No. 9 Redbirds Prepared For Tough Road Game At Western Illinois

THE GAME
No. 9 Illinois State (5-0, 2-0 MVFC) gutted out a tough, come-from-behind win on the road at Indiana State last Saturday, and the Redbirds have another tough contest away from home Saturday, when they travel to Macomb, Illinois, to face in-state rival Western Illinois (3-4, 1-2 MVFC) at Hanson Field at 3 p.m.

THE SERIES
Illinois State and Western Illinois will meet for the 96th time on the gridiron on Saturday, with the Leathernecks leading the all-time series 50-42-3.  The Redbirds have won the last three contests against the Leathernecks and four out of the last five games overall, but WIU has won four out of the last six contests at Hanson Field in Macomb against ISU.

PLAYER TO WATCH 
Junior defensive end Teddy Corwin was all over the field for the Redbirds in their 20-18 come-from-behind win at No. 20 Indiana State last Saturday.  The St. Louis, Missouri, native set career bests with 1.5 sacks and 2.5 TFLs against the Sycamores and finished the day with six tackles.  He combined for a sack on the first play of the day and later added a pass break up, when he deflected an attempt at the line of scrimmage.  On the season, Corwin ranks second on the team with 38 tackles.

THE COACHES
Illinois State: Brock Spack (Purdue, 1983) is in his sixth season as the head coach at Illinois State (38-24). Spack led the Redbirds to their first playoff victory since 2006, just the third nine-win season in school history and was a finalist for the Eddie Robinson Award during the 2012 season.
Western Illinois: Bob Nielson (Wartburg, 1982) is in his second season as the head coach at Western Illinois (7-12) and is in his 23rd season as a collegiate head coach (177-71-1). He came to Western Illinois from Minnesota-Duluth, where he won NCAA Division II national championships in 2010 and 2008 and had a career mark of 100-26 in 10 seasons.

THE #REDBIRDFOOTBALL PROGRAM

• Four FCS playoff appearances (1998, 1999, 2006, 2012).
• Three-time FCS quarterfinalists (1999, 2006, 2012).
• The team is 26-6 at home under Spack's guidance.
• ISU has won nine games in a row at home dating back to 2013.
• The team set a program-record cumulative GPA of 2.94 in the Spring 2014 semester.

THIS WEEK'S OPPONENT

• Western Illinois University is located in Macomb, Illinois, and has an enrollment of 11,707 students.  The Fighting Leathernecks are members of the Missouri Valley Football Conference and play their home games at Hanson Field (16,368).
• The Leathernecks finished the 2013 season with a 4-8 overall record in the first season under head coach Bob Nielson.  WIU returns 40 letterwinners and 17 starters from that squad for the 2014 season.
• WIU is off to a 3-4 start in 2014 and has played one of the toughest schedules in the country.  The Leathernecks played two Big Ten Conference teams (Wisconsin and Northwestern) and this week's game against the No. 9 Redbirds will be their fourth-straight game against a ranked opponent. 
• Sophomore quarterback Trenton Norvell was selected as the Missouri Valley Football Conference Offensive Player of the Week, after he matched his career-high touchdown performance in the team's win at No. 10 Youngstown State. Norvell completed 19-of-26 passes for 291 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions to help WIU pick up its first win against a Top 10 ranked team since the 2008 campaign.
• Defensively, the Leathernecks are balanced and have five players with over 40 tackles each.  Luke Venegoni leads the way with 56 total stops, followed closely by Kevin Kintzel with 55.  Linebacker J.J. Raffelson is third with 46 total stops, and has added four TFLs on the season.

THE LAST TIME THEY MET (OCT. 5, 2013)
Western Illinois scored a season-high 21 points in the third quarter to tie the game against Illinois State at 21-21, but the Redbirds rallied with 14 unanswered fourth-quarter points to come away with a 35-21 win over the Fighting Leathernecks on Homecoming Saturday at Hancock Stadium.  Running back Marshaun Coprich had a career-day, setting personal-bests in carries (24), yards (124) and touchdowns (3) as the Redbirds compiled a season-high 185 rushing yards.

COPRICH NAMED TO WALTER PAYTON AWARD WATCH LIST
Junior running back Marshaun Coprich has rushed for over 100 yards in each of the Redbirds' five games this season and has scored 11 touchdowns.  Those accomplishments have earned him a spot on the Walter Payton Award Watch List, presented by The Sports Network.  Coprich is the first Redbird to be added to the Payton Award Watch List since 2006, when Pierre Rembert finished 11th in the final vote. The Victorville, California, native ranks second in the Missouri Valley Football Conference and fourth in the FCS in rushing yards per game (146), and his 11 touchdowns rank second nationally in points per game (13.2). On the season, Coprich has rushed for 730 yards on 108 attempts (6.8 yards per carry)

OFF TO A FAST START
It certainly has not been easy for Illinois State, but the Redbirds have started the season 5-0 for the second time in the last three seasons.  No. 9 ISU is just one of five unbeaten teams left in the FCS, joining No. 1 North Dakota State (6-0), No. 4 Coastal Carolina (7-0), No. 13 Eastern Kentucky (6-0) and No. 25 Harvard (4-0). Included in those five wins are three over ranked FCS opponents in No. 24 Eastern Illinois (34-15), No. 22 South Dakota State (45-10) and No. 20 Indiana State (20-18).  ISU also started the 2012 season 5-0, before finishing the regular season with an 8-3 record and eventually ending the season with a 9-4 mark in the quarterfinals of the FCS playoffs. 

