At his introductory news conference in December 2008, Brock Spack leaned into a microphone and told those gathered at the Kaufman Football Building, “I always thought of Illinois State as a sleeping giant. I think it’s time to wake this giant up.”
The “giant” had been dozing for a while. Of ISU’s previous seven head coaches, none had a winning record. The closest was Todd Berry, who broke even from 1996-99 (24-24).
You had to go back to Edwin Struck, whose final Redbird game came in 1964, to find an ISU coach with a winning tenure (86-78-14 in 20 seasons).
Spack saw potential anyway. Fifteen years and 100 wins later, he’s seen it play out. No. 100 came Saturday for the winningest coach in school history — a 36-35 Missouri Valley Conference victory at Missouri State, lifting Spack’s career record to 100-69.
Highlights include Missouri Valley championships in 2014 and 2015, with the 2014 squad reaching the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) national championship game. In two other seasons, the Redbirds had a chance to win or share the league title in the final game.
“I think we’ve had some really wonderful times here,” Spack said Tuesday in his office. “Like any time in sports, you’re going to have disappointments. But we’ve had a lot of great wins.
“There have been a lot of great things happen. It takes a lot of people to buy into one man’s vision of what it should be like. Sometimes it’s hard to explain it to people and communicate what you exactly want. But I’ve had a lot of help.”
The former Purdue linebacker and defensive coordinator cited the athletic administrators and university presidents he has coached under, the colleges he’s worked with on campus, the fan base, booster club and community at-large as contributing to the success.
Also …
“A lot of good coaches, a lot of good support staff,” Spack said. “But more importantly, we’ve had a lot of really good players, a lot of great players. You don’t do it without good players.
“It takes a community to do this and I think they know how to do it now. I think one thing I can say when I leave here is, ‘You know the equation. You should be able to understand how it’s done.’”
He called the job “a labor of love,” but the parameters differ from when Spack arrived. The NCAA transfer portal and Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) deals have dramatically increased player movement. There also have been upgrades in ISU’s facilities during Spack’s tenure.
He spoke about those things, as well as his coaching future and the return of the Illinois High School Association state championship games to Hancock Stadium, in a wide-ranging interview.
Transfer portal
Spack was able to land some good junior college players early in his tenure, but it was a challenge to “get the guys we really needed,” he said.
“If they were really talented, the big guys (FBS/Power Five conference schools) grabbed them,” he said. “If they were talented and had grades, the high-end academic people grabbed them. So we were stuck with some guys who we wouldn’t want to take, so we didn’t. We did luck out and got a few good ones.”
With his Big Ten Conference background as a player and coach, Spack turned to that league as a source of talent. At the time, players at the Power Five level had to sit out a year if they transferred to a Power Five school. If they transferred to an FCS school, such as ISU, they could play immediately.
“I said, ‘I’m going to use the Big Ten as our junior college,’” Spack said. “Guys who want to leave want to play, right? So we got some really good players there. Tre Roberson comes to mind, Nate Palmer, a lot of good players. Shelby Harris … BJ Bello. But now, it’s different. We’re not getting those guys anymore.”
The portal allows players at all levels to transfer without sitting out, eliminating the advantage FCS schools enjoyed. Spack speculated a player like Roberson, the Indiana transfer who was the star quarterback on ISU’s 2014 and 2015 Missouri Valley champs, “is going to be hard to come through that door again. He can play at the same level and not sit out.”
“We’re all forced to play in the portal because the portal taketh away,” Spack said. “Our guys will leave, so we need a guy, and to replace him with a high school player, you have to understand you have to wait a couple of years for him to develop. We kind of had a corner of the market for a long time, but that went away when the portal came.”
One byproduct has been having a better shot at junior college players. The portal is for four-year players, so “two-year guys,” as Spack called them, are viable recruiting targets.
“We can find a pretty good player who we can get to at least visit,” he said. “Back then (pre-portal), we couldn’t do that.”
NIL
College athletes can be paid handsomely through Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) deals, creating a decided advantage for schools with deep pockets. It makes it difficult for schools such as ISU to retain their best players.
