Redbirds Hit The Road To Take On Missouri State

SETTING THE SCENE
Date: November 4, 2023
Time: 2 p.m. CT
Site: Springfield, Missouri
Stadium: Plaster Stadium
Capacity: 17,500
Series: ILS leads 22-18-1
Last: MSU won 41-20 at ILS (Oct. 2, 2021)
Stream: ESPN+
Listen: WJBC 1230 AM / 102.1 FM / 93.7 FM / The Varsity Network

THE GAME
Coming off a pair of tough losses by a combined six points, Illinois State (4-4, 2-3 MVFC) looks to right the ship on the road against Missouri State (3-5, 2-3 MVFC) as the Redbirds and the Bears look to get positive momentum heading into the final third of the 2023 season.

THE SERIES
Illinois State and Missouri State will meet for the 42nd time on Saturday, with the Redbirds leading the all-time series 22-18-1 against the Bears in the series which dates back to 1971. The Bears have won two out of the last three meetings against the Redbirds overall, including a 41-20 win over the Redbirds in Normal in 2021. With ISU head coach Brock Spack at the helm, the Redbirds are 8-4 against the Bears and have won two of the last three against Missouri State at Plaster Stadium.

THE COACHES
Illinois State: Brock Spack (Purdue, 1983) is in his 15th season as the head coach at Illinois State (99-69). Spack guided the Redbirds to back-to-back shares of the MVFC title in 2014-15 and an appearance in the 2014 FCS Championship game. He has led the ISU to five playoff appearances overall and became the program's all-time wins leader in 2021.

Missouri State: Ryan Beard (Western Kentucky, 2012) is in his first season as the head coach at Missouri State (3-5). Beard is the program's youngest head coach (34) on record and is the 22nd person to hold the football Bears' top coaching position. His elevation to head coach came on the heels of three seasons as defensive coordinator (2020-22) at Missouri State under former head coach Bobby Petrino.

THIS WEEK'S OPPONENT

• Missouri State University is located in Springfield, Missouri, and has an enrollment of 24,224. The Bears are members of the Missouri Valley Football Conference and play their home games at Plaster Stadium (17,500).
• The Bears head into the game with an 3-5 overall record and a 2-3 mark in Missouri Valley Football Conference action, with wins in two of their last three contests overall. 
• Missouri State picked up wins at Western Illinois and at home against Murray State to improve to 3-4 overall and 2-2 in MVFC action, before suffering a 44-28 defeat last week at Youngstown State.
• After trailing 38-14 early in the third quarter, the Bears cut the deficit to 10, but could not complete the second-half comeback against the Penguins last week.
• The Bears accrued 436 yards of total offense, including a career-high 341 passing yards from quarterback Jordan Pachot who completed 25-of-38 attempts through the air with a pair of touchdowns. The offensive output was aided by Raylen Sharpe, who led all MSU receivers with 8 catches for 109 yards,and running back Jacardia Wright who had 7 carries for 72 yards and scored a pair of touchdowns.
• The Missouri State defense is led by Todric McGee, who has recorded a team-high 73 tackles on the season with two TFLs, a interception and five pass breakups.

LAST TIME AGAINST THE BEARS (OCT. 2, 2021)
 It was a tight game at halftime between Illinois State and No. 16 Missouri State, but the Bears pulled away in the second half to secure a 41-20 win over the Redbirds. Quarterback Jackson Waring threw for a career-high 318 yards on 19-of-30 passing and threw the first three touchdowns of his Redbird career. Jabari Khepera was Waring's favorite target on the day, with five receptions for a career-best 107 including his first career touchdown that went for 75 yards.

MR. CONSISTENT
It took a while for Daniel Sobkowicz to solidify himself as a No. 1 wide receiver for the Redbirds, but he has been as consistent as they come for the Redbirds over the past two seasons. He had another stellar day against UNI, recording nine catches for 91 yards with a touchdown against the Panthers. He has now caught at least one pass in 18 of 19 career games played and now has a streak of at least five receptions and at least one touchdown for the Redbirds. That has upped his season totals to a team-leading 54 grabs for 730 yards with eight touchdowns, which rank him near the top of every category in the MVFC and in the top 10 in several national categories.

MCCOY MUSCLES UP
The McCoy name has been synonymous with the Redbird defense over the last decade and it was Lavoise-Deonte McCoy who found his name atop the defensive stat sheet for the Redbirds in their game against UNI. The younger brother of former Redbird defensive captain Dontae McCoy, Lavoise played one of the best games of his career with a personal-best 14 stops against the Panthers. Four of those were solo stops, and he also added a half sack and a pass breakup for the Redbird defense, which featured three players with double-digit tackle efforts.

