Prairie State Pigskin articles

[Virginia Redbird]

I found these articles at the Prairie State Pigskin site. The first is a pretty good summary of the Redbirds offensive struggles. The most interesting quote from Coach Spack I thought was, "We are light years away from being able to throw the football the way you should in Division I football.” He goes on to talk about the portal but he did not discuss the coaching staff in regards to changes at all. Probably not surprising he would not put that out publicly even if changes are in the mix. The other interesting fact was Austin Nagel being the top Redbird Receiver with 19 for the season. The last time a Redbird leading receiver had less than 20 catches in a season was 1975!

3 things we learned: Offensive funk proves costly as Redbirds stumble to 4-7 finish

Illinois State defensive tackle Jacob Powell (96) collected a career-best 2.5 tackles for loss in the Redbirds’ season-ending loss to Indiana State. (Photo by GoRedbirds.com) It took 71 seconds for the Illinois State offense to put the Redbirds in control Saturday in the team’s regular-season...

www.chicagonow.com

The other article of interest I thought was Eastern Illinois dismissing 5 offensive coaches due to poor offensive performance. You can add faster and more talented players but if your coaching staff is not solid it will not make all that much of a difference. We are watching for what moves Coach Spack is going to make to fix the offense. If he believes they are "light years away" and keeps the same staff in place I don't see the gap closing much.

Offensive struggles lead Eastern to dismiss 5 coaches

Amid the team’s offensive struggles, Eastern Illinois head coach Adam Cushing has let five offensive coaches go, according to an EIU source. (Photo by Barry Bottino, Prairie State Pigskin) Changes to the Eastern Illinois offense were certain to come after the Panthers ranked 116th in the nation...

www.chicagonow.com

 

[Angrybird]

I found these articles at the Prairie State Pigskin site. The first is a pretty good summary of the Redbirds offensive struggles. The most interesting quote from Coach Spack I thought was, "We are light years away from being able to throw the football the way you should in Division I football.” He goes on to talk about the portal but he did not discuss the coaching staff in regards to changes at all. Probably not surprising he would not put that out publicly even if changes are in the mix. The other interesting fact was Austin Nagel being the top Redbird Receiver with 19 for the season. The last time a Redbird leading receiver had less than 20 catches in a season was 1975!

3 things we learned: Offensive funk proves costly as Redbirds stumble to 4-7 finish

Illinois State defensive tackle Jacob Powell (96) collected a career-best 2.5 tackles for loss in the Redbirds’ season-ending loss to Indiana State. (Photo by GoRedbirds.com) It took 71 seconds for the Illinois State offense to put the Redbirds in control Saturday in the team’s regular-season...

www.chicagonow.com

The other article of interest I thought was Eastern Illinois dismissing 5 offensive coaches due to poor offensive performance. You can add faster and more talented players but if your coaching staff is not solid it will not make all that much of a difference. We are watching for what moves Coach Spack is going to make to fix the offense. If he believes they are "light years away" and keeps the same staff in place I don't see the gap closing much.

Offensive struggles lead Eastern to dismiss 5 coaches

Amid the team’s offensive struggles, Eastern Illinois head coach Adam Cushing has let five offensive coaches go, according to an EIU source. (Photo by Barry Bottino, Prairie State Pigskin) Changes to the Eastern Illinois offense were certain to come after the Panthers ranked 116th in the nation...

www.chicagonow.com

I find it interesting how the head coach goes from praising both QBs at different points in the season, to making comments like this. Seems as if the leader of our program likes to deflect and place blame everywhere but with himself. At some point as a leader you have to step up and take some accountability. The QBs are the QBs you recruited, they are the players you wanted. Look at your staff and figure out why you cannot develop them, and get them to take the next step or make that big jump to becoming an ELITE FCS QB. Too many times he has come up with excuses and essentially thrown the players under the bus. The old article of players speaking out starts to make more sense, when you see comments like this. Most kids probably dont want to play for this man. I would not be surprised if they have to rebuild their entire QB room after this.

 

[MadBird]

I found these articles at the Prairie State Pigskin site. The first is a pretty good summary of the Redbirds offensive struggles. The most interesting quote from Coach Spack I thought was, "We are light years away from being able to throw the football the way you should in Division I football.” He goes on to talk about the portal but he did not discuss the coaching staff in regards to changes at all. Probably not surprising he would not put that out publicly even if changes are in the mix. The other interesting fact was Austin Nagel being the top Redbird Receiver with 19 for the season. The last time a Redbird leading receiver had less than 20 catches in a season was 1975!

3 things we learned: Offensive funk proves costly as Redbirds stumble to 4-7 finish

Illinois State defensive tackle Jacob Powell (96) collected a career-best 2.5 tackles for loss in the Redbirds’ season-ending loss to Indiana State. (Photo by GoRedbirds.com) It took 71 seconds for the Illinois State offense to put the Redbirds in control Saturday in the team’s regular-season...

www.chicagonow.com

The other article of interest I thought was Eastern Illinois dismissing 5 offensive coaches due to poor offensive performance. You can add faster and more talented players but if your coaching staff is not solid it will not make all that much of a difference. We are watching for what moves Coach Spack is going to make to fix the offense. If he believes they are "light years away" and keeps the same staff in place I don't see the gap closing much.

Offensive struggles lead Eastern to dismiss 5 coaches

Amid the team’s offensive struggles, Eastern Illinois head coach Adam Cushing has let five offensive coaches go, according to an EIU source. (Photo by Barry Bottino, Prairie State Pigskin) Changes to the Eastern Illinois offense were certain to come after the Panthers ranked 116th in the nation...

www.chicagonow.com

I suggest everyone read the Prairie State Pigskin site regularly. They do a decent job not only on ISU but also WIU and SIU in the conference and our "regular" rival EIU. Sometimes there's info you've gotten before from the Pantagraph or press conferences, but often some good insight and analysis.

Plus Dan Verdun from Prairie State Pigskin is the author of a very decent book on ISU football, called, oddly enough, "ISU Football". Check it out!

I've thought Coach Spack has been pretty consistent throughout the season on the offense and QB's in particular - improvement is needed. The QB's have been inconsistent, so it's easy to see how you could compliment them one week and not so much the next. I've heard him say the "royal we" many times too - he shares the blame, says "we" have to improve, "we" have to get better at this, I've heard him say "this is on me" more than once, etc. And people harp on accountability, that goes to the players too - if a QB makes a dumb play, it's not really throwing him under the bus for Spack to point out "we can't make that throw", "that was a freshman mistake" or whatever.

BUT - Virginia Redbird is right on. Seems like a shake up is in order. Now, just like young players maturing, you could figger young coaches will/should mature and improve and learn from their experiences, etc. So, I could see how Spack, working with our offensive coaches every day, guys he hired, could come to the conclusion that no changes are needed and things will get better. I hope that's not the case. I'd like to see a strong experienced OC come on board - they could keep the current guys as position coaches - and lead this offense to a better place. But especially at QB and WR, sure hard to see how those kids have improved much under our current position coaches.