Senior Day Contest Against Missouri State Up Next For No. 7 Redbirds

SETTING THE SCENE
Date: Nov. 16, 2019
Time: Noon CT
Site: Normal, Illinois
Stadium: Hancock Stadium
Capacity: 13,391
Series: ILS leads 27-17-1
Last: MSU won 24-21 (Sept. 29, 2018)
Watch: NBC Sports Chicago / ESPN+
Listen: WJBC AM 1230 / 93.7 FM / TuneIn

THE GAME
Coming off a big road win at South Dakota State, No. 7 ranked Illinois State returns home for its final regular-season contest at Hancock Stadium when the Redbirds host the Missouri State Bears on Senior Day.

THE SERIES
The Redbirds and Bears will meet for the 40th time, with Illinois State holding a 21-17-1 advantage in the series that dates back to 1971. ISU has won four of the last five contests overall, but Missouri State picked up a win at home last season. Overall, the 'Birds have won the last two contests at Hancock Stadium and are 7-3 against the Bears since 2009 when Brock Spack took over the program.

THE COACHES
Illinois State: Brock Spack (Purdue, 1983) is in his 11th season as the head coach at Illinois State (81-48). Spack led the Redbirds to three-straight FCS playoff appearances from 2014-16 and guided the Redbirds to back-to-back shares of the MVFC title in 2014-15. He is the second winningest coach in ISU football history, trailing only Edwin Struck (86).

Missouri State: Dave Steckel (Kutztown, 1982) is in his 5th season as the head coach at Missouri State (13-40). Last year, the Bears registered dramatic signs of improvement, particularly on the offensive side of the football. MSU's ground attack, led by dual-threat quarterback Peyton Huslig, led the Missouri Valley Football Conference in rushing during league play throughout most of the Valley season.

THE @REDBIRDFB PROGRAM

• 7 FCS playoff appearances (1998, 1999, 2006, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016)
• 5-time FCS quarterfinalists (1999, 2006, 2012, 2014, 2015)
• 2-time FCS semifinalists (1999, 2014)
• The team is 51-14 at home under Spack's guidance
• ISU is 34-8 at Hancock Stadium since 2013
• The team set a program-record cumulative GPA of 3.01 in the Spring 2019 semester

THIS WEEK'S OPPONENT

• Missouri State University is located in Springfield, Missouri, and has an enrollment of 26,182 students. The Bears are members of the Missouri Valley Football Conference and play their home games at Robert W. Plaster Stadium (17,500).
•  Missouri State (1-8, 1-5 MVFC) fell behind 30-0 midway through last Saturday's matchup at Southern Illinois which proved to be the difference in a 37-14 defeat at the hands of the Salukis.
• After a slow start, Bears' starting quarterback Peyton Huslig was 11-for-17 in the second half with a pair of touchdown passes to finish the game with 193 passing yards and no picks. He has completed 56.8 percent of his passes on the season and has thrown for 1,877 yards and 14 touchdowns.
• McNeece Egbim, who leads all MVFC players in tackles per game in league contests, logged his 15th career double-figure tackle game with 10 stops, including seven in the second half against SIU. He leads the Bears defense with 83 total tackles, 8.5 TFLs and one sack on the year.

 LAST TIME VS. THE BEARS (9/29/18)
The Bears took a 24-14 lead with 7:56 remaining in the game, but quarterback Brady Davis got the Redbirds within a field goal goal, when he found running back James Robinson out of the backfield for a 43-yard touchdown pass, cutting the MSU advantage to 24-21 with 3:15 remaining.
The Redbirds had a chance to tie the game with four seconds left, but Sam Fenlason's 32-yard field goal was blocked and the Bears came away with the victory at Plaster Stadium.

ROAD WARRIORS
If a team wants to have a chance at winning a conference championship or making the playoffs, it will have to win some tough road games. After a season-opening defeat at the hands of Northern Illinois, the Redbirds have bounced back with four-straight road wins to improve to 7-3 on the season. ISU has averaged over 24 points per contest in
those games and have limited their hosts to an average of just 10.5 points per game. The last time ISU had a streak of four or more road wins in a row came in 2012, when the Redbirds started the season 6-0 on the road before suffering a loss in the quarterfinals of the FCS playoffs at Eastern Washington.

