By Bryan Bloodworth
NORMAL – Illinois State football coach Brock Spack’s message was clear and to the point Wednesday at the team’s annual media day festivities at Hancock Stadium.
“The team is the strength of our team,” said Spack, whose team is ranked 10th in the preseason national rankings and looks to advance to the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs for the fourth time in five years and third straight for the first time in program history.
“What I like about our team is they’re very workman-like. They love football. We have very good leadership amongst our team, through the positions, through the age groups. Their work ethic has been really good.”
ISU returns 15 starters – nine on offense and six on defense – from last season’s 10-3 team that advanced to the quarterfinal round of the playoffs. The Redbirds also shared the Missouri Valley Conference championship for the second straight year with five-time defending national champion North Dakota State.
“We’re in a good place, but we have some question marks out there,” said Spack, whose team began practice Sunday for the Sept. 3 opener against Valparaiso at 6 p.m. “We need to develop depth on defense.
“We’re still kind of curious, who our depth guys will be at linebacker and maybe a little bit in our front seven. We feel like we have eight guys in our secondary who are pretty solid.”
All-conference performers Pat Meehan and Alex Donnelly, two of the team’s top three tacklers, are gone at linebacker, but returning starter Alejandro Rivera and often-used reserve Brent Spack are being counted on to pick up the slack.
Both are seniors and Rivera was the team’s No. 2 tackler last year from his outside linebacker spot. Spack, the coach’s son, has served as the back-up to Meehan the last two years.
Rivera said summer workouts went well and theme was consistent.
“(The message was) be cohesive as a group,” added Rivera. “It’s important that everybody is on the same page; has the same mentality; and same kind of goals to get to at the end of the year. I think that’s important and this summer that’s what they drove into us, kind of working as a team.”
A pair of redshirt freshmen in Josh Sromovsky and Decxavier Kelly-Martin, along with University of Illinois transfer B.J. Bello, will battle for the other starting outside linebacker spot.
The defensive front must make up for the loss of ends Teddy Corwin and David Perkins, but have ample players, who saw considerable action as starters or back-ups, to help fill the void. The group is led by junior honorable mention all-league performer Dalton Keene. He was second on the team with 10 tackles for loss and five sacks from his nose guard position.
Junior end Adam Conley returns after starting 11 games a year ago in place of the injured Corwin. Fellow junior Matt McCown, a part-time starter last year, is back at tackle, but is out for six weeks with a broken foot. Sophomores Brannon Berry, Donavin O’Day and James Graham, along with tackles Blake Hooper and Nathan Iliollo, saw action last year and will add depth in the front line.
“We’ll be playing multiple guys in the front seven,” said Spack, who has a 56-29 record in seven seasons as coach and whose team has a 23-5 record the past two years. “We like our front seven. We’re pretty salty up there.”
The secondary will be led by junior preseason all-conference pick Alec Kocur at strong safety. He ranked fourth on the team in tackles and led the squad with three interceptions despite missing the last four games because of injury.
Sophomore Luther Kirk will serve as Kocur’s back-up, but could move into a starting role at free safety. Redshirt sophomore Mitchell Brees, who spent time as a wide receiver and safety his first two seasons, has been permanently moved to free safety and is slated to start ahead of Jeremy Bivens.
Junior Davontae Harris returns at cornerback after ranking fifth on the team in tackles a year ago with La’Darius Newbold manning the other corner after seeing considerable action last year in a reserve role. Junior DraShane Glass and redshirt freshman Willie Edwards should also see plenty of playing time as reserves.
Unlike last season when the special teams had to replace nearly all its kickers, punters and return men, the group returns in tact this year, led by junior place-kicker Sean Slattery and Australian-born senior punter Reece Attard.
Slattery made 10 of 18 field goal attempts and 52 of 54 extra point kicks while handling all the kickoff duties. Attard averaged 38.6 yards per punt. The trio of Ilollo, McCown and Seth Combs will battle for long and short snapping duties where all saw action a year ago.
Anthony Warrum is back as the primary punt returner along with Spencer Schnell while George Moreira and Jamal Towns return to handle kick-off return duties.
The Redbirds play 11 straight games without a bye week, something they haven’t done in awhile.
“It’s going to be a grinding season,” said Spack. “We have to make sure we get our team ready from that standpoint. It’s a good schedule. You like to have a bye between your non-conference and conference season, but sometimes when you’re playing well you want to keep playing. Our depth is a little better than it’s been, so hopefully that won’t be a factor.”
TOMORROW: A look at the ISU offense.
Bryan Bloodworth can be reached at http://[email protected]
