No. 9 Redbirds Face Tough Challenge in Hosting Missouri State

THE GAME
Thanks to a thrilling 37-34 come-from-behind victory last week at Western Illinois, No. 9 Illinois State (6-0, 3-0 MVFC) remained undefeated on the season and came away 2-0 from a tough road swing.  The Redbirds return home to Hancock Stadium Saturday, but the task will be tough as they host Missouri State (4-3, 1-2 MVFC) under the lights at 6 p.m.

THE SERIES
The Redbirds and the Bears will meet for the 35th time on Saturday, with ISU holding a one-game advantage in the all-time series at 17-16-1.  The Bears have won the last two meetings against the Redbirds, but ISU has had more long-term success with wins in eight of the last 12 games in the series overall.

THE COACHES
Illinois State: Brock Spack (Purdue, 1983) is in his sixth season as the head coach at Illinois State (39-24). 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.
Missouri State: Terry Allen (Northern Iowa, 1979) is 132-118 in his 22nd year as a head coach and 37-59 in nine years at Missouri State.  Allen trails only current UNI head coach Mark Farley (68 wins) in all-time conference victories and is one win away from the No. 4 spot on the Bears coaching wins list.

PLAYER TO WATCH
Senior tight end James O'Shaughnessy came up big in clutch situations last Saturday to help the No. 9 ranked Redbirds erase a 21-point deficit and come back to win 37-34.  O'Shaughnessy caught four passes for 94 yards and tied a career-high with two touchdowns in the win over the Leathernecks.  He caught touchdowns of 10 and 9 yards and also had a career-long 51-yard reception, which set up the first of his scoring grabs in the victory.

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.
• The Redbirds start the season 6-0; first time since 1967.
• 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

• Missouri State University  is located in Springfield, Missouri, and has an enrollment of 23,831 students.  The Bears are members of the Missouri Valley Football Conference and play their home games on Plaster Field (18,500).
• The Bears finished the 2013 season with a 5-7 overall record, including a 5-3 record in the Missouri Valley Football Conference.  
• Missouri State is off to a 4-3 start to the season, which includes a 3-1 start in non-conference play.  The Bears defeated Northwestern State, North Dakota and Central Arkansas in non-conference play, with the lone blemish coming at the hands of FBS foe Oklahoma State.
• The Bears suffered defeats at the hands of nationally-ranked Youngstown State and South Dakota State, before picking up their first conference win last weekend against South Dakota to move their MVFC record to 1-2.  MSU built a 25-point lead against the Coyotes, thanks to a strong rushing performance that included a season-high 288 rushing yards.
• Quarterback Kierra Harris matched a career-high with three touchdown passes and rushed for another to lead the Bears' offensive attack against South Dakota.  Harris has thrown for 1,223 yards and 14 touchdowns, and added 445 yards and seven touchdowns on the ground this season.
• The Bears' defense is led by All-American safety Caleb Schaffitzel, who has recorded 56 tackles on the season and added 1.5 tackles-for-loss, one interception, five pass breakups and one forced fumble.  

THE LAST TIME THEY MET (SEPT. 28, 2013)
After taking a 10-7 lead with 12:02 to play in the opening half, Illinois State allowed 34 unanswered points to the Bears and committed a season-high five turnovers in a 37-10 loss in the Redbirds' MVFC opener in Springfield, Missouri.  The Redbird offense tallied a season-low 214 yards of total offense, including just 46 rush yards on 31 carries in the road defeat.

AND THEN THERE WERE FOUR
No. 9 ISU is just one of four unbeaten teams left in the FCS, joining No. 1 North Dakota State (7-0), No. 3 Coastal Carolina (7-0), and No. 21 Harvard (5-0). Included in those six 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).  Only once previously in the league's 29-year history have two teams started 6-0 or better the same season and the Redbirds and Bison are looking to become the league's first two teams to both reach 7-0 in the same year.

47 YEARS IN THE MAKING
Not since 1967 had a Redbird football team began the season 6-0, but that all changed when the 2014 Redbirds rallied from 21 points down to pick up a 37-34 road win at Western Illinois (Oct. 18) to improve to 6-0 on the season.  The win also improved ISU to 3-0 at the start of Missouri Valley Football Conference play, something the team has not done since 1999 when the Redbirds won their first three on the way to a conference title. The Redbirds will look to extend the streak to 7-0 today against Missouri State, which would match the team's 7-0 start during the 1932 season under head coach Howard Hancock.

BIG GAME JAMES
It seems like senior tight end James O'Shaughnessy has a knack for coming up big in crucial moments for the Redbirds.  The Naperville, Illinois, native caught two second-half touchdowns, as the No. 9 Redbirds erased a 21-point deficit and came back to defeat Western Illinois (Oct. 18) by a score of 37-34.  He caught four passes and finished with 94 receiving yards and tied a career-high with the two touchdown grabs.  The last time he grabbed a pair of touchdowns was in ISU's 2012 playoff win at Appalachian State, which included the game-winner in overtime.

