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Illinois State Redbirds

S

Stonewall D

Graduate Assistant
Dec 18, 2008
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At home
It looks like the Spiders will be playing the ISU Redbirds at Normal, ILL, where they are located. What does anyone know about the Illinois State Redbirds? They finished #1 in the MVFC. They lost to Iowa and South Dakota State. It looks like they did not play NDSU. Their record is now 10-2. They have a monster tailback named Coprich, who has about 1,800 yards on the year.

http://goredbirds.com/schedule.aspx?path=football
 
they are the two seed in the playoffs and at home, a handful, a very tough game
 
They have the longest home winning streak in college football (maybe just FCS).

Apparently their star back was convicted of a felony and hasn't missed a down.
 
Just read about him. Plead guilty to drug charges and was reinstated to the team.
 
They played North Dakota State last year.
In the National Championship game.

They should show this team the game film from the Appy State game in 2008, when we badly beat the 3-time defending National Champion. And bring in Patrick Weldon for a little inspirational speech!
 
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Show them both 07 and 08. One year you don't contain the QB and he goes for 300+ rushing with 7 totals TDs. Next year you contain him and they score a mere 13 and lose by 20
 
Saw that the game will have to be either Friday night or Saturday night, as ISU has winter graduation ceremonies Saturday afternoon.
 
Stonewall D said:
Compare their attitude towards him with UR's approach in dealing with Jeremiah Hamlin. Hamlin was kicked off the team and out of school.
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Let's get it straight.Coprich sold 9 grams of Mary Jane to a police informant.Hamlin had 3 pounds of Mary Jane mailed to his post office box.Orders of magnitude difference.Nonsense comparison of 2 different acts of stupidity.
 
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Hamlins biggest mistake- It should have delivered UPS, not to the campus post office. If it has to be there overnight, send it by UPS. Three pounds of Mary Jane is a lot to entrust to the campus post office. My point really is that all teams have players who think they are invincible and will never get caught.
 
I'm thinking about heading out to Normal. Anyone else going? Would love to leave the place Abnormal Friday night.
 
Illinois State is all about the running game. It has two main weapons: Tre Roberson (a senior QB who transferred from Indiana) and Marshaun Coprich (a senior RB). Roberson was pretty much the reason they made it to the title game last year. Roberson hasn't throw it much this year in general -- his passing numbers are way down across the board from last year. I don't know if that's because they had better WRs last year or their running attack is just that much better this year. Coprich pled guilty to dealing drugs in May and then was allowed back on the team. Kind of eye-opening when you see what we did to Hamlin for something similar.

Anyway, we are usually pretty good are stopping the run when we need to, so I like this matchup. I doubt they've seen an offense like ours this year.

They missed ND State this year and only had to play Western Illinois (beat them twice, including yesterday), SD State (lost by 5 on the road) and UNI (beat them by 8 at home). Definitely a good team, but so are we.
 
Checked out their board. They're more concerned about out drawing NDSU in the next round than dealing with the Spiders. They think they will dispatch us with little trouble.
 
Do they run a spread offense? They have 1 receiver with 49 catches, the RB is second at 15 catches in 12 games.
 
32counter said:
Let's get it straight.Coprich sold 9 grams of Mary Jane to a police informant.Hamlin had 3 pounds of Mary Jane mailed to his post office box.Orders of magnitude difference.Nonsense comparison of 2 different acts of stupidity.
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Correct. One pled guilty to a felony, had his suspension lifted and never missed a down. One was kicked off the team and out of school before formal charges. Nonsense comparison.
 
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Stonewall D said:
Hamlins biggest mistake- It should have delivered UPS, not to the campus post office. If it has to be there overnight, send it by UPS. Three pounds of Mary Jane is a lot to entrust to the campus post office. My point really is that all teams have players who think they are invincible and will never get caught.
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Some of these readings are from Mars or even another outer galaxy.
 
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Hello Spider fans.

Illinois State is led by the "two" headed monster of Coprich and Roberson. Anthony Warrum our leading receiver can be considered our third key player, beyond that were very much a "next guy up" team on OFF.

We've been injury riddled this season, besides being young at WR. We had a transfer from Cinncinati who tore his ACL in the summer. Warrum has blossomed. John Marc-Anderson a Sophomore has been banged up most of the year with a shin injury. Christian Gibbs another Soph. had a shoulder injury and missed several games. Backup TE Brandon Berry was converted to DE to spell injuries to our Pre-Season All-American Teddy Corwin.

Despite what many on AGS will have you believe, we have a number of transfers from the FBS level, the only starters are David Perkins DE (Ohio St), and Tre Roberson QB (Indiana). Our team is very much grown and developed through recruiting but AGS will have you believe we fill every position with transfers.