TAKING THE EARLY ADVANTAGE
Getting out to an early lead has been very beneficial for the Redbirds this season and is a big reason why the team is 7-3 on the year. Overall, the Redbirds are 6-0 on the year when scoring first in the game, and they are now 5-0 when scoring on their first possession of the contest after getting a touchdown on their first drive against South Dakota State. The 'Birds are also 5-0 when leading after the first quarter of play, and those quick starts have often resulted in scoring outputs of 20 points or more. When ISU scores 20 or more, they are now 7-0 on the season.

TURNOVERS TURN INTO POINTS 
The last two wins for the Redbirds have happened because the 'Birds took advantage of turnovers and turned them into scoring opportunities. In ISU's last two wins, it has collected nine turnovers and turned those into 29 points in a pair of road victories. At Western Illinois, the Redbirds took advantage of five takeaways and scored half of their 28 points thanks to the Leathernecks blunders. Against South Dakota State, four turnovers resulted in 15 of ISU's 27 points and helped the Redbirds pick up their third-straight MVFC road victory. 

PROTECTING THE NEST 
Opposing teams coming to Hancock Stadium have not felt very welcome in the past 11 seasons, as Redbird teams led by Brock Spack have not been very accommodating in the win column to visitors. ISU is a combined 51-14 at home during Spack's tenure and have gone 34-8 at Hancock Stadium since the renovation of the facility in 2013. 

DRAKA GARNERS NATIONAL HONORS
After being named the Missouri Valley Football Conference Defensive Player of the Week Sunday, Illinois State linebacker Dylan Draka picked up another accolade Monday as he was named one of the STATS FCS National Players of the Week for Week 11. The junior linebacker did it all for the Redbirds in their victory over No. 4 SDSU. He recorded five tackles, including four solo stops, and tallied three TFLs in the victory over the Jackrabbits. The Wheeling, Illinois, native was also credited with a forced fumble, a pass breakup and recovered a pair of fumbles for the Redbirds. His sack, forced fumble and fumble recovery late in the fourth quarter set up Sam Fenlason's fourth field goal make of the contest to make the score 27-18. Draka and the Redbird defense forced four turnovers on the day and limited the Jackrabbits to just 81 yards rushing and 260 yards of total offense, who came into the contest averaging 234 yards on the ground and 422 total yards per game.

BIRDS OWN THE RED ZONE
They say that games are won and lost in the Red Zone, and one look at the Redbirds' stats inside the 20 yard line will show there may be something to that. Opponents are scoring just 54.5 percent of the time when inside the Redbirds' 20 yard line, which is the No. 1 mark for a defense in all of FCS football. On the other side of the football, the Redbird offense has scored 93.5 percent of the time in the red zone, which ranks No. 3 in FCS football.

FLYING HIGH IN NATIONAL POLLS
Illinois State currently sits at No. 7 in the STATS FCS Top 25 and No. 8 in the FCS Coaches Poll following its big road win over No. 4 South Dakota State. Four MVFC teams are ranked again in the polls this week, including North Dakota State (No. 1), Northern Iowa (No. 4), Illinois State (7) and South Dakota State (8) . The Redbirds have been ranked in every poll so far this season, with a high ranking of No. 6 in the FCS Coaches Poll.

REDBIRD DUO BRING HOME VALLEY FOOTBALL WEEKLY HONORS
With exceptional performances that aided No. 11 Illinois State in a road defeat of No. 4 South Dakota State, junior linebacker Dylan Draka and senior placekicker Sam Fenlason were each named Missouri Valley Football Conference Players of the Week by the league office. The MVFC Defensive Player of the Week honors are the first for Draka in his career at ISU and Fenlason was named the league's Special Teams Player of the Week for the second time this season. Draka's day was highlighted by three TFLs and two fumble recoveries, while Fenalson was 4-for-4 on field goal attempts with a career-long make of 46 yards against the Jacks.

NO FLY ZONE
Redbird cornerback Devin Taylor had a strong sophomore campaign for the Redbirds in 2018, and has certainly built upon that success in 2019. Taylor currently ranks fourth on the team with 45 tackles, including 33 solo stops, and leads the Redbirds with 11 pass breakups. With 13 passes defended, Taylor is tied for the league lead and ranks No. 18 in the FCS proving once again why he was worthy of All-MVFC honors a year ago.

SIMON SAYS
When he joined the Redbirds this summer after transferring from Iowa, Brandon Simon knew he would have an opportunity to make an immediate impact in a strong ISU defense. Mostly playing in a reserve role, Simon has racked up three sacks and 5.5 TFLs on the season from his outside linebacker position. The majority of that production has come in the past four games, with sacks in back-to-back wins at Southern Illinois and Western Illinois and TFLs in three out of the last four games, including one in his first career start against UNI.