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Illinois State University Athletics

Football Mike Williams

Redbird Football Prepares for 100th Meeting with Eastern Illinois

PLAYER TO WATCH

Junior wide receiver Tyrone Walker has become one of the most explosive recievers in the Missouri Valley Football Conference in his two seasons at ISU. The Indianapolis, Ind., native led the team with 974 yards receiving and 12 touchdowns in 2010 and has become a favorite target of fellow junior Matt Brown in their two seasons at ISU together. With just two seasons under his belt, Walker already ranks sixth on the ISU career touchdown receptions list (15), is eighth in career receiving yards (1,459) and 11th in career receptions (96).

THE GAME
In-state foes Eastern Illinois and Illinois State will meet in the historic 100th meeting in the storied 110-year football rivalry between the two schools. The two teams will meet once again in the newly-renamed Mid-America Classic, with the winner taking home the new travelling trophy unveiled earlier this summer.

THE SERIES
Today's game renews the oldest FCS football rivalry in the State of Illinois and the 13th-oldest at the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) level. ISU and EIU have played 99 times, with the first game being played in 1901. ISU has won seven of the last nine games against the Panthers and leads the series, 51-39-9.

THE COACHES
Illinois State: Brock Spack (Purdue, 1983) is in his third season as the head coach of the Illinois State Redbirds (12-10). With ISU's 27-23 win over Eastern Illinois in the 2010 season finale, the Redbird coaching staff led by head coach Spack became the first staff at ISU to post back-to-back winning seasons in its first two seasons at the helm in over 60 years.

Head Coach Brock Spack | ISU Coaching Staff

Eastern Illinois: Bob Spoo (Purdue, 1960) is in his 24th season on the sidelines as the head coach at Eastern Illinois (142-122-1) and his 25th overall. In 2009, Spoo was named OVC Coach of the Year for the third time in his career and one of five finalists for the Liberty Mutual FCS Coach of the Year. In his 24 years at EIU, Spoo has coached the Panthers to nine NCAA FCS playoff berths and eleven Top 25 national rankings.

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.
  • n each of the past five 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

  • Eastern Illinois University is located in Charleston, Ill., and has an enrollment of 11,630 students. The Panthers are members of the Ohio Valley Conference and play their home games at the O'Brien Field (10,000).
  • The Panthers return 36 letterwinners and 17 starters from last year's team that finished with an 2-9 overall record and a 2-6 mark in OVC play.
  • EIU was picked to finish seventh out of nine teams in the Ohio Valley Conference preseason poll.
  • Senior Eric Zink and junior Artavious Dowdell were selected to the OVC preseason all-conference team at offensive guard and defensive end, respectively. Zink, one of the team's four senior captains, was a starter in ten games last season and has been a mainstay in the offensive line unit since moving into a left guard spot midway through his true freshman season. Dowdell was among the OVC leaders with 12.5 tackles-for-loss last season and led EIU with 4.5 sacks.
  • The Panthers are led on offense by sophomore quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, who started seven games in 2010 and threw for 1,639 yards and 14 touchdowns on way to being named to the OVC All-Newcomer Team.
  • EIU's defense is spearheaded by senior captain and outside linebacker Corey Leman. Leman started all 11 games for the Panthers last season and amassed 95 tackles and five tackles-for-loss.

     

TIES WITH THIS WEEK'S OPPONENT

  • Illinois State head coach Brock Spack spent time as an assistant coach at Eastern Illinois under current head coach Bob Spoo. From 1987-90, Spack roamed the sidelines in Charleston for Spoo, a fellow Purdue alum, before moving on to become an assistant coach at his alma mater in 1991.
  • EIU and NFL alum John Jurkovic, who will be the television color analyst for the Mid-America Classic, was coached by Spack when he was the linebackers/defensive line coach at EIU from 1987-1990.
  • Former ISU basketball star Chad Altadonna is the associate head coach for the EIU men's basketball team, while Mary Wallace, EIU's assistant athletics director/senior woman administrator, used to be the throws coach at Illinois State.
  • EIU offensive coordinator Roy Wittke was in his first season at EIU during Spack's final season with the Panthers. Wittke was with EIU from 1990-2002, and again from 2008-present and helped develop current Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo.
  • ISU President Dr. Al Bowman earned his master's degree in speech-language pathology from EIU.
  • ISU's Tevin Allen and EIU's Kenneth Hankerson were high school teammates at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., (also the high school alma mater of ISU assistant coaches Dominic Anderson and Dan Shula).
  • ISU's Brandon Westphal and Erik Smith and EIU's Alex McNulty, Marcus Lee, Malcolm Jackson, Brandon Tucker and Roosevelt Holliday were all high school teammates at Bolingbrook High School in Bolingbrook, Ill.
  • Rocco Ammons from ISU and EIU's Joseph Hall and Jason Schuman were high school teammates at Wheaton-Warrenville South High School in Wheaton, Ill.
  • EIU defensive end Pat Wertz transferred to EIU from ISU in the summer of 2010.

     

A STORIED RIVALRY
The college football rivalry between Illinois State and Eastern Illinois will have a bit more significance this year, as the two in-state foes will meet for the 100th time in the 110-year series. To commemorate the milestone, the rivalry was officially re-branded as the Mid-America Classic, and a traveling trophy was created earlier this summer. The rivalry between the two schools began in 1901, and the two school have played 99 times in total, with Illinois State holding a 51-39-9 advantage in the all-time series.