“If you told me we would be paying players … you can spin it any way you want, but we’re buying players,” Spack said. “Not saying we are all the time, but I know my friends in Power Five … Power Five is ridiculous.
“The days of out-recruiting and out-hustling people in recruiting are over. Now it’s, ‘How much money’s in it for me?’ That’s disappointing to some extent, because I think college football has lost its collegiality a little bit. I get it. I don’t know what the answer would have been. I’m one who’s, ‘Don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions.’ I’m saying this is a problem and I don’t have a solution.”
Spack called it “a whole different era” that bears little resemblance to “what I was brought up in.”
“Everything we do now, we would go to NCAA jail for just five years ago,” he said. “You could lose your job, you could never coach again. Now, you can buy a player because you’ve got the money. All it takes is money.
“You have to live with it or you have to get out, so we live with it. We try to find better ways of doing it.”
Facilities
When Spack took over, Hancock Stadium still had small, aging bleachers on its east side. The stadium was in desperate need of an upgrade. It came in the form of a $26 million renovation completed in 2013. A new east side with expanded seating, press box, luxury suites, concessions and the Aaron Leetch Stadium Club has been a win for fans and for Spack in recruiting.
Another major upgrade has been the indoor practice facility that opened this year just north of Horton Field House.
“You look around at the facilities the way they are now compared to when I first came here, it’s tremendous,” Spack said. “We’ve made a tremendous commitment. I know some people would have loved to see it happen earlier, but it happened. We got it done. That’s been awesome.”
Spack said the stadium renovation was on the radar when he was hired. Then-athletic director Sheahon Zenger talked about it during the interview process.
“I think we may have helped by winning some games. That always helps obviously,” Spack said. “What’s ironic is the team that went to the national finals, that team was recruited in the old stadium.
“I told some people, ‘You know, our friends (in the Valley) are going to come in here and they’ll say, ‘OK, we’re just going to build one bigger.’ And that’s exactly what (defending FCS champion) South Dakota State did. They have 24 suites and it’s gorgeous. That place has changed dramatically since I came here.”
IHSA state finals
ISU hosted the Illinois High School Association state championship games from 1974-98, but stopped in 1999 so Hancock Stadium could be available for potential FCS home playoff games. The state finals moved to Champaign and DeKalb.
“I couldn’t believe the state finals weren’t here anymore,” said Spack, a Rockford native. “I get it. I understand why. But when Sheahon was here, I said, ‘We have to get these back.’ Once you lose those things, sometimes you never get them back.
“I think it was palatable throughout the state, from high school coaches to fans, you name it, that they wanted them to come back here because this is where the finals always were.”
The IHSA announced in December of last year the title games would return to Hancock Stadium beginning this year. The five-year agreement came after Spack assured the IHSA he would gladly play a road playoff game to make Hancock Stadium available.
“This is a great venue to play high school football for a final. I’ve been working on that for 14 years,” Spack said. “The financial windfall our community will get from this … we’ll have 16 fan bases here, 16 high school enrollments here.
“And who knows, there might be a kid who comes up with a cure for cancer who is sitting in the stands and their team had a great experience and he or she remembers coming to the state finals and they end up going to Illinois State University. You never know how it all works. You can’t pay for that kind of advertising. It was a no-brainer. Why would you not want that?”
Coaching future
The 61-year-old Spack said he has no crystal ball in regard to how long he will coach.
“It’s kind of how I am … just all of a sudden, I’m done,” he said. “When I come to that decision, I’ll just step away. I don’t know yet. We’ll see. No one will know until I tell them. I’ll just say, ‘Hey, I’m done.’”
Asked if his job is still fun, Spack replied, “Some days are more fun than others.”
“I’ve coached and played football because I really love it,” he said. “I’ll always love the sport. It’s just the other stuff that’s kind of making it difficult, you know? It’s different.
“But sometimes it’s just time. You don’t want to outstay your welcome. Sometimes it’s time for someone else to do it … a new voice. I don’t want to be a burden. I always want to be a plus and not a minus. I’ll try to avoid that if I can.”
