Redbirds Wrap Up Regular Season At Home Against North Dakota

SETTING THE SCENE
Date: November 23, 2024
Time: Noon CT
Site: Normal, Illinois
Stadium: Hancock Stadium
Capacity: 12,440
Series: North Dakota leads 3-0
Last: UND won 22-21 (Nov. 18, 2023)
Stream: ESPN+
Listen: WJBC 1230 AM / 102.1 FM / 93.7 FM / The Varsity Network

THE GAME
One final regular-season contest awaits No. 13 Illinois State (8-3, 5-2 MVFC), as the Redbirds return home to host North Dakota (5-6, 2-5 MVFC) on Senior Day at Hancock Stadium. Winners of four-straight and five out of its last six contests, ISU will look to further bolster its NCAA FCS playoff resume with a strong performance against the Fighting Hawks as selection Sunday quickly approaches and the playoffs begin next weekend.

THE SERIES
Illinois State and North Dakota will meet for the fourth time in the series history and for the third time as Missouri Valley Football Conference foes. The Fighting Hawks have won all three of the previous meetings, with the first taking place in 1979. All three of the games have taken place in Grand Forks and UND has won the previous two contests against the Redbirds in 2021 and 2023 by a combined eight points. 

THE COACHES
Illinois State: Brock Spack (Purdue, 1983) is in his 16th season as the head coach at Illinois State (109-73). 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.

North Dakota: Bubba Schweigert (Jamestown, 1985) is in his 11th season as the head coach at North Dakota 66-56 and his 14th as a collegiate head coach 88-77. Schweigert helped UND reach the postseason for the fourth time in the past five seasons in 2023 with a 7-5 overall mark, making North Dakota one of only seven programs in the FCS to have done so.

ABOUT REDBIRD FOOTBALL
~ 8 FCS playoff appearances (1998, 1999, 2006, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2019)
~ 6-time FCS quarterfinalists (1999, 2006, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2019)
~ 2-time FCS semifinalists (1999, 2014)
~ The team is 66-24 at home under Spack's guidance
~ ISU is 49-18 at Hancock Stadium since 2013 renovation

THIS WEEK'S OPPONENT
~ The University of North Dakota is located in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and has an enrollment of 14,172. The  Fighting Hawks are members of the Missouri Valley Football Conference and play their home games at Alerus Center (12,283).
~ The Fighting Hawks hold a 5-6 overall record and are 2-5 in MVFC action. North Dakota started the season 4-1 with wins over Montana, Idaho State and San Diego in non-conference action before defeating Murray State in the MVFC opener. However, UND has gone on to lose its last four contests in a row in league action, with road losses at Youngstown State and Indiana State and home defeats at the hands of nationally-ranked South Dakota State and South Dakota.
~ Overall, North Dakota is 5-2 while playing at home at the Alerus Center, but are 0-4 on the road so far this season.
~ In a game that was a back-and-forth affair, No. 5 South Dakota scored the first 25 points of the second half and outlasted North Dakota, 42-36, last Saturday afternoon. It was the first back-to-back home losses for the Fighting Hawks since 2017.
~ The Fighting Hawks offense is led by one of the best receivers in the country in Bo Belquist, who is just two touchdown grabs away from breaking UND's Division I record in career touchdown receptions. He currently leads the MVFC in yards (890), touchdowns (10) and is second in receptions (62).

LAST TIME AGAINST THE FIGHTING HAWKS (NOV. 18, 2023)
As happened far too often for the Illinois State football team in 2023, the Redbirds dropped a heartbreaking 22-21 decision to No. 13 North Dakota at the Alerus Center on a Fighting Hawks touchdown with less than 30 seconds to play. A 13-yard rushing score by Mason King with 4:53 left in the game gave the Redbirds a 21-16 lead after the two-point try was no good, however the Fighting Hawks took the lead for good on a 1-yard run by Gaven Ziebarth with 25 seconds remaining in the game to come away with the one-point victory. King led the way for the Redbirds with 101 yards on the ground and two scores.

8 WINS AND IN?
For the past several years, the eight win mark in the FCS was the magic mark for a team to qualify for the FCS playoffs. Thanks to their strong 31-19 win on the road at Indiana State, Illinois State has met that mark for the fifth time under the leadership of head coach Brock Spack and has hopes of making the playoffs for the first time since 2019 and sixth time overall with Spack at the helm. That 2019 team was the last one to win at least eight games, going 8-4 in the regular season before going 2-1 in the playoffs on way to the quarterfinals and a 10-5 overall mark.

