ISUMatt
February 5th, 2009, 12:02 PM
http://goredbirds.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/020409aab.html
NORMAL, Ill. - Illinois State head football coach Brock Spack announced the newest additions to the Redbird football team Wednesday, as he formally unveiled his first recruiting class at ISU, which included 16 signees on National Signing Day at a public event at the Kaufman Football Building.
Of Illinois State's 16 signees, 10 are slated to play offensive positions. Spack also addressed the team's transition to a spread offense with the signing of four wide receivers, and a quarterback - Matt Lancaster (West Lafayette, Ind./West Lafayette HS) - that have previous experience playing in a spread offense.
"Coming in with a new staff and a new coaching philosophy, we felt that we needed to go out and get student-athletes that could run and catch the ball," said Spack. "Signing those types of student-athletes was critical to our program. When you throw the ball a lot, you need enough receivers who can take the reps that we plan to give them throughout the course of the season."
Spack and his staff also sought highly-skilled players from the football-rich state of Illinois, with the signing of eight student-athletes from Illinois, which marked the most recruits from any state. Included in that group is Bloomington-Normal product Zach Liming (Normal, Ill./Normal Community HS).
We felt that we got play some definite playmakers with this year's recruiting class, both on offense and on defense. When you run a spread offense, such as we will run at Illinois State, your entire team mentality starts with the quarterback. We believe that we have an excellent quarterback recruit in Matt Lancaster. From there, we felt we needed to add depth to our receiving corps, and I think we did that with the signing of the wide receivers that we will have for next year."
2009 ILLINOIS STATE FOOTBALL SIGNING DAY NOTES
The breakdown of Illinois State's 2009 signees, by position: wide receiver (3), running back (3), quarterback (2), offensive line (2), defensive line (2), safety (2) and linebacker (2).
The state with the most players represented is Illinois, which has eight signees. Wisconsin is second with three signees, followed by Florida (2), Indiana (2) and Washington (1).
Illinois State's signing of four wide receivers means that it will start the 2009 season with nine receivers on roster, as the Redbirds return five wide receivers from last season. Included in that group of returning receivers is 2008 All-Valley Football Conference First-Team honoree Eyad Salem, who will be a senior on the 2009 squad.
Illinois State continued to recruit and sign student-athletes from talent-rich Normal Community High School. NCHS product Zach Liming will join Mike Cross, Austin Davis, Billy Dickson, Jake Detmers and Marcus King as Normal Community graduates currently on the Redbird football roster. Normal Community High School won both the 2005 and 2006 Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Class 6A State Championship while that quintet was on the NCHS roster.
NORMAL, Ill. - Illinois State head football coach Brock Spack announced the newest additions to the Redbird football team Wednesday, as he formally unveiled his first recruiting class at ISU, which included 16 signees on National Signing Day at a public event at the Kaufman Football Building.
Of Illinois State's 16 signees, 10 are slated to play offensive positions. Spack also addressed the team's transition to a spread offense with the signing of four wide receivers, and a quarterback - Matt Lancaster (West Lafayette, Ind./West Lafayette HS) - that have previous experience playing in a spread offense.
"Coming in with a new staff and a new coaching philosophy, we felt that we needed to go out and get student-athletes that could run and catch the ball," said Spack. "Signing those types of student-athletes was critical to our program. When you throw the ball a lot, you need enough receivers who can take the reps that we plan to give them throughout the course of the season."
Spack and his staff also sought highly-skilled players from the football-rich state of Illinois, with the signing of eight student-athletes from Illinois, which marked the most recruits from any state. Included in that group is Bloomington-Normal product Zach Liming (Normal, Ill./Normal Community HS).
We felt that we got play some definite playmakers with this year's recruiting class, both on offense and on defense. When you run a spread offense, such as we will run at Illinois State, your entire team mentality starts with the quarterback. We believe that we have an excellent quarterback recruit in Matt Lancaster. From there, we felt we needed to add depth to our receiving corps, and I think we did that with the signing of the wide receivers that we will have for next year."
2009 ILLINOIS STATE FOOTBALL SIGNING DAY NOTES
The breakdown of Illinois State's 2009 signees, by position: wide receiver (3), running back (3), quarterback (2), offensive line (2), defensive line (2), safety (2) and linebacker (2).
The state with the most players represented is Illinois, which has eight signees. Wisconsin is second with three signees, followed by Florida (2), Indiana (2) and Washington (1).
Illinois State's signing of four wide receivers means that it will start the 2009 season with nine receivers on roster, as the Redbirds return five wide receivers from last season. Included in that group of returning receivers is 2008 All-Valley Football Conference First-Team honoree Eyad Salem, who will be a senior on the 2009 squad.
Illinois State continued to recruit and sign student-athletes from talent-rich Normal Community High School. NCHS product Zach Liming will join Mike Cross, Austin Davis, Billy Dickson, Jake Detmers and Marcus King as Normal Community graduates currently on the Redbird football roster. Normal Community High School won both the 2005 and 2006 Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Class 6A State Championship while that quintet was on the NCHS roster.