Coprich as mentioned did get caught selling. Stupid mistake. Many of our fans would have liked to see some form of punishment, but we're not the administration. Aside from this stupid mistake, he is a good kid. Never been in trouble in his life. He pleaded down because Illinois was on the verge of opening legal marijuana dispensaries and what's the point of adding one more person to the system. He lost half his scholarship, his captaincy, and his punishment was handled internally.....whatever that means. He got married over the summer and his wife moved to IL from California where he's from. I don't pretend to know his story, but I think the kid was trying to find a way to support her and the move on a college kids scholarship.

DEF, we're not as good as last year. Injuries to Corwin impacted our pass rush. The DE transfer from Iowa was dismissed for poor attitude. The DEF CB's from Oregon and Texas Texas are backups. The transfer from Wyoming left for personal reasons. 10/11 are HS recruits. We have a bend but don't break mentality, but we find a way when needed.

Weather for Friday is supposed to be 58 and unseasonable warm. Anyone coming down, let me know and I can suggest some good places to eat.
 
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Realbird2 said:
Hello Spider fans.

Illinois State is led by the "two" headed monster of Coprich and Roberson. Anthony Warrum our leading receiver can be considered our third key player, beyond that were very much a "next guy up" team on OFF.

We've been injury riddled this season, besides being young at WR. We had a transfer from Cinncinati who tore his ACL in the summer. Warrum has blossomed. John Marc-Anderson a Sophomore has been banged up most of the year with a shin injury. Christian Gibbs another Soph. had a shoulder injury and missed several games. Backup TE Brandon Berry was converted to DE to spell injuries to our Pre-Season All-American Teddy Corwin.

Despite what many on AGS will have you believe, we have a number of transfers from the FBS level, the only starters are David Perkins DE (Ohio St), and Tre Roberson QB (Indiana). Our team is very much grown and developed through recruiting but AGS will have you believe we fill every position with transfers.

Coprich as mentioned did get caught selling. Stupid mistake. Many of our fans would have liked to see some form of punishment, but we're not the administration. Aside from this stupid mistake, he is a good kid. Never been in trouble in his life. He pleaded down because Illinois was on the verge of opening legal marijuana dispensaries and what's the point of adding one more person to the system. He lost half his scholarship, his captaincy, and his punishment was handled internally.....whatever that means. He got married over the summer and his wife moved to IL from California where he's from. I don't pretend to know his story, but I think the kid was trying to find a way to support her and the move on a college kids scholarship.

DEF, we're not as good as last year. Injuries to Corwin impacted our pass rush. The DE transfer from Iowa was dismissed for poor attitude. The DEF CB's from Oregon and Texas Texas are backups. The transfer from Wyoming left for personal reasons. 10/11 are HS recruits. We have a bend but don't break mentality, but we find a way when needed.

Weather for Friday is supposed to be 58 and unseasonable warm. Anyone coming dow, let me know and I can suggest some good places to eat.
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Thanks. We will try to post some thoughts over on the Red Bird post.
 
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The other thing that worried me from this weekend is that Western Illinois rushed for 24 times for 18 yards. It looks like Illinois State allows 121 rushing yards per game. So hope the WIU stat says more about them than ISU.
 
urmite said:
The other thing that worried me from this weekend is that Western Illinois rushed for 24 times for 18 yards. It looks like Illinois State allows 121 rushing yards per game. So hope the WIU stat says more about them than ISU.
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WIU has a huge running back Niko Watson. Big guy only built to go North and South. Once we took him out the game (in both wins), it made WIU pretty one dimensional.

We're missing our starting Safety Alex Kocour who leads the team in tackles. We're soft in the secondary, bend but don't break. But we seem to rise to the occasion when we need key sacks or a key stop.
 
urmite said:
The other thing that worried me from this weekend is that Western Illinois rushed for 24 times for 18 yards. It looks like Illinois State allows 121 rushing yards per game. So hope the WIU stat says more about them than ISU.
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I also noticed this. And as the Redbird fan says, the WIU running back was an enormous, straight ahead runner.

ISU looks very sturdy up front on D but they may not be supremely athletic. I would expect us to find some ways to get Jacobi in space against their linebackers because we might have all real advantage there.
 
Western Illinois was winning until late in the third quarter. They looked to get run down in the fourth and the Illinois St running attack took off. We need to stack the box and make them throw the ball to beat us. Roberson looks like a great athlete but had little accuracy throwing the ball. This was obviously only one game but I think we will come up with a good game plan to slow them down.
 
