Six months after Illinois State University’s gut-wrenching overtime loss in the Football Championship Subdivision title game, Redbird coach Brock Spack was finally in the mood to sit down and watch the recording of the game that he at times painfully lived through from the sideline.
Spack said he counted about 30 plays that could have gone the Redbirds way and likely would have made the difference in what became a 35-34 loss to Montana State at FirstBank Stadium in Nashville.
“If we just make one of those plays, we [would be] national champions,” Spack said in an interview on WGLT’s Sound Ideas. “This team knows they could have and maybe should have — I don’t know if that’s word I should use — but we had our opportunities to win the title game.”
As the Redbirds start fall camp hoping to make another run at a national championship, Spack said that Jan. 5 game serves as a reminder that so many little things can make the difference.
“This is where you get your split seconds and inches to win big games or championship games, and that’s where you have to keep digging to find just that little bit extra that it takes to win,” Spack said as he begins his 18th season on the Redbird sidelines. He’s the winningest coach in program history with 123 wins and 79 losses.
The Redbirds, who finished 12-5 last season after a postseason run that included an unprecedented four consecutive road playoff wins, open the 2026 season Aug. 29 hosting Saint Francis [Ill.] at Hancock Stadium.
With nine returning starters, Spack said he feels more excitement from the team than he did last season, with their recent success fueling anticipation and expectation.
“This team has been together a little bit longer now,” Spack said. “Now they are excited. I think they have a lot of us thinking they could win a national championship.”
Coach and GM
As many high-profile college teams hire general managers to navigate the transfer portal and Name Image and Likeness [NIL] contracts with student athletes, Spack said he effectively serves as the football team’s general manager, making final decisions on player personnel based partly on how much money the athletic department can raise.
“We have money budgeted for certain positions. We’re just like the NFL,” Spack said. Spack said he spent a lot of time during the abbreviated off-season working the portal to replace those who graduated or otherwise left the program after last year.
“I’m just grateful we don’t have as many guys [leaving] as other [programs] do,” Spack said, making clear he’s not a fan of the new state of college sports where every student athlete is a free agent. “We’re either going to live with it or get out of it. We want to stay in it and keep getting after it and win a national title."
Retirement? Don’t even think about it
Spack said he never considered retiring, even had the Redbirds won the national title last year.
Spack, who turned 64 the day of the championship game, said he still has a lot he wants to accomplish, including helping to improve the football program's facilities to compete with other top schools.
“There’s a lot of things we can get done here. I think I need to be around to help facilitate. I don’t think there’s any secret that we are trying to build an end zone facility here. That has to get done,” Spack said, adding the football program has outgrown much of its facilities, including its weight training facilities and the locker room, athletic training room and media room at the Kaufman Football Building.
He said weight room facilities are cramped for a team of more than 100 players that also shares space with other athletic teams.
Spack said he’s been working with Paul Kabbes, ISU’s deputy director of athletics, to raise money for facility upgrades.
“I’m impressed by the attention [it] is has gotten,” Spack said.
Quarterback competition
ISU has five quarterbacks in camp, all seeking to replace Tommy Rittenhouse, a three-year starter who threw a school single-season record 40 touchdown passes last season in leading ISU to a 9-0 road record against FCS opponents.
Spack called it one of the best quarterback rooms he’s had at ISU. He listed three top contenders: Beckham Pellant, a redshirt sophomore who backed up Rittenhouse last season; Gage Roy, a senior transfer from Southern Cal; and Chase Kwiatkowski, a redshirt freshman who Spack described as a “wildcard” for his size and athleticism.
New look for MVFC
The Missouri Valley Football Conference [MVFC] will have a much different look this season, as defending champion North Dakota State, winners of 10 FCS national titles since 2011, left for the Mountain West Conference of the Football Bowl Subdivision [FBS] after ISU upset them in the playoffs.
“I coached in the Mountain West. I don’t think this is the same Mountain West that I was in,” Spack said of his time coaching as defensive coordinator at Wyoming in 1995-96. “Maybe it is in certain respects and maybe it’s not. That’s just college football right now.”
ISU is picked to finish second in MVFC this season, behind South Dakota State, which comes to Normal on Oct. 3. Spack said NDSU’s exit leaves an opening in the conference and on the national stage.
“It obviously does. We won the last time, so I guess we’ll take the top spot for a while,” Spack said.
