No. 6 Redbirds Wrap Up Regular Season At Youngstown State

SETTING THE SCENE
Date: Nov. 23, 2019
Time: 11 a.m. CT
Site: Youngstown, Ohio
Stadium: Stambaugh Stadium
Capacity: 20,630
Series: ILS leads 15-13
Last: ILS won 35-28 (Nov. 17, 2018)
Watch: ESPN+
Listen: WJBC AM 1230 / 93.7 FM / TuneIn

THE GAME
A stout defensive effort from the Illinois State defense resulted in ISU picking up its eighth win of the season last week against Missouri State. The No. 6 Redbirds (8-3, 5-2 MVFC) will look to finish the season strong and boost their playoff seeding chances when they take on Youngstown State (5-6, 1-6 MVFC) at Stambaugh Stadium in the regular-season finale.

THE SERIES
The Redbirds and Penguins will meet for the 29th time, with Illinois State holding a 15-13 advantage in the series that dates back to 1979. ISU has won four of the last five contests overall, including a 35-28 victory over YSU in last year's regular season finale. The Redbirds have the last two games played between the squads in Youngstown and are 6-4 against the Penguins under the leadership of head coach Brock Spack.

THE COACHES
Illinois State: Brock Spack (Purdue, 1983) is in his 11th season as the head coach at Illinois State (82-48). 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).

Youngstown State: Bo Pelini (Ohio State, 1990) is in his 5th season as the head coach at Youngstown State (32-28) and his 13th overall as a collegiate head coach (99-55). Pelini guided the program to the Division I National Championship Game in just his second season as the head coach in 2016.

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 52-14 at home under Spack's guidance
• ISU is 35-8 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

• Youngstown State University is located in Youngstown, Ohio, and has an enrollment of 12,696 students. The Penguins are members of the Missouri Valley Football Conference and play their home games at Stambaugh Stadium (20,630).
• The Penguins started the season 4-0, including a 45-22 win over Samford in the Guardian Credit Union FCS Kickoff, but have struggled in conference play just going 1-6.
• YSU dropped a 24-17 decision to Indiana State last Saturday in Terre Haute. They Sycamores  took a 24-10 lead to the fourth quarter, but the the Penguins pulled within a touchdown when Joe Craycraft connected with Ryan Emans on a 45-yard touchdown pass with 10:05 left in the game. Youngstown State had one final late drive reaching Sycamores territory, but turned the ball over on downs at the ISU 37-yard line with 40 seconds left.
• Craycraft completed 11-of-33 passes for 181 yards and a score, while also rushing for 123 yards on 11 carries for the Penguins against the Sycamores. 
• The YSU rushing attack is extremely balanced, as five different players have recorded at least three touchdowns on the ground. Joe Alessi leads the way with 700 yards on 118 attempts with five scores.
• Justus Reed is among the Valley Football leaders with 11 sacks and 15.0 tackles for loss ... he is one of three YSU defenders with at least 10 TFLs on the season.

LAST TIME VS. THE PENGUINS (9/29/18)
The Penguins took their first lead of the game at 28-21 with 13:12 remaining, however a pair of touchdown runs by true freshman Kevin Brown gave the Redbirds a come-from-behind 35-28 victory on Senior Day at Hancock Stadium.  Brown tied the game at 28-28, when recorded his first career touchdown with 11:06 to go in the contest and later added a 16-yard touchdown run, which proved to be the deciding score with 5:47 left to go in the game. James Robinson also carried the ball 23 times for 256 yards and two scores.

TWO FOR TWO
Redshirt freshman wide receiver Tristan Bailey has seen limited action for the Redbirds this season, but he has certainly made the most out of his opportunities the past two weeks. Last week in a win at No. 4 South Dakota State, Bailey's first reception of the season was a 12-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Brady Davis that gave the Redbirds an early lead in Brookings. This week, his second reception of the season on a nearly-identical route resulted in an eight-yard touchdown pass from Davis to put the Redbirds up 14-6. 

THE GHOST IN THE ENDZONE 
Coming into the game with Missouri State, true freshman wide receiver Kacper Rutkiewicz led the Redbirds in receptions and yards on the season. However, one blemish on an otherwise solid inaugural season for the wideout was that he had yet to find the endzone despite getting close several times previously. That all changed, though, in the first quarter when Rutkiewicz came down with a 5-yard pass from Brady Davis in the back corner of the endzone for his first career touchdown. He finished the day with two receptions for 11 yards and upped his season totals to 22 receptions for 418 yards with the one score. With an average of 19.0 yards per catch, "The Ghost" has proved not to be so friendly to opposing defenders in 2019.

BIRDS OWN THE RED ZONE
They say that games are won and lost in the Red Zone, and one look at the Redbirds' stats in the zone will show there may be something to that. Heading into the game against Missouri State, opponents had scored just 54.5 percent of the time when inside the Redbirds' 20-yard line, which was the No. 1 mark for a defense in all of FCS football. The Redbirds were solid in the red zone once again versus the Bears, allowing just one score in three tries including the huge fourth-and-goal stop on a sack by Luther Kirk that iced the game. That dropped the average to just 52.8 percent for one of the top defenses in the country. On the other side of the football, the Redbird offense has scored 93.9 percent of the time in the red zone, which also ranks No. 1 in FCS football.

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 52-14 at home during Spack's tenure and have gone 35-8 at Hancock Stadium since the renovation of the facility in 2013. 

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 8-3 on the year. Overall, the Redbirds are 7-0 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 6-0 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.

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.

TURNOVERS TURN INTO POINTS 
Back-to-back wins over Western Illinois and No. 4 South Dakota State happened because the 'Birds took advantage of turnovers and turned them into scoring opportunities. In ISU's two wins, it 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. 

FLYING HIGH IN NATIONAL POLLS
Illinois State currently sits at No. 6 in the FCS Coaches Poll  and at No. 7 in the STATS FCS Top 25 following a tough home win over Missouri State. For the sixth time this season, the Missouri Valley Football Conference has four teams in the Top 10 of the Top-25 rankings.  In the AFCA coaches poll, North Dakota State holds the top spot, followed by South Dakota State (5), Illinois State (6), UNI (10) and Southern Illinois is 25th this week. The Redbirds have been ranked in every poll so far this season, with a high ranking of No. 6 in the FCS Coaches Poll.

MR. ROBINSON'S NEIGHBORHOOD
James Robinson has already cemented his legacy as one of the best running backs in school history, and his performances of late have only added to his resume. With his 155 yards rushing against Missouri State, Robinson moved past Toby Davis on the ISU career rushing list with 3,779. The Rockford, Illinois, native also ranks No. 2 in the ISU career record books in yards per carry (5.62) and rushing touchdowns (42). Robinson also currently ranks in the top 10 in the FCS in rushing yards (No. 5 - 1,234), yards per game ( No. 7 - 112.2) and touchdowns (No. 8 - 15).

TAYLOR NAMED MVFC DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Redbird junior cornerback Devin Taylor was named the Missouri Valley Football Conference Defensive Player on Sunday by the league office. The Lansing, Michigan, native recorded his team-leading third interception of the season and finished the game with a career-high five pass breakups in the victory over the Bears. Taylor now leads the team with 16 PBUs on the season and 19 total passes defended, which is tops among all Valley Football defensive backs and ranks No. 6 in the FCS.