Brock Spack said he doesn’t mind a road trip.
The veteran Illinois State University football coach knew his Redbird football team was going to have to travel in the first round of the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision [FCS] playoffs.
That’s because ISU’s Hancock Stadium secured the Illinois High School Association football finals for each Thanksgiving weekend starting last year. Those eight state title games create a showcase event Spack lobbied for the university to pursue — decades after ISU surrendered the games to avoid potential playoff conflicts.
“It’s great for our community. You can’t pay for that advertisement,” Spack said after he watched the playoff pairings being announced Sunday with his team at the Aaron Leetch Stadium Club at Hancock Stadium.
Despite receiving the No. 12 seed in the postseason, the Redbirds (9-3) will travel to unseeded Southeast Missouri State [SEMO], the winner of the Big South-Ohio Valley Conference, in the opening round at 11 a.m. Saturday in Cape Girardeau.
“That’s no big deal for us. It’s fun to go on the road and play. We could care less about all that stuff to be honest with you,” Spack said.
ISU’s berth in the 24-team field marks the program’s first postseason appearance since 2019, when the Redbirds defeated SEMO in the opening round. The winner of Saturday’s game would travel to play at No. 5 seed California-Davis in the round of 16 the following weekend.
Road success
Spack has good reason to welcome the out-of-town trip next weekend: The Redbirds have won five straight road games after a season-opening loss to Football Bowl Subdivision foe Iowa.
The Redbirds put themselves in position for a postseason berth by winning their last five games.
Spack said a bye week in late October came at a critical time for his team to get healthy in time for a late-season surge.
“The bye week changed us,” said Spack, noting that quarterback Tommy Rittenhouse was nursing an injury that likely would have rendered him unable to play that week.
Rittenhouse, a junior who passed for 2,330 yards and 14 touchdowns in his first season as ISU’s full-time starting quarterback, said the late October break helped the Redbirds “reset our jaws” for the final four games of the season.
“Felt great coming out of the bye week. It felt good to get on a roll at the end of the season and heading into the postseason,” Rittenhouse said.
The Redbirds closed out the regular season on Saturday with their fifth straight win, a 35-13 victory, over North Dakota.
One of Rittenhouse’s top targets, junior receiver Xavier Loyd, called it a “true blessing” to earn a postseason bid.
“When we got down, we picked each other up and when we were up high, we kept each other high,” Loyd said in explaining the team’s success. “Just coming in as one and helping each other out top to bottom.”
Loyd, who has caught 60 passes and scored five touchdowns this season, transferred to ISU after playing at Kansas State last season.
Thanksgiving week
The football team will be making postseason preparations during Thanksgiving week, making for a chaotic few days usually reserved for family time.
Senior defensive back Keondre Jackson from Freeport said the football team is an extended family and they won’t miss out on Thanksgiving dinner.
“We all family here,” Jackson said. “As long as we can play football on Thanksgiving, that’s the best combination you can get as a football player.”
This marks the Redbirds’ sixth postseason appearance for Spack, the winningest coach in ISU football history (110-73 in 16 seasons).