SO LONG, FOR NOW
Longtime Illinois State football play-by-play broadcaster Dick Luedke signs off every broadcast by telling fans listening in "so long, for now." The statement was extremely poignant for the Eastern Illinois Panthers, who the Redbirds defeated 27-23 in the 2010 season finale. The Redbirds have spent the entire offseason preparing for the Panthers, who they will meet in the 2011 season-opener Sept. 1. The last time ISU faced an opponent twice in a row, months apart, was during the 1976-77 season, when the Redbirds defeated Eastern Illinois in the 1976 finale (13-8) and won the 1977 opener against the Panthers (20-0).

DOWNING THE OVC
As of late, the Redbirds have been "naughty by nature" when facing members of the Ohio Valley Conference. Illinois State has won 13 of its last 15 games against members of the OVC, including five-straight wins against Murray State and seven out of the last nine versus Eastern Illinois. Last season, the Redbirds went 1-0 against teams from the OVC with a 27-23 win over the Panthers in the season finale Nov. 13.

TEN TALES OF A 110-YEAR-OLD RIVALRY

  • Oct. 27, 1906 - Illinois State's six-hour bus drive to Charleston, Ill., was only made worse by an 11-6 defeat.
  • Nov. 3, 1915 - Both teams fumbled inside each other's 10-yard line in this 0-0 game played at EIU.
  • Nov. 11, 1916 - EIU visited Normal, Ill., for the first ever Homecoming game on Illinois State's campus. ISU scored its only points on a 45-yard blocked punt by Ritter in a 24-7 loss.
  • Nov. 5, 1921 - ISU rolled to a 42-3 victory in its Homecoming game, as five different ISU players scored a touchdown (Brown, Stewart, Clark, Jensen, Frkyman).
  • Nov. 14, 1959 - Illinois State linemen wear gloves for the first time on a snowy, icy day, as Dave Babcock scored the only Illinois State touchdown in a 6-6 tie.
  • Sept. 30, 1961 - Illinois State's Keith Reiger's touchdown pass to Bill Monken "probably set an IIAC record for the shortest TD pass: 18 inches" in the Redbirds' 18-0 win.
  • Sept. 29, 1962 - Paul Whitmore's 91-yard punt return was the only score in this 6-0 Redbird victory. It still remains the longest punt return for a touchdown in Illinois State history.
  • Oct. 10, 1981 - ISU reserve Andy Fladung came off the bench to intercept a school-record four passes in the Redbirds' 25-3 win.
  • Sept. 16, 2006 - Marked the first time in the history of the Illinois State-Eastern Illinois series where both teams were nationally ranked. The Redbirds entered the game No. 7 and Panthers were ranked No. 18. ISU trailed, 10-0, after the first quarter, but a 23-point second quarter put the 'Birds in control of a 44-30 win. Pierre Jackson had a career-high 132 receiving yards on six catches.
  • Nov. 25, 2006 - Two months after facing each other in the regular season, ISU and EIU met each other in the first round of the 2006 NCAA Division I FCS Playoffs. ISU's Jason Tate (41 yards) and Jesse Caesar (45 yards) each return interceptions for touchdowns in the 24-13 Redbird win.

IT'S BEEN A GREAT RUN
Eastern Illinois head coach Bob Spoo will begin his 25th and final season on sidelines for the Panthers, when he takes on Illinois State and one of his proteges, ISU head coach Brock Spack. During his time at Eastern Illinois, Spoo has amassed a 142-122-1 record, and Spack was there for the start of it all. Spack spent time as an assistant coach at Eastern Illinois under Spoo on his first staff with the Panthers. From 1987-90, Spack roamed the sidelines in Charleston for Spoo, a fellow Purdue alum, before moving on to become an assistant coach at Purdue in 1991.

THE RUBBER MATCH
When ISU head coach Brock Spack and Eastern Illinois head coach Bob Spoo meet on the field in the season opener, both will be looking to go over the .500 mark in their career against the other school. In his storied career at EIU, Spoo is 10-10-1 all-time against the Redbirds and Spack is 1-1 against the Panthers in his two season at Illinois State.

THURSDAY NIGHTMARES
Illinois State's 2011 season opener against Eastern Illinois will mark the fourth time in five years the Redbirds have opened up on a Thursday night. The 2010 opener was a scary one for the Redbirds, who needed 55 points to squeeze out a 55-54 win over Central Missouri at Hancock Stadium. The results of the previous two Thursday openers also gave some of the players and coaches nightmares, as ISU was 0-2 in those contests. The Redbirds dropped a 27-24 decision to Drake to open the 2007 season and were defeated 31-6 in the 2009 opener at Eastern Illinois.

IT'S BEEN A WHILE
With ISU's 27-23 win over Eastern Illinois in the season finale, the Redbird coaching staff led by head coach Brock Spack, became the first staff to post back-to-back winning seasons in its first two years in over 60 years. The last new regime to achieve that feat at ISU was led by Edwin Struck, whose staff posted winning campaigns in their first six seasons at ISU from 1945-50.

SMILE, YOU'RE ON CAMERA
Illinois State will have five of its 11 regular-season games distributed by national and regional television outlets, the most in the history of the program. The Mid-America Classic on Sept. 1 at Eastern Illinois not only opens the regular-season schedule, but also the Redbirds' television exposure. The 6:30 p.m. game will be broadcast live on Comcast SportsNet Chicago. The Oct. 1 game at North Dakota State will be produced by the North Dakota NBC Network, but because of an agreement with NDSU and Illinois State's partnership with Comcast SportsNet Chicago the game will be aired live on Comcast SportsNet Chicago Plus. The Redbirds will be back on Comcast SportsNet Chicago for the Oct. 29 game at Southern Illinois, which was moved to a 2:30 p.m. kickoff. As part of an agreement with the Missouri Valley Football Conference, the Oct. 22 matchup between the Redbirds and Indiana State at Hancock Stadium will be available on ESPN3.com, as will the regular-season finale on Nov. 19 against Northern Iowa.

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