WIU head coach Joe Davis addresses his team at a recent practice. The Leathernecks play Illinois and Northwestern in back-to-back games to begin the 2025 schedule. (Photo by Barry Bottino, PrairieStatePigskin.com)
By Dan Verdun
Two weeks from now, Western Illinois will kick off its season with the daunting task of playing back-to-back Big Ten opponents.
Second-year WIU head coach Joe Davis’ Leathernecks are living the reality of contemporary college football where FCS athletic departments rely heavily on the revenue from such games.
Western visits the University of Illinois Aug. 29 and follows up with a Sept. 5 trip to Northwestern. Illinois is ranked No. 12 in the preseason Associated Press FBS poll.
“What Illinois has done a great job with is that they’ve retained players,” Davis said. “They’ve got something like 18 starters coming back. That’s like the secret sauce.”
Davis served as offensive coordinator at Eastern Illinois for two years under head coach Chris Wilkerson prior to taking the WIU job.
Last season, EIU opened in Champaign before traveling to Evanston two weeks later. The Panthers were shut out at Illinois (45-0) and lost at Northwestern (31-7).
“I hope our fans and the community have a little patience,” Davis said. “I was talking to ‘Wilk’ about it and he said, ‘The Illinois team we played last year was really good, but this year’s … holy smokes!’”
Level of difficulty
Wilkerson was asked how difficult it was to play two Big Ten schools early in the schedule.
“Tough, tough!” the fourth-year coach said. “It really was, and as it turns out Illinois was a very, very, very good football team (that won 10 games including the Citrus Bowl) and Northwestern was a handful for us. They were very physical and well-coached. It was hard for us.”
There are many challenges opening the season facing such an arduous undertaking.
“You don’t have a chance to develop any momentum as a team early in the season,” Wilkerson said. “We sustained a number of not necessarily season-ending injuries, but injuries that nagged and bothered guys throughout the year. That made it very difficult.”
The Panthers followed that opening stretch by then playing a strong FCS schedule.
“As it turned out, four of the first six FCS teams we played ended up being playoff teams,” Wilkerson said of Illinois State, Southeast Missouri, Tennessee State and UT Martin.
That schedule took its toll on Eastern. By the end of fall, the short-handed Panthers were playing a number of players out of their natural positions – especially in the defensive line.
“We were exhausted after the first quarter because we were down to four to six guys that could play (in the rotation),” Wilkerson said.
By comparison, EIU is rotating 14 defensive linemen through two weeks of fall camp.
“It was a challenging schedule to say the least, but hey, you get what you get,” Wilkerson said.
This year, EIU ends its regular season with an FBS opponent, a Nov. 22 date at nationally ranked Alabama.
So while Eastern, Illinois State and Southern Illinois all play one FBS foe, Western faces the test of two.
“We’ll work through it and keep chomping away,” Davis said. “This team has a good spirit with a strong mental attitude, which is fun to coach.”
Breakdown of FBS guaranteed money for 2025 games involving Illinois FCS teams
Illinois State at Oklahoma (Aug. 30) $625,000
Eastern Illinois at Alabama (Nov. 22) $560,000
Southern Illinois at Purdue (Sept. 6) $500,000
Western Illinois at Illinois (Aug. 29) $500,000
Western Illinois at Northwestern (Sept. 6) $400,000
Dan Verdun is a co-founder of Prairie State Pigskin. He has written four books: NIU Huskies Football, EIU Panthers Football, ISU Redbirds Football and SIU Salukis Football.
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