Tough Road Challenge Awaits No. 6 Redbirds In No. 22 Panthers

THE GAME
Illinois State improved to 7-0 for the first time since the 1932 season after a home win last Saturday against Missouri State.  The No. 6 Redbirds (7-0, 4-0 MVFC) will face another tough road challenge this week, when they travel to Cedar Falls, Iowa, to face No. 22 Northern Iowa (4-4, 2-2 MVFC) at the UNI Dome.

TELEVISION BROADCAST
Saturday's game will be broadcast live on Comcast SportsNet Chicago Plust, as part of the Panther Sports Network.  Below are channel listing where the game can be found:
Comcast Cable – Channel 74 (Normal) or 102 (Bloomington)

• ATT Uverse – Channel 741    
• Comcast Xfinity – CLTV (check local listings)    
• DIRECTV – Channel 665-1    
• DISH Network – Channel 449
• DISH Network Hopper Channel – Channel 412-37    
• MEDIACOM – Channel 127

THE SERIES
The Redbirds and the Panthers will meet for the 31st time on the gridiron on Saturday.  UNI leads the all-time series 19-11, but ISU has won the previous two matchups.  The Redbirds picked up their first win at the UNI Dome since 2002, when they defeated the Panthers 33-21 on Oct. 27, 2012, and picked up a hard-fought 13-3 win over UNI last year at Hancock Stadium on Nov. 2, 2013.   

PLAYER TO WATCH 
Junior quarterback Tre Roberson led the Redbirds to their third-straight come-from-behind win in the fourth quarter against Missouri State.  For his efforts, Roberson was named the MVFC Newcomer of the Week for the second time this season.  Roberson finished the game 11-of-18 with 169 yards and two touchdowns through the air and rushed for 85 yards and another score against the Bears to help ISU improve to 7-0 for the first time since the 1932 season.

THE COACHES
Illinois State: Brock Spack (Purdue, 1983) is in his sixth season as the head coach at Illinois State (40-24). 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.
Northern Iowa: Mark Farley (Northern Iowa, 1986) is 115-55 in his 14th year as the head coach at his alma mater.  Farley is the MVFC's all-time coaching wins leader with 69 league victories and has led the Panthers to seven conference championships, seven playoff appearances and 10 top-25 final rankings.

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

• The University of Northern Iowa is located in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and has an enrollment of 12,273 students.  The Panthers are members of the Missouri Valley Football Conference and play their home games at the UNI Dome (16,324).
• The Panthers finished the 2013 season with a 7-5 overall record, including a 3-5 record in the Missouri Valley Football Conference.  UNI returns 18 starters for the 2014 season, including preseason All-American running back David Johnson.
• UNI is off to a 4-4 start to the season, with a pair of losses to FBS opponents Iowa and Hawaii in the first two weeks of the season.  The Panthers picked up wins over Northern Colorado and Tennessee Tech to round out non-conference play.
• The Panthers are 2-2 in MVFC action, with three points or less separating UNI in the losses.  UNI is 1-2 against teams the Redbirds have also played in Indiana State (L), South Dakota State (L) and Western Illinois (W).
• Running back David Johnson broke the school record for career touchdowns, with his two last week in a win at Western Illinois, and now has 51 (13 rec., 38 rush) total touchdowns as a Panther. He finished with a season-high 29 carries for 146 yards and two touchdowns against the Leathernecks, and now has 19 career 100-plus yard rushing performances, including four this season.
• Brett McMakin leads the way defensively for the Panthers.  He notched a career-high 14 tackles against South Dakota State and has turned in three separate 10-plus tackle performances this season. The defensive lineman leads the team with 59 tackles, four sacks and six tackles-for-loss.

THE LAST TIME THEY MET (NOV. 2, 2013)
In a defensive battle, Illinois State defeated Northern Iowa by a final score of 13-3 on Senior Day at Hancock Stadium. Linebacker Pat Meehan paced a stifling Redbird defense effort with a career-high and team-best 11 tackles and safety Tevin Allen added eight tackles, a tackle-for-loss, an interception and 17-yard fumble recovery for a touchdown.

82 YEARS TO PERFECTION
In 1932, Illinois State Normal University head coach Howard Hancock led his team to a 7-0 record to start the season before finishing with losses in the final two contests of the year.  Fast forward 82 years, and the 2014 Redbirds matched that school record-setting start with a 21-7 win over Missouri State in their home stadium named in honor of the former Redbird mentor.

HOME, SWEET HOME
When the Redbirds opened the newly-renovated Hancock Stadium last September, they knew they had a great new stadium to call home.  Since that renovation, the Redbirds have shown their appreciation for the upgrade and ripped off 10 straight wins.  The streak ties the longest home winning streak in school history, which was previously set from 1998-2000.  That streak started with a 48-14 win over Youngstown State (11-14-98) and came to an end after a 14-12 defeat at the hands of the Penguins (10-7-00).

COPRICH CONTINUES STREAK
With his 148 yards rushing on 31 carries, Redbird running back Marshaun Coprich extended his streak of 100-plus yard rushing performances to seven in a row to start the 2014 season. The Walter Payton Award Watch List selection has now rushed for 992 yards and 12 touchdowns on the season, and is just eight yards away from becoming just the 13th player in ISU history to rush for over 1,000 yards in a season.  With his seven-consecutive 100-plus yard efforts, Coprich also tied Pierre Rembert's school record of seven-straight to start the 2006 season.

COMEBACK REDBIRDS
For the third-consecutive game, the Redbirds found themselves trailing in the fourth quarter when they faced a 7-6 deficit to Missouri State Saturday night at Hancock Stadium.  Game-winning field goals at the buzzer in the previous two games from Nick Aussieker gave ISU wins in those contests, but 15 points in the fourth quarter against the Bears propelled the Redbirds to a 21-7 win.  On the season, ISU has outscored its opponents 70-21 in the final quarter of play and has bested foes by a margin of 156-51 over the final two quarters of play.  

AND THEN THERE WERE FOUR
No. 6 ISU (7-0) is one of just four unbeaten teams left in the FCS, joining No. 1 North Dakota State (8-0), No. 2 Coastal Carolina (8-0), and No. 18 Harvard (6-0). 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 the league's first two teams to both reach 7-0 in the same year.

ROBERSON RACKS UP WEEKLY HONORS
For the third-consecutive week, Illinois State junior quarterback Tre Roberson led the Redbirds to a come-from-behind win in the fourth quarter to help his team earn a 21-7 victory over Missouri State.  For his efforts, Roberson was named the Missouri Valley Football Conference Newcomer of the Week (Oct. 25).  The MVFC Newcomer of the Week honor is the second for Roberson this season.  The transfer from Indiana finished the game 11-of-18 with 169 yards and two touchdowns through the air and rushed for 85 yards and another score against the Bears to help ISU improve to 7-0 for the first time since 1932.  

PRECISION PUNTING
Senior punter CJ Laros averaged a season-best 46.7 yards-per-punt and pinned Missouri State deep in their own territory in twice in the Redbirds' 21-7 victory over the Bears at Hancock Stadium (Oct. 25).  The Canberra, Australia, native punted six times for a season-high average of 46.7 yards-per-punt and pinned the Bears inside the 20-yard line twice.  Laros' long punt of the day was 64 yards, after the ball was downed at the MSU 2-yard line.  He also had a ball downed at the 10-yard line late in the second quarter and added one touchback.