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Wilk, you saw the game much the same way I did. I think we may match up with ISU well
 
at this point, every team remaining is a good football team. we have a very short week and have to hit the road so advantage birds but am sure we will come to play just at they will. will come down to the trenches and who wins that battle will probably win, discounting turnovers which is a wild card.
 
WebSpinner said:
at this point, every team remaining is a good football team. we have a very short week and have to hit the road so advantage birds but am sure we will come to play just at they will. will come down to the trenches and who wins that battle will probably win, discounting turnovers which is a wild card.
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They have a 2 hour shorter week than we do. :D
 
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URWilk110 said:
Western Illinois was winning until late in the third quarter. They looked to get run down in the fourth and the Illinois St running attack took off. We need to stack the box and make them throw the ball to beat us. Roberson looks like a great athlete but had little accuracy throwing the ball. This was obviously only one game but I think we will come up with a good game plan to slow them down.
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Thought I would shed some light on Roberson. He broke his hand earlier in the season and played with a brace on his throwing hand up until last weeks game. This is why his stats are skewed from last year He was definitely struggling with his throws. He got better in the 4th quarter so who knows what we will get this week but I would expect significant improvement now that he has a game under his belt without the brace.
 
MPE - was Warrum banged up this year? It looks like he missed two games and had no catches in another.

From looking at some of the box scores, they really don't throw the ball when they don't have to. When they do it is going to Warrum. From watching the last game he seems like one of those guys that you might underestimate at first glance but he just makes plays. We will most likely have to punt away from him as he is their punt returner as well.
 
Great question URWilk.

Warrum is a stud. I think his lack of receptions for a couple of games were more due to Trey Roberson's hand injury than Warrum being banged up. When the running game is working, there is little need to push it and both Tre and Coprich can take over a game with their legs.

We lost a WR and TE to the NFL after last season, both on active rosters (Meredith Bears, O'Shaughnessy Chiefs IR) so Warrum stepped up big time. Unfortunately, our two other "good" receivers were injured for most of the the season (Jon Marc Anderson and Christian Gibbs). They are both back now and working their way into the rotation.

Warrum is definitely someone who wouldn't intimidate you by looking at him, but he is super fast and runs great routes. I think he was one of the top 5 receivers in FCS before his two "down games."

ISU is as healthy right now as we have been all year. We have the longest home winning streak in FCS, 2nd in all of D1 (19 games) and haven't lost at home in 3 seasons. We sold out our first 4 games, but our fans seem to disappear when winter comes around. I have no idea why.

This should be a great game. If I wasn't going to Vegas for work, I would drive down from Chicago for this one for sure. Friday Night Lights BABY!!!!

If anyone is coming in from Richmond, definitely stay in Uptown Normal at the Marriott or Hyatt Place. It's right off campus near bars and restaurants and a short walk to Hancock Stadium. Hit me up if you want restaurant recommendations.
 
32counter said:
Let's get it straight.Coprich sold 9 grams of Mary Jane to a police informant.Hamlin had 3 pounds of Mary Jane mailed to his post office box.Orders of magnitude difference.Nonsense comparison of 2 different acts of stupidity.
Click to expand...
I believe they are both felonies, correct?
 
The Coprich thing is a head scratcher and topic of debate on our board. All I know is that many people close to the program said it was a raw deal, guilty by association or something along those lines. I do know our Oregon S/LB transfer who started every game last year was dismissed around the same time. Some people are putting 2 and 2 together there. Our beat writer was pretty skeptical about the whole deal, but tweeted after he found out the details that he is comfortable with way it was handled whatever that means.

There are certainly worse people on football teams IMO. From what I understand, Coprich is a really good kid. Squeaky clean record up until this incident. I think he learned his lesson and realizes what he almost lost. Hopefully that is the case.
 
MPE, thanks for the informative posts. Roberson and Copich are the real deal. I saw some of the second half of the WIU game last week and was impressed with both. Question for you. Would you consider the offensive and defensive lines strengths of your Redbirds? The Spider offensive line is outstanding and capable of dominating games (like the past 2 against Willliam and Mary. I would also add that our defensive line has played well of late, particularly the interior of the line. Again, thanks for the info on the Redbirds.
 
I would expect Trott to make sure Ayo is on Warrum most of game. Normally corners play sides but I could definitely see us shift because they have 1 big receiver.

Kind of like the guy Elon had in 2009. Huggins I think. One stud, no one else stands out.

But agree, we should shade David Jones to his side
 
Mpe773, thanks for insight. Nice to get some true color. Tell us the truth, while Vegas are you gonna take the spiders+13?
 
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