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| SportsThursday, August 30, 2007 9:09 PM CDT |
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Drone leads 7th-ranked Redbirds into opener vs. Drake
NORMAL — Luke Drone hears the question frequently from fellow Illinois State students. “You walk around campus and everyone you talk to is like ‘are you ready to go, are you ready to go?’ ” Drone said. “Everyone is excited about the game. But no one is more excited than our team. We are ready to play some football.” Drone and the Redbirds get the opportunity to do that today as ISU opens a highly anticipated season with a 6:30 p.m. game against Drake at Hancock Stadium. A 6-foot-2 senior, Drone enters his third season as ISU’s starting quarterback while the Redbirds begin a quest for a second straight Football Championship Subdivision playoff berth. “We need to get some reward for all the hard work these guys have put in,” said ISU coach Denver Johnson. “Football is so labor intensive. You put in a tremendous amount of work for so few opportunities to play. They need that payoff of getting out and playing a game.” Ranked seventh nationally by the Sports Network, the Redbirds open against a FCS opponent ranked second in the Sports Network’s mid-major (non-scholarship) poll. Drone leads a Redbird offense with an experienced line and several newcomers expected to play key roles at running back and wide receiver. “I think we’re about there. I don’t think we’re quite there yet,” said Drone. “Thursday will be good for us. It will help us to grow and mature more as an offense. I think we’ve got the tools and talent to do it. We just need to get some game experience to mesh.” Top returning rusher Rafael Rice and Kansas State transfer Parrish Fisher are expected to each get plenty of carries at tailback. “It seems to be coming together really good,” said offensive guard Bill Speiser. “Drone has a good chemistry with the receivers and the running backs look pretty good. It looks like we’re going to be pretty good.” The Redbird defense is wary of 5-6, 170-pound Drake tailback Scott Phaydavong, the Bulldogs’ career rushing leader with 4,702 yards. The speedy Phaydavong was held to 55 yards on 16 carries in a 56-19 ISU win over Drake in 2005. “We have to use our speed and get around the ball because he is a fast guy,” Redbird linebacker Kye Stewart said. “If you have more than one guy to surround him, he’s not going to be effective.” The Bulldogs’ quarterback is junior Derek Retherford, although junior Cole Ingle also is expected to see action today. Drake’s coach is former Minnesota Vikings offensive coordinator Steve Loney, who has only been on the job since June 18. Former Drake coach Rob Ash left for the head coaching job at Montana State on June 11. “It has been a whirlwind since the middle of June,” said the 55-year-old Loney, whose team returns 15 starters from a 9-2 squad. “These kids are sharp. They are into the job they have to get done. We’re starting to settle in with a starting lineup. We will have a better evaluation of how people react to adversity following our first game.” Johnson called not knowing what type of offense or defense Drake will employ “a big concern. You don’t have any real certainty what to prepare for. We’ve taken our best guess what we think they’re going to look like on defense. We have even less of an idea what they are going to look like offensively.” It will be the first Redbird game on Hancock Stadium’s new FieldTurf. ISU is 6-1 in home openers in the Johnson era. Game notesSite: Hancock Stadium, Normal Kickoff: 6:30 p.m. today Records Season opener for both teams Coaches Drake’s Steve Loney enters his first season at the school. ISU’s Denver Johnson has a 41-39 record beginning his eighth season as coach of the Redbirds and is 62-51 in his 11th season as a head coach. ISU injuries H-back Dave Mordis will miss the entire season with a knee injury. Reserve quarterback Kevin Brockway is sidelined with mononucleosis. Drake injuries Linebacker Cole Douglas is out for the season with a knee injury. What to watch for -- A huge part of Drake’s offense is speedy tailback Scott Phaydavong, the FCS career leader in rushing yards per game at 142.5. The 5-foot-6, 170-pounder has 4,702 career yards rushing. ISU needs to prevent Phaydavong from getting outside and using his considerable speed. -- The Bulldogs graduated all three linebackers from last season’s team and lost one potential starter (Douglas) to injury. How Drake holds up against ISU’s rushing attack will be critical to the Bulldogs staying in contention. -- If the Redbirds are successful in the passing game, it will be against an experienced secondary. Drake returns all four starters. Points of interest -- There will be a fireworks display at halftime. -- ISU athletic director Sheahon Zenger was a graduate assistant football coach at Drake in 1988 to begin his career in intercollegiate athletics. -- Redbird offensive line coach Rod Carey was a graduate assistant under Loney when Loney was offensive coordinator at Minnesota in 1998-99. -- Drake defensive line coach Randy Ball is a former ISU assistant and the winningest head coach in Gateway Conference history. Ball had a record of 98-83-1 in 16 seasons as coach at Western Illinois and Missouri State. Talking the talk -- “We’ve had absolutely the best training camp in my tenure. The kids came in in great physical condition. That allowed us to handle some brutally hot weather. We made it through all that pretty good. It’s going to be an interesting, exciting and I hope very fun season.” – ISU coach Denver Johnson -- “We’ve tried to emphasize to the seniors that if every senior here can have his best year of football then we will have a successful season. I’ve put a lot on them and will continue to do so and they have responded.” - Drake coach Steve Loney Compiled by Randy Reinhardt Get area high school sports scores and statistics at Varsity Sports. E-mail this story | Print this story | Search archives | RSS Show comments |  Hide comments | Hide comments on all stories |
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Go U Redbirds! wrote on Aug 30, 2007 12:40 PM:
ISU Grad wrote on Aug 30, 2007 11:16 AM:
BIGRED wrote on Aug 30, 2007 10:26 AM:
Let's Go! wrote on Aug 30, 2007 1:41 AM:
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