Senior quarterback Chris Irvin led a Western Illinois offense that racked up 507 yards in Saturday’s home opening victory. (Photo by Barry Bottino, PrairieStatePigskin.com)
By Barry Bottino
The first two weeks of the season provided a fair share of frustration for the Western Illinois offense.
“We would get a first down or two, but we just couldn’t finish a drive off,” senior quarterback Chris Irvin said.
On Saturday, in a 51-30 victory against Valparaiso, that all changed for the Leathernecks.
With Irvin throwing for 247 yards and three touchdowns, Western piled up a whopping 507 yards and scored more than 50 points in a game since 2021 against Eastern Washington, a 62-56 loss.
“I was happy the way we executed and finished drives,” Irvin said. “We were able to finish runs and get explosive pass plays and finish drives in the end zone.”
Just over six minutes into the game, running back Markell Holman scored his first touchdown in a WIU uniform, plunging in from three yards out.
The Leathernecks then rolled up 21 second-quarter points thanks to a 29-yard Irvin scoring pass to wide receiver Demari Davis, a four-yard Irvin rushing TD and a 15-yard catch and run by Holman, which featured him dodging one tackler and plowing through another on his way to the end zone.
“Something we say all the time as an offense is that to score a lot of points, it takes all 11 of us,” Irvin said. “If one person’s not doing their job, it messes it up for everybody else. It was good to be able to get multiple receivers and multiple guys involved.”
Six different players caught a pass for WIU (1-2), which won its second consecutive home opener, and five different running backs had at least five carries in the victory.
“As with every game, there’s a few things we need to get better at,” Irvin said. “Overall, we should be very excited and very confident going into these next couple of weeks.”
The WIU offensive line allowed only one sack and paved the way for 246 rushing yards.
“The O-line played freaking great,” Irvin said. “It was a big point of emphasis for us on offense this week, to be able to run the ball.”
Fourteen of WIU’s 27 first downs against Valpo (1-2) came on the ground.
Another highlight awaits Irvin on Saturday when the Leathernecks travel to Cheney, Wash., to face FCS Eastern Washington (0-3).
The EWU campus is “about an hour” from Irvin’s hometown of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
“It’s going to be pretty exciting for me, right in my backyard,” he said. “I’m excited to get over there and be able to play in front of my whole family. It will be huge.”
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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