ELUSIVE ROAD WIN
The 2012 Illinois State football team was a perfect 5-0 on the road and extended that streak to 6-0 with a win in the second round of the FCS playoffs at Appalachian State.  However, the team's fortunes the following season in 2013 away from home were not so good, as ISU posted a 0-6 record away from Hancock Stadium.  After starting the 2014 season with four-consecutive home games and coming away with a 4-0 record, many wondered which team would show up in the first road game of the season.  It was difficult, but the Redbirds came away with a 20-18 come-from-behind victory to improve to 5-0 and pick up their first road win since the thriller against Appalachian State.

EFFICIENCY AT ITS BEST
With the emergence of spread offenses and a shift away from power running games, the fullback often gets overlooked and usually doesn't get his hands on the football much.  Illinois State freshman fullback Bryce Holm is no different, but when he has carried the ball this season he has made the most of it.  Holm has just five carries on the season, but has found the end zone on two of those carries.  Against Indiana State (Oct. 11), his lone carry was a two-yard effort in which he followed guard Kyle Avaloy into the end zone to give the Redbirds a 17-6 lead at the time.  Holm also scored in the team's dominant 55-6 win at home against Austin Peay, when he carried the ball three times for nine yards against the Governors.

REDBIRDS SOAR INTO TOP 10 IN BOTH NATIONAL FCS POLLS
Coming off a thrilling come-from-behind 20-18 win on the road against nationally-ranked Indiana State (Oct. 11), Illinois State (5-0, 2-0 MVFC) soared into the Top 10 in both national Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) polls. The Redbirds, one of just five remaining FCS teams still undefeated in 2014, moved up six spots to No. 9 in the FCS Coaches Poll and moved up five spots to No. 10 in The Sports Network FCS Top 25 after the tough road win against the Sycamores.  The No. 9 national ranking is the highest for ISU since 2012, when the Redbirds were also ranked No. 9 in early October.

GAME-WINNER FOR AUSSIEKER
Senior placekicker Nick Aussieker kicked the game-winning 20-yard field goal with three seconds left in the contest, to lift the Redbirds past No. 20 Indiana State (Oct. 11).  The game-winning kick was the first for Aussieker at any level in his career, and he also added a 34-yard field goal early in the third quarter which put the first three points of the day on the scoreboard for Illinois State.  For his efforts, he was named the MVFC Special Teams Player of the Week and with his two field goals, Aussieker is now 7-for-7 on the season in field goal attempts.

GROUND AND POUND
Heading into the season, Illinois State head coach Brock Spack wanted his running attack to be more of a focus and it certainly is.  The Redbirds have the No. 1 rushing offense in the Missouri Valley Football Conference and rank No. 11 nationally in that category with an average of 245.8 yards per game.  Junior running back Marshaun Coprich has been a huge part of that, as his 11 rushing touchdowns rank him second in the nation and his average of 146 yards per game ranks fourth in all of FCS football and second in the MVFC.  Coprich also ranks second in the country in scoring, with an average of 13.2 points scored per game through five contests.

TEVIN TAKES IT TO THE HOUSE
Tevin Allen made the most of his first kickoff return of the season, as he returned it 95 yards for a touchdown late in the second quarter of Illinois State's 45-10 win over No. 9 South Dakota State (Oct. 4) at Hancock Stadium. It was just the seventh kickoff return of Allen's career and was the first by a Redbird since Josh Burch returned one 100 yards for a score against Indiana State (Oct. 19, 2013).  Then, against No. 20 Indiana State (Oct. 11), he nearly did it again as he took the opening kickoff of the second half back 73 yards before being tackled.  Allen is now averaging 84 yards per kickoff return in two tries in 2014.

ROBERSON RUNS INTO THE RECORD BOOKS
Illinois State quarterbacks have put up big numbers through the air in the past, but very few have put up large numbers running with the football.  Against No. 9 South Dakota State (Oct. 4), Tre Roberson rushed for a career-high 151 yards on the ground, which nearly doubled the previous single-game rushing mark by a Redbird signal-caller.  Adrian Wilson previously set the high-water mark of 85 yards vs. St. Francis on August 31, 1991.

NINE IS FINE
Since the renovations at Hancock Stadium were completed in September of 2013, opposing teams have found it impossible to get a victory over the Redbirds on their home turf.  With ISU's 45-10 win over No. 9 South Dakota State (Oct. 4), the Redbirds have won all nine games they have played in Hancock Stadium since the renovation.  The nine-consecutive wins ties a streak that ISU put together at the end of the 1998 season and continued to the 2000 home opener.