Winning on the road and in the Missouri Valley Football Conference will be critical steps in helping Illinois State break its four-year playoff drought. (Photo by GoRedbirds.com)
By Barry Bottino
With a potential FCS playoff spot on the line in November, Illinois State head coach Brock Spack jokingly reverted to his old job as Purdue’s defensive coordinator.
“I look at my career here, and this is the 12th bowl game we’d be eligible for,” he said with a chuckle. “In the Big Ten, that’s how you do it.”
Six wins is a magical number in the FBS, but there’s been no magic since 2019 for the Redbirds. Spack and Illinois State missed the playoffs for the fourth season in a row this fall, the longest stretch without a postseason berth in Spack’s 15 seasons in Normal.
Despite a friendly 2023 schedule, during which the Redbirds did not leave the state of Illinois until late October, Illinois State missed out on the postseason with a 6-5 record, losing four games by three points or less.
Prairie State Pigskin examines five key questions facing the Redbirds this off-season.
How can the Redbirds get back to the FCS playoffs?
Spack campaigned late in the season for any Missouri Valley Football Conference team with a winning league record to make the postseason because of the MVFC’s status as one of the toughest in the nation.
However, a winning MVFC record and a victorious road record both have been a challenge for ISU over the past four seasons. The team is 11-17 in conference play and 6-12 in road games since 2020. Those numbers must improve for Spack and ISU to get back to the postseason.
The team’s 12-game 2024 schedule includes only five road games, but three of those trips – to Murray State, Northern Iowa and Indiana State – come in the final five weeks. In the rotating MVFC schedule, ISU catches a break and will miss South Dakota State and South Dakota, this season’s top two finishers in the league standings.
Who’s next at quarterback?
Tommy Rittenhouse, a sophomore, started the final two games this season and three games in 2022 in relief of injured starter Zack Annexstad.
As Annexstad’s tenure ends, who will fill the Minnesota transfer’s shoes is an important question.
Spack praised Rittenhouse’s improvement from a year ago to today. The speedy Rittenhouse showed poise and acknowledged his comfort level with the offense and his teammates made a jump this fall. He threw for two touchdowns, ran for another and used his legs to help ISU roll past Murray State, 44-7, and narrowly lose a 22-21 decision to North Dakota in his two starts during November.
In the past four fall seasons, however, ISU has relied on transfers such as Annexstad and Brady Davis (Memphis) at the position.
On Monday, the Redbirds got a commitment from Kansas State transfer Jake Rubley, a sophomore from Colorado who threw six passes for the Wildcats over the past two seasons.
The ISU roster also includes Valpo transfer Mason Kaplan. After the season, former Western Illinois quarterback Matt Morrissey entered the portal after throwing for more than 2,000 yards for the Leathernecks in 2023. The first offer he announced on social media was from Illinois State.
What’s the future for ISU’s “young” defense?
On a defense without Buck Buchanan Award winner Zeke Vandenburgh at Jack linebacker and only one defensive lineman with significant experience, the unit was a question mark heading into the season. Then, two injuries hit the linebacking corps.
The young Redbirds not only survived, but they thrived under longtime defensive coordinator Travis Niekamp.
ISU ranked third nationally in sacks (36), and in the top 27 in FCS in both scoring defense (20.45 points per game allowed) and total defense (324.9 yards a game).
The biggest revelations were middle linebacker Tye Niekamp – the defensive coordinator’s son – and outside linebacker Amir Abdullah, a transfer from Division II Nebraska-Kearney. Niekamp finished fourth in voting for the Jerry Rice Award, given annually to the nation’s best freshman, after compiling 74 tackles, nine tackles for loss, seven pass breakups and seven quarterback hurries.
Abdullah, who was a teammate of ISU safety Keondre Jackson at Kearney, piled up 64 tackles, 9.5 sacks, 14 tackles for loss and two forced fumbles. He finished ninth in voting for this year’s Buchanan Award.
Vandenburgh’s replacement, junior Jalan Gaines, put up a solid season, with 5.5 sacks and 10 tackles for loss, while Jackson was his steady self, leading the team in tackles (76). Cornerback Mark Cannon Jr. blossomed late in the season, picking off a team-high three passes.
While outgoing senior Josh Dinga led the defensive line with seven sacks, sophomore Jake Anderson showed up at several key times and took over a starting job.
Can the three running back rotation continue to be a strength?
All three of the top running backs at Illinois State have experience as starters, and all three got carries for the Redbirds this season, which was one of the offense’s biggest strengths.
Northern Illinois transfer Mason Blakemore proved to be a game changer for ISU. The winner of the MVFC’s Newcomer of the Year Award, Blakemore rushed for 980 yards and 14 touchdowns. That’s the most in a single season for a Redbird running back since James Robinson in 2019 (1,899 yards, 18 TDs).
Cole Mueller carried the ball 90 times (60 fewer than Blakemore this fall), gaining 428 yards and five touchdowns. Wenkers Wright, the Redbirds’ leading rusher in 2022, ran for 261 yards and three TDs on only 36 carries.
Keeping three backs happy in the transfer portal era seems like quite a challenge. But ISU proved it can work and reaped the benefits as a team as a whole ran for a combined 2,169 yards and 26 touchdowns.
Can the kicking game rebound?
Spack’s frustrations were evident after the season-ending loss at North Dakota, specifically about the kicking game. The Redbirds missed a field goal, botched an extra point because of a bad snap and had another extra point blocked.
“We should be sitting here with a win, and we’re not,” Spack said after the game, vowing that the Redbirds would “get it fixed” in the off-season.
ISU was 8-for-12 on field goal attempts this season, but two of those misses were from Josh Jasek, a junior college transfer who entered the transfer portal late in the season.
Primary kicker Ian Wagner boasts a very strong leg, and went 8-for-10 on field goals with 40 touchbacks on his 63 kickoffs. However, he was 35-for-41 on extra points this season.
Illinois State proved this season that every point counts while losing four of its five games by a combined eight points.
Barry Bottino is a co-founder of Prairie State Pigskin and a 19-year veteran of three Illinois newspapers. He has covered college athletics since 1995.
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