Illinois State junior linebacker Tye Niekamp (46) recorded a career-high 14 tackles in the Redbirds’ 42-30 win Saturday against rival Eastern Illinois. He was named Missouri Valley Football Conference Defensive Player of the Week. (Photo by GoRedbirds.com)
By Dan Verdun
While Illinois State remains ranked as one of the nation’s top teams at the FCS level, both head coach Brock Spack and his players know there’s room for improvement.
“Our defense played really well for three quarters. The breakdowns happened in the fourth quarter,” Spack said of Saturday’s 42-30 win at Eastern Illinois in the Mid-America Classic rivalry game.
Yet, he found a silver lining.
“That was great because our offense really stepped up in the fourth quarter and scored a couple of times and kept the game at bay and took the game back,” Spack said.
Illinois State linebacker Tye Niekamp recorded a career-high 14 tackles, including two for loss while also being credited with a quarterback hurry. The junior was honored as the Missouri Valley Football Conference Defensive Player of the Week.
“We’re not a finished product. We’re three weeks into the season. We have a lot of (new) guys and are still getting our chemistry together,” Niekamp said.
Niekamp leads ISU with 30 tackles in three games. That’s 13 more than any other Redbird.
“You can tell when we play together that it’s in sync and it’s special. We’re not there yet, but I think we’re going to get there,” said Niekamp, the son of defensive coordinator Travis Niekamp and the brother of redshirt freshman Dexter Niekamp.
When the national polls came out Monday, the Redbirds (2-1) remained at No. 4 in the American Football Coaches Association rankings while moving up one spot to No. 6 in the Stats Perform FCS Top 25.
Building for the Missouri Valley schedule
ISU closes out its non-conference schedule with a noon Saturday game against North Alabama (1-2) at Hancock Stadium.
Following a bye week, the Redbirds open their Missouri Valley Football Conference season Oct. 4 by hosting defending national champion North Dakota State.
While the win at EIU kept the rivalry’s traveling trophy in Illinois State’s possession, it was far from where the Redbirds see themselves.
“I felt like we had some really good moments and some we would like to have back on our defensive side,” Tye Niekamp said. “It’s kind of been like that the last two games, which I wouldn’t say is frustrating, but it’s something we need to improve on.”
Spack, in his 17th season in Normal, liked what he saw with his run defense. The Redbirds held EIU to 35 net rushing yards. Eastern running back Charles Kellom entered Saturday averaging 109.5 yards per game. He had 22 yards on 15 carries against ISU.
Asked about his team’s pass defense Saturday in Charleston, Spack began with a sigh.
“Not quite there,” Spack said after EIU quarterback Connor Wolf passed for a school freshman record 411 yards and four touchdowns. That yardage was the most by any FCS quarterback this past weekend.
“It was pretty good in the first half. We got after the passer,” Spack said.
ISU pressured Wolf and sacked him twice in the first 30 minutes. Safety Jack Dwyer also grabbed an interception when the Redbirds flushed the EIU QB from the pocket.
The second half proved to be different.
“They started using seven-man protections and keeping those (backs) in (to block),” Spack said. “Last week, we found answers. This week, we did not.”
Wolf, making his first career start in place of injured redshirt sophomore Cole LaCrue, threw for 266 yards and three touchdowns on 32 second-half attempts.
Though ISU got pressure on the EIU quarterback, the Redbirds did not sack him after halftime.
“It’s a conditioning game when you get a game like that,” Spack said. “You get in tempo and you have to rush the passer. Guys are stepping on their tongue and you have to start rotating.
“A couple of times, we missed sacks. We fell off him or he got around or outside the pocket. Our interior integrity wasn’t the greatest. There’s a lot of things we need to work on on defense.”
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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