 tackles over the last four games and has increased his production with each time out.
TYRONE'S ON A TEAR
The start of the season was a bit slow for sophomore wide receiver Tyrone Walker, but he has torn through opposing defenses of late for the Redbirds. Against No. 24 Western Illinois (Oct. 30), Walker tied a career high with nine catches and set a new career high with 178 yards receiving to go along with a pair of touchdown catches. The 100-plus yard receiving performance was the second-straight for the Indianapolis native, as he caught five passes for 136 yards and scored two touchdowns against No. 19 UNI (Oct. 23). Walker has now posted four 100-plus yard receiving games this season and leads the team with nine touchdowns, seven of which came in the last four games.
HOWE DOES HE DO IT?
The tackle numbers for Illinois State middle linebacker Josh Howe continue to soar to new heights in 2010. Howe just missed out on tying a career high with 13 tackles (14 career high) and also posted 1.5 tackles-for-loss against No. 24 Western Illinois (Oct. 30). That performance increase Howe's tackle total to 90 on the season, the highest tackle numbers for a Redbird player since 2007. With 10 more tackles, Howe will become the first ISU defender to top the 100-plus tackle plateau since Kye Stewart racked up 131 in 2007.
ALL HAIL THE KING
Junior wide receiver Marcus King played in his 28th game as a Redbird against No. 24 Western Illinois (Oct. 23) and during that time he has been a fixture on special teams and at wide receiver for the Redbirds. However, King had never scored a touchdown until the fourth quarter at WIU, when Matt Brown found King streaking down the sidelines for a 45-yard score. The catch was the 18th in King's career, but the first touchdown for the Normal Community product.
WASTING LITTLE TIME FINDING THE END ZONE
On three separate occasions this season, the Redbirds have needed just one play to score a touchdown. Against No. 19 Northern Iowa (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 14 times out of a total of 39 scoring drives on the season.
SUPER SOPHOMORES
Sophomores Matt Brown and Tyrone Walker are both putting their marks on the ISU record books in just a short time. Brown became just the fifth player in school history to throw for over 4,000 yards in his career at ISU with his performance at UNI (Oct. 23) and has now thrown for 4,406 yards, good for fourth place on the school's all-time passing yardage list. With two touchdown receptions against the No. 24 Western Illinois (Oct. 30), Walker increased his season total to nine and his career total to 12, which puts him in a tie for seventh place on the school's career receiving touchdowns list passing with Pierre Jackson. In addition, Walker's 178-yard receiving performance against WIU upped his career total to 1,183 and moved into 13th place on the all-time receiving yards list.
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