By Bryan Bloodworth
NORMAL – Illinois State football coach Brock Spack got what he expected Sunday when the Redbirds returned to practice after having a seven-game winning streak snapped the day before at South Dakota State.
“I thought we had a very good practice on Sunday,” said Spack following a 25-20 Missouri Valley Conference loss against the Jackrabbits to drop their overall record to 7-2 and their league mark to 5-1.
“We were very focused,” he added Tuesday at his weekly news conference. “I was pleased with that, but I wouldn’t expect anything less from this group. I was happy with how we approached things on Sunday.”
The No. 6 nationally ranked Redbirds turn their attention to Southern Illinois this week as the two Valley teams meet at 2 p.m. Saturday in Carbondale. ISU needs a win to stay atop the league standings with North Dakota State.
Southern Illinois has a deceiving 3-6 overall record and a 2-4 conference mark. The Salukis have lost six of their eight games by six points or less and five by three points or fewer. SIU’s six losses are by a total of 17 points.
The Salukis employ a no-huddle, fast-tempo offense that is led by senior quarterback Mark Iannotti, who leads the league in total offense with an average of 341.3 yards in conference play. He has 2,048 yards with 1,689 passing and 359 rushing.
“He’s a good athlete,” said Spack. “He’s a big, strong guy – a little different runner than (Tre) Roberson is for us. Roberson is probably a little quicker. Tre probably has better top-end speed, but this guy is not slow by any stretch of the imagination. He has good size. He’s built like a linebacker.
“They run it well. I like their running game a lot. They’re pretty balanced. They have explosive plays, but they’ve been pretty consistent with driving the football, keeping the chains moving.
“The runs are efficient runs and throws are very efficient throws. They’re going to take what you give them, a little different than maybe some of the teams we’ve seen. Their (no-huddle) offense forces you to be, I won’t say vanilla, but it forces you to be a little bit more basic in your approach. It’s hard to substitute when it’s really fast and up-tempo.”
Southern Illinois has won six of the last eight meetings between the teams and Spack has a 2-4 overall record against the Salukis.
Bryan Bloodworth can be reached at [email protected]