ROAD WARRIORS 
Illinois State has overcome a lot of adversity in 2024 on way to eight wins, with devastating injuries and struggles at time at home. However one place the Redbirds have felt very comfortable has been on the road, where ISU boasts a 5-1 record with five-straight wins over FCS opponents during the regular season. The lone road setback was in the season opener at Iowa, before the Redbirds ripped off wins at North Alabama, Southern Illinois, Murray State, Northern Iowa and Indiana State. The last time the Redbirds picked up five wins on the road during the regular season came in 2012, when they picked up wins at Eastern Michigan, Western Illinois, South Dakota, Northern Iowa and Indiana State before earning a win in the playoffs at Appalachian State and eventually falling in the quarterfinals at Eastern Washington.

THAT'S A TON OF YARDS
With his 156 yards receiving against Indiana State, wide receiver Daniel Sobkowicz moved past the 2,000 career yards receiving mark and now has 2,149 in his stellar career thus far. That puts him in seventh place overall on the ISU career receiving yards list, just under 100 yards behind Eyad Salem (2,246) in sixth place. He is also just 161 yards away from 1,000 this season, which would make him the first Redbird to eclipse that mark since 2016 (Anthony Warrum, 1031).

JUST MISSED IT
Transfer wide receiver Xavier Loyd nearly tied a school single-game record in Illinois State's big 31-19 road win at Indiana State. He caught nearly everything thrown his way with 13 receptions against the Sycamores, one catch shy of the school single-game mark of 14. Loyd finished the game with 94 yards and scored the Redbirds' first touchdown on an eight-yard reception from Tommy Rittenhouse early in the second quarter that started a string of 31 unanswered points scored by ISU. That performance earned him his second MVFC Newcomer of the Week honor.

TOMMY TIME 
With just five starting assignments under his belt heading into 2024, quarterback Tommy Rittenhouse was not sure if he would be the full-time starter in his third season with the Redbirds. However, he took that role early and played well but has caught absolute fire during ISU's four-game winning streak. In the past four contests, Rittenhouse has completed 73 percent of his passes (93-for-127) while averaging 267.5 yards passing per game with six touchdown passes and a pair of 300-plus yard passing performances. He has also averaged 44 yards per game on the ground and has scored four rushing touchdowns during that stretch.

A LONG TIME COMING
When All-American linebacker Amir Abdullah was injured in Illinois State's season opener at Iowa, many feared the worst and thought the Redbirds' elite pass rusher was done for the season. Thankfully the leg injury was not season ending, but it did force Abdullah to miss seven games and eight total weeks including last week's bye before he was finally able to return to the field against Youngstown State. He has wasted little in making a big impact for the Redbird defense, as he has recorded 13 total tackles (8 solo), 3.5 sacks, 5.0 TFLs and a pass breakup in three starts and wins for ISU. No doubt he has been instrumental in ISU giving up an average of 14 points in the last three victories, while the defense has averaged three sacks and six tackles for loss.

THAT'S HOW YOU START A HALF
Holding a slim 10-3 lead at halftime, Illinois State was set to receive to begin the second half after winning the pre-game coin toss and deferring its choice. After a 14-yard kickoff return by Jalen Carr brought the ball out to the 14 yard line, the Redbird offense took over looking to extend its lead. ISU did just that, as they put together a drive for the ages that last 20 plays, covered 86 yards and took 8:19 off the clock. Quarterback Tommy Rittenhouse was 6-for-8 passing for 48 yards on the key drive, however the Redbirds also leaned heavily on the running game, which capped the drive with Wenkers Wright's 3-yard scoring run. The drive was also extended by six conversions for first downs, including a key one from senior Scotty Presson Jr. who made a sliding catch for a nine yard gain on 3rd-and-8 to move the chains.

FRESHMAN OPENING EYES
Freshman tailback Matt Lawson had his best day as a Redbird, as he helped lead ISU to a 31-9 victory at UNI. The Hoffman Estates, Illinois, native rushed for a career-high 84 yards and scored his third touchdown of the year in the win over the Panthers. Lawson averaged 5.2 yards per carry and ripped off a long run of 17 yards, as the Redbirds tallied 217 yards on the ground. His four-yard touchdown at the start of the fourth quarter put the Redbirds up 24-6 at the time and helped cement the team's third win a row. Lawson now ranks third on the team with 369 yards rushing and three scores, while averaging nearly 4.9 yards per carry.

WRIGHT BACK AT IT
Running back Wenkers Wright recorded three-straight 100-yard rushing performances during the non-conference portion of the schedule but had been held under the century mark through four MVFC games despite ranking in the top five in the conference in rushing. However, he has been able to eclipse that mark in each of the last two games for the Redbirds. Wright tallied 104 yards on just 10 carries against Youngstown State and followed that up with a 109 yard effort in a win at UNI to give him his fourth and fifth 100-plus yard rushing efforts of the season. On the season, he leads the team with 753 yards and seven scores as the Redbirds' primary tailback.