Another weekend means another week of Murray State football, but this week is a little different. This weekend is Homecoming on the campus of Murray State and lots of people are going to enjoy a beautiful fall day at Roy Stewart Stadium watching the Racers play.
The Racers have struggled to get things going this season as they go through a gauntlet of a schedule, which has seen them play the likes of Mizzou, North Dakota and South Dakota. The gauntlet doesn’t end as Murray State hosts the 21st ranked team in FCS as their homecoming opponent, the Illinois State Redbirds.
The all-time series between Murray State and Illinois State is skewed heavily in favor of the Redbirds, who lead the series 6-1. The lone Murray State win came in the first-ever meeting between the two schools in 2001, where the Racers won 32-17 at Roy Stewart Stadium. The Redbirds have won the following six meetings, two of those being in Murray and the other four in Normal, Illinois. This is the first meeting between the schools in Murray since 2008, where Illinois State beat the Racers 42-23.
The Murray State Athletics webpage only has Homecoming football games labeled as far as 2006. Since then, Murray State is 8-9 all-time on Homecoming. The Racers went on a four-game win streak during Homecoming games from 2013-16, which saw them beat ranked Southeast Missouri State in 2014 and ranked Tennessee State in 2016. Murray State’s 72 points scored against Missouri State on Homecoming in 2010 is the most points scored by the Racers during a Homecoming game in this span. Murray State lost last year’s Homecoming game against ranked conference opponent Southern Illinois 27-6.
Illinois State is led by head coach Brock Spack. He enters his 16th season as head coach of the Redbirds and holds an overall record of 102-71 in that time. Before he came to Normal as the head coach, Spack spent 12 seasons at the University of Purdue as a defensive coordinator.
In 2023, Spack became the fourth coach in Missouri Valley Football Conference history to lead a program to 100 wins. He also led the Redbirds to back-to-back Missouri Valley Football Conference championships in 2014 and 2015. Spack has sent 22 players to the NFL and four by way of the draft: Nate Palmer, Shelby Harris, James O’Shaughnessy and Davontae Harris.
His most notable undrafted pro player was running back James Robinson, who rushed for over 1,000 yards in his rookie year for the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2020. At Illinois State, Robinson was named to the All-MVFC first team for three straight years and was a consensus All-American in 2019.
Illinois State has had a good season so far, with their record sitting at 4-3. Their most notable win of the 2024 season came against conference foes Southern Illinois 45-10. The Redbirds are led by junior quarterback Tommy Rittenhouse, who has thrown for 1,073 yards on 62% of his passes for seven touchdowns.
Junior wide reciever Xavier Loyd can be credited with 474 of those yards and three of the touchdown. He averages 15 yards a catch thus far. Junior running back Wenkers Wright leads the team in rushing with 573 yards on the ground. He also has four rushing touchdowns. Rittenhouse is second on the team in rushing with 305 yards on the ground and also has four rushing touchdowns.
Illinois State will lean on thier defense as they have three players that have over 50 tackles on the season thus far. Sophomore linebacker Tye Niekamp leads the defense in tackles for loss with eight, resulting in 32 lost yards for opposing offenses. Niekamp also has two interceptions that he returned for a team-high 27 yards.
Junior linebacker LaVoise-Deontae McCoy is another member of the 50 tackles club for the Redbirds but he also adds two sacks to his stat line for the season, which is tied for first on his team.
The Redbirds lead the MVFC in interceptions with seven, meaning they average one interception per game this season. Illinois State’s defense also has 12 sacks on the season, which ties them for fourth most in the MVFC.
Murray State has played, debatably, some of their best football during Homecoming and they will look to continue that trend on Oct. 19 against Illinois State.
While the overall matchup favors the Redbirds, the Racers will look for their third ranked win on Homecoming since 2006 and their first since 2016. The game will kickoff at 2 p.m.