GIMME A 10
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.  The Redbirds have won all nine games they have played in Hancock Stadium since the renovation, and the nine-consecutive wins tie a streak put together at the end of the 1998 season and continued to the 2000 home opener against West Virginia Tech.

WHAT A COMEBACK 
Illinois State faced a 21-point deficit late in the third quarter against Western Illinois (Oct. 18), before the Redbirds answered with 21-straight points to tie the game at 27-27.  After the two teams traded touchdowns, a 34-yard field goal as time expired by Nick Aussieker lifted the Redbirds to the big come-from-behind victory over the Leathernecks.  The comeback tied the best effort in school history, which was done twice previously.  The most recent was in 2012 against Youngstown State, when the Redbirds erased a 21-point deficit to get the win.  ISU also overcame a three-TD deficit on Oct. 23, 1999, at Southern Illinois, before winning by a score of 55-48. It also matches the second-largest deficit overcome to win a league game, and is tied for third-best all-time.

A TALE OF TWO HALVES
Junior quarterback Tre Roberson bounced back from a rough first half, where he committed three turnovers, to lead his team to victory with stellar play in the second half in No. 9 Illinois State's 37-34 road win at Western Illinois (Oct. 18).  Through the first two quarters, Roberson was just 3-for-7 through the air, threw two interceptions and also fumbled which aided the Leathernecks in taking a 24-6 lead at the break.  He bounced back in the final two quarters, completing 14-of-19 attempts and accounting for four touchdowns to help ISU erase a 21-point deficit and come away with the victory.  He finished the game passing for 256 yards and three touchdowns and added 81 yards rushing with another score.  All four of the touchdowns he was responsible for came in the final 17:35 of the game.  

BOOM COMES UP BIG
With the game tied at 34-34, Western Illinois had moved the ball to midfield with just over two and a half minutes left in the game.  The Redbird defense had given up three first downs on the drive and needed a big play, and they got it from David "Boom" Perkins.  As WIU quarterback Trenton Norvell attempted a screen pass, Perkins leaped in the air, intercepted the pass and returned it to the WIU 32-yard line.  That set up the winning field goal for the Redbirds, and Perkins came up big in the clutch for the second week in a row.

MR. CLUTCH
Prior to his game-winning field goal at Indiana State (Oct. 11), Redbird kicker Nick Aussieker had never connected on a game-winner during his football career.  After all that time without a game-winner, Aussieker added his second in two weeks to give his team another thrilling come-from-behind win, this time on the road at Western Illinois (Oct. 18).  Aussieker booted a 34-yard field goal as time expired complete a comeback that erased a 21-point deficit for the Redbirds and kept them undefeated on the season.  

RECEIVERS STEP UP
Illinois State was playing without its leading receiver Lechein Neblett against Western Illinois (Oct. 18), and needed a big effort from the rest of the receiving corps.  The Redbirds got just that, as sophomore Anthony Warrum caught a season-best six passes for 54 and senior Cameron Meredith set a career-best with 108 yards on five catches with a touchdown.  The duo, along with tight end James O'Shaughnessy, were the only three ISU players with a catch against the Leathernecks.

REDBIRDS STEADY IN TOP 10 IN BOTH NATIONAL FCS POLLS
For the second week in a row, Illinois State needed a game-winning field goal to come from behind to get a win, this time at Western Illinois (Oct. 18).  Following the victory, the Redbirds remained in the Top 10 of both national Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) polls.  ISU stayed steady at No. 9 in the FCS Coaches Poll after the thrilling win against the Leathernecks and moved up one spot to No. 9 in The Sports Network FCS Top 25.  The No. 9 national ranking is the highest for ISU since 2012, when the Redbirds were also ranked No. 9 in early October. Illinois State has maintained a spot in the national rankings for six-consecutive weeks and and have out-scored opponents 253-83 this season and 141-44 over the final two quarters of play.  ISU ranks No. 5 in the country in scoring offense (42.2 ppg), fourth in scoring defense (13.8) and leads the country in kickoff return average with just over 30 yards per return.

COPRICH NAMED TO PAYTON AWARD WATCH LIST
Junior running back Marshaun Coprich has rushed for over 100 yards in each of the Redbirds' six games this season and has scored 12 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 seventh in the FCS in rushing yards per game (140.7), and his 12 touchdowns rank him No. 3 nationally in points per game (12.0). On the season, Coprich has rushed for 844 yards on 127 attempts (6.6 yards per carry).

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.  Both were difficult, but the Redbirds came away with a pair of wins at Indiana State (Oct. 11) and Western Illinois (Oct. 18) to improve to 2-0 on the road.