Illinois State coach Brock Spack saw it in his team in the season opener at Oklahoma.
Yes, Oklahoma, which made the College Football Playoff this year, won 35-3. The Sooners were obviously more talented than their FCS opponent.
But Spack thought his Redbirds played loose and well. He didn’t see a team that was fazed by playing in an atmosphere like the one at Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.
“This team is comfortable being uncomfortable,” Spack thought to himself. “They just thrive on it. They really like it.”
That, it turns out, has been a major key to the Redbirds’ remarkable run to the FCS national championship game Monday.
When Illinois State plays No. 2 Montana State at Vanderbilt’s FirstBank Stadium in Nashville, Tenn. (6:30 p.m., ESPN), it will be the Redbirds’ fifth game away from home in a little more than five weeks.
ISU (12-4) was unseeded entering the 24-team playoff, and each of its first four playoff games was against seeded teams on the road.
No team in FCS history had ever won four road playoff games to make the championship before ISU.
ISU is 9-1 on the road this season, its only loss to Oklahoma. While Monday is technically a neutral-site game — and the Redbirds hope a big ISU crowd will show up for the matchup that’s within driving distance of Bloomington-Normal — it will have something that has helped make them successful on the road.
This team likes each other, Spack said, and so they enjoy the team bonding that comes with travel and hotel stays together. As an FCS team trying to save money, the Redbirds don’t stay in a team hotel before home games as many FBS programs do.
“I think we just feel more connected and more like a family when we’re on the road, and it seems like we play better because of that,” wide receiver Daniel Sobkowicz said.
Montana State (13-2) has plenty of ability to make opposing teams uncomfortable — a balanced team with big, long, physical players up front, Spack said. The Bobcats are fueled by dual 1,000-plus-yard rushers Julius Davis and Adam Jones and a defense that has 16 interceptions. They are making an appearance in their third title game in five seasons, though they haven’t yet won it under coach Brent Vigen.
But the Redbirds have the knowledge they can beat the best in FCS, even in an imperfect game.
They were down 14 points with three minutes to play against top-seeded North Dakota State in the second round. Quarterback Tommy Rittenhouse had thrown five interceptions in the game.
And yet, Sobkowicz made an impressive leaping catch on an 8-yard touchdown pass from Rittenhouse with 2:44 to play. The Redbirds forced a fumble on North Dakota State’s next possession. With a minute to play, Rittenhouse darted to the right to send a 6-yard touchdown pass to Sobkowicz, followed by the winning two-point conversion pass to Scotty Presson Jr.
Spack called Rittenhouse, who is from Geneva and played in high school at St. Francis, “mentally tough,” a player capable of pulling himself and his team out of a tailspin. He has thrown for 3,257 yards and 36 touchdowns with 12 interceptions this season.
“Throwing five interceptions, but there was not one drop in confidence from him,” Sobkowicz said of Rittenhouse. “He was so confident in everything that he was doing, even when things go wrong or mistakes happen. He’s got so much confidence as a player, and he has confidence in all of us.”
The win, Spack said, sent the Redbirds’ confidence “through the roof.” They advanced with double-digit wins in the quarterfinals and semifinals behind big performances from Sobkowicz and running back Victor Dawson, who has rushed for 1,251 yards this season.
“I think our team did a really good job of regaining that focus and going 1-0 again against UC Davis that next week,” Rittenhouse said. “So it gave us a huge, huge boost of confidence. But you kind of have to rekindle that energy and just continue that focus and that grind of moving on to the next game.”
The run has been meaningful for Spack, who is in his 17th season as the Illinois State coach and is leading the Redbirds back to the title game for the first time since the 2014 season. He said the program took a hit during COVID-19, when some players transferred to bigger programs to play a fall season, but believes he and his coaching staff have rebuilt the team with the right type of players. He thinks this team is filled with smart, capable leaders.
“They take everything very seriously,” Spack said. “And they’re very motivated guys. You don’t have to motivate these guys. They’re just really good self-starters.”
And it’s meaningful for players like Rittenhouse and Sobkowicz, seniors who have been together at ISU for five seasons.
Sobkowicz, a 6-foot-3, 205-pound wide receiver who played at Rolling Meadows, said he had other schools looking at him to potentially transfer after the 2024 season, in which he had 80 catches for 1,108 yards. But he opted to stay and has 78 catches for 1,089 yards and 18 touchdowns this season.
His huge playoff performances — he has 29 catches for 403 yards and seven touchdowns in the four games — have pushed him to set ISU records with 257 career catches and 40 career touchdown catches.
“Just being with the guys that I grew up in college with for five years, I’d want to play with them for the last year,” Sobkowicz said. “And obviously I knew I was pretty close to certain records. … Knowing that our team was capable of playing at a really high level, at a national championship, especially, I’m not sure who else would leave if you have a team like that.”
