NORMAL, Ill. – Not since 1967 has an Illinois State football team started a season with a 6-0 record, but the 2014 Redbirds have done just that and will look to increase the record to 7-0 Saturday at Hancock Stadium against Missouri State. ISU head football coach Brock Spack will break down last week's thrilling win at Western Illinois and preview the matchup with the Bears on The Brock Spack Show, which airs live Thursday from Schooners on WJBC AM 1230 beginning at 6 p.m.
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No. 9 ranked Illinois State (6-0, 3-0 MVFC) matched a school record with its comeback from 21 points down to win last week at Western Illinois. 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). Only once previously in the Missouri Valley Football Conference'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 this weekend.
Missouri State (4-3, 1-2 MVFC) is fresh off a 31-12 defeat of South Dakota last week at Plaster Field. 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.
Coach Spack will talk with co-hosts Dick Luedke and Ted Schmitz, and will be joined by senior placekicker Nick Aussieker as this week's player guest. For the second week in a row, Aussieker kicked a game-winning field goal to help the Redbirds maintain their perfect record on the season. He kicked a 20-yarder at Indiana State to give the Redbirds a 20-18 win two weeks ago and followed that up by booting a 34-yard field goal last week to cap off the comeback for the Redbirds against the Leathernecks. On the season, Aussieker is a perfect 8-for-8 in field goal attempts and he is just 18 points shy of tying Stephen Carroll for the top spot on the career scoring list at ISU.
Schooners is located at 810 East Grove Street in Bloomington, and sits just off the corner of Grove and Clinton Streets. For those who can't make it out to Schooners to watch the show live, it will be broadcast on WJBC 1230 AM in the Twin Cities and streamed live on GoRedbirds.com.
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