NORMAL, Ill. – The college basketball season may be heading into madness, but the spring football season is just around the corner for Illinois State, which begins its spring workout period on Sunday, March 17.
This year's spring camp coverage will once again be presented by COUNTRY Financial, with periodic camp reports, video features and photo galleries scheduled to be posted on GoRedbirds.com, the official home of Illinois State Athletics. Selected content will also be posted throughout camp on Redbird Football's social media accounts on Twitter (@RedbirdFB) and Instagram (@isuredbirdfb) and ISU's official athletics department accounts.
The Redbirds will be led by veteran head coach Brock Spack, who begins his 11th season at the helm of the program. Â In his 10 previous seasons as head coach, Spack has posted an overall record of 74-45 (.622) and a mark of 48-32 (.600) in Missouri Valley Football Conference play. During that time, he has led the Redbirds to four FCS playoff appearances and back-to-back Missouri Valley Football Conference championships in 2014-15. The 2014 team advanced to the NCAA FCS National Championship game against North Dakota State, marking the first appearance for the Redbirds in the title contest.
Illinois State returns 39 letterwinners and 16 starters (eight offense, eight defense) from last year's squad, including seven players who were named to All-MVFC teams in James Robinson and Luther Kirk (1st Team), Drew Himmelman and Devin Taylor (2nd Team) and special teams standouts JT Bohlken, Christian Uphoff and Paul Monaco (Honorable Mention).
The majority of a young core also returns for the ISU defense, which ranked second to FCS National Champion NDSU in most league defensive categories. The Redbird defense also ranked in the top 20 nationally in seven key categories including scoring defense (No. 10 - 20.0 points per game) and total defense (No. 13 - 309.8 yards per game allowed) in 2018.
2019 Redbird Football Spring Camp Schedule:
•   Sunday, March 17 – 6:30 p.m.
•   Tuesday, March 19 – 3:30 p.m.
•   Thursday, March 21 – 3:30 p.m.
•   Saturday, March 23 – 9 a.m.
•   Sunday, March 24 – 1 p.m.
•   Tuesday, March 26 – 3:30 p.m.
•   Thursday, March 28 – 3:30 p.m.
•   Saturday, March 30 – 9 a.m. (CLOSED TO PUBLIC)
•   Tuesday, April 2 – 3:30 p.m.
•   Thursday, April 4 – 3:30 p.m.
•   Saturday, April 6 – 9 a.m. (CLOSED TO PUBLIC)
•   Tuesday, April 9 – 3:30 p.m.
•   Thursday, April 11 – 3:30 p.m.
•   Friday, April 12 – 3:30 p.m.
•   Saturday, April 13 – 1 p.m. (Spring Showcase Scrimmage / OPEN TO PUBLIC)
GoRedbirds.com and the Illinois State Redbirds App: Â Your sources for Illinois State tickets, Weisbecker Scholarship Fund gifts, multimedia, Redbird merchandise, photos and more.