CAST, WHAT CAST
Having to wear a cast on your hand is not something that any pass catcher looks forward to, but Cam Grandy's cast on his left hand certainly didn't seem to bother him much against UNI. Grandy, who suffered a left thumb injury the week prior at Youngstown State, practiced all week with the cast on to get ready for competition against the Panthers and the practice paid off. The redshirt senior tight end recorded an ISU-best 11 receptions for 112 yards with a touchdown against the UNI, with 64 of those yards coming after contact. He made big grabs all day while playing with the obstruction on his left hand, but none bigger than his 17-yard touchdown grab with just 27 seconds left in the game from quarterback Zack Annexstad that trimmed the UNI lead to a field goal.

DYNAMIC DUO
The tandem of quarterback Zack Annexstad and Daniel Sobkowicz has become of the most prolific in recent memory for the Redbirds and one of the best in the Missouri Valley Football Conference. The pair connected for three touchdowns and 170 yards against Youngstown State, with Annexstad targeting his No. 1 wideout a season-high 19 times. Through eight games, the two have connected 54 times for a team-leading 730 yards and eight touchdowns for Sobkowicz, who has set career highs in every category this season. As if that was not impressive enough, Sobkowicz has even thrown a touchdown pass to Annexstad this season. Overall, Sobkowicz ranks No. 2 in the country in receiving touchdowns (8) and No. 9 in receiving yards (730) and yards per game (91.2).

BLAKEMORE BACK AT IT
Two games into the season, transfer running back Mason Blakemore had a breakout performance in the MVFC opener at Western Illinois with 170 yards and three touchdowns. However, the following game he suffered an injury that kept him out of the following game and since that time he had not been able to have another 100-plus yard performance until the Redbirds took on Youngstown State. Blakemore averaged 7.5 yards per carry and ran for a total of 128 yards on 17 carries against the Penguins. He had several long runs on the day, but his longest of 40 yards set up a 7-yard touchdown pass from Zack Annexstad to Daniel Sobkowicz early in the second quarter.

FEAR AMIR
Linebacker Amir Abdullah has been a nightmare for opposing offenses s this season, and shined once again for the Redbird defense against Indiana State. The junior from Chicago recorded four (five solo), 2.0 sacks and 2.0 tackles for loss for the Redbirds against the Sycamores. Abdullah now leads the team with 8.5 sacks on the year and 11.0 tackles for loss. He currently ranks third in the FCS in sacks per game (1.06) and No. 21 in TFLs per game (1.4).

ANNEXSTAD IN THE ZONE
Sixth-year senior quarterback Zack Annexstad is playing some of the best football of his career recently for the Redbirds, which bodes well for the remaining three games of the season. In the past three weeks, Annexstad has completed 68 percent of his attempts for 696 yards and an eye-popping 11 touchdown passes and another on the ground. To put that in perspective, Annexstad had just 11 touchdowns through eight games last season, but now has 16 through eight games in 2023. He has been affective by distributing the ball, as seven different receivers have combined to catch the 11 scores for the Redbirds in those two contests. He ranks No. 6 in the FCS in completion percentage (.701), and No. 13 in passing touchdowns (16) and points responsible for (114).

NIEKAMP NAMED TO JERRY RICE AWARD WATCH LIST
Illinois State redshirt freshman linebacker Tye Niekamp is one of 22 FCS players who been named to the midseason watch list of the 2023 Stats Perform Jerry Rice Award, which honors the national freshman of the year in college football's Division I subdivision and is presented by FedEx Ground. Through eight games the 6-foot-3, 230-pound linebacker from Normal, Illinois, native is leads the team in total tackles with 59 (including 32 solo stops) and is tied for seond on the squad with 6.0 tackles for loss. He has also added 1.5 sacks to the ledger to go along with four quarterback hurries and six pass breakups.

SPACK NEARING THE CENTURY MARK
Now in his 15th season at the helm of the Illinois State football program, Brock Spack is nearing a significant milestone in his coaching career. Already Illinois State's program wins record holder, Spack is rolling through the 2023 campaign one win away from the century mark in his career. With an overall record of 99-69 (.589), Spack would become just the fourth head coach in Missouri Valley Conference history with 100 wins at a member school. With three more league victories, Spack would also move into a tie for third in MVFC history for most wins by a MVFC head